do these actually work?

[stayouttadabunker]

Any cleaning liquids that contain alcohol should be avoided when
cleaning the plastic eye optic bill sensors because even though they work momentarily, over time, they
will "cloud up" the plastic lens of the optics and progressively worsen the bill acceptance.
Like Stat said - rubber bill conveyor belts = no problems using Windex...

[StatFreak]

Windex is ammonia, which is also bad for them. I wouldn't use it on the magnetic reader either. Those are basically the same as an audio head on a tape deck. Technically, one could use alcohol on the mag head, buy why, when there's a risk of contaminating the rest of the head?

A Q-tip lightly wet with water, or water with a drop of dish washing liquid, are all that is needed.


Buzz, I honestly don't know if bleach is safe for the DBV belts or not, but I wouldn't go by what is done to conveyor belts at a rock plant. I sincerely doubt that they are made from the same rubber/polymer as the belts in the DBV transport. That's not to say that it isn't okay to use  – just that it's not clear.

[stayouttadabunker]

Wow! You had me looking at the ingredients of a Windex bottle and
sure enough! It's mixed with ammonia!
You learn something new every day!  

Thanks Stat!  


I looked it up and found that mixing ammonia with bleach releases chlorine gas which is highly toxic and
can kill ya! 

[StatFreak]

...
I looked it up and found that mixing ammonia with bleach releases chlorine gas which is highly toxic and
can kill ya! 

It does more than that. Depending on the ratio of sodium hypochlorite (bleach) to ammonia, it can just kill ya' ... or kill ya' and then blow you up ... or blow you up and THEN kill ya'!!   

Here is a page that covers the basics:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A795611