Apologize if this has been asked before, search didn’t find much.
My white trig keys are turning yellow. Non smoker, just looks like uses. Anyone have success cleaning/restoring theirs?
I keep seeing these newly purchased DN’s and it’s not fair!!
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Pictures? Might be able to help but I’m not sure which “white” keys you’re talking about.
Edit: There’s quite a few methods to remove yellow from plastic.
My favorite is to put the yellowed plastic pieces in a ziplock bag.
Fill it with hydrogen peroxide and leave it outside in the sun for an entire day. Maybe swish it around occasionally.
Wash them off with water afterwards and you should be good to go.
Warning: I haven’t tried this with Elektron stuff that has the painted keys. It would be nice to know if that paint could be corroded with hydrogen peroxide (most likely not). Would be nice to have a spare key to test it with.
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It may be different on the Digitone, but I tried to clean my Model:Samples with a q-tip and a dash rubbing alcohol and basically took the labels off a good number of parameters. Additionally, the ink smeared all over the surface. I don’t have a Digitone though so maybe the buttons you speak of don’t have labeling directly on them.
Was like you, non-smoker (except a little herb but outside the studio 90% of the time) but my M:S just got grimy for no reason.
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Don’t judge me!.
I’ve been using my workbench in the garage while doing a basement remodel. So all of my gear needs a good cleaning as I slowly introduce them back to a safe place. I may just reach out to support for replacement trigs. Seems the cleanest way
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Ah, I forgot the regular digitone had white keys. They are all black on the digitone keys.
That’s the paint coating then, so I’m not sure about the peroxide. I’d start with some windex sprayed on a lint free cloth (or blue shop paper towels for example) and just scrub lightly and carefully to see if it improves.
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Isn’t that a temporary solution ? I remember seeing some video of old console restoration with that process and they explained that it can restore the white and transparent plastic but inevitably it will turn yellow again . It’s just how white and transparent plastic degrade over time
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Yeah, it’s temporary unfortunately. It’s the nature of white plastics.
You can always do it again though. Like cleaning maintenance you have to do when things get too yellow every 5-10 years, or whatever the amount of time.
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Well, it’s the nature of white ABS plastic. Superior for this purpose is PBT which doesn’t yellow over time. The better computer keyboards used to use PBT for this reason.
No idea about the DT keycaps but I guess they’re ABS.
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I will judge you… worthy of this information!
bromine - often used as flame retardant in plastics - is generally what’s causing the yellowing. The hydrogen peroxide cleaning process is apparently referred to as “retrobright”
And if you want to try that on a trig (if you didn’t already do all this 2 years ago) replacement keycaps are $2 each through elektron care, you just have to request them with a support ticket… BUT if you replace only one you’re gonna fixate on it so if you don’t want to clean them and haven’t replaced them, at worst you could pay $16 to replace them OR buy the black ones for the same price and be part darth vader, never worrying about yellow again 
however shipping will probably cost you 15 bucks so if you want any knob caps or elektron breath mints, now would be the time to order them.
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I will eventually replace them via Elektron. Waiting till I completely destroy them first. Thanks for the reply!
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