Summary
- Alcohol wipes can dissolve anti-glare and oleophobic coatings found on monitor and laptop screens.
- Alcohol and other solvents in wet wipes fade plastics, wear off keys, and ruin soft-touch finishes.
- To clean your screen safely, use a microfiber cloth and distilled water.
I’ve seen countless people reach for alcohol wipes when they want to clean their monitor, laptop, or phone. The logic seems sound at first—alcohol disinfects and is safe for electronics, as it evaporates quickly. But in reality, it can do far more harm than good. Here’s why.
Why Alcohol Wipes Can Damage Your Screen
To understand why wet wipes can damage screens, it helps to look at the coatings on them—these top layers are what get affected. Although an alcohol wipe is super unlikely to permanently ruin your screen. Most screens have two fairly common types of coatings: anti-glare and oleophobic.
Anti-glare (or sometimes anti-reflective, which is similar but more expensive) coatings are common on all types of screens, including monitors, TVs, and laptops. This thin layer is applied directly to the surface to reduce glare and reflections from light sources like the sun and indoor lights, making the screen easier to see.
Oleophobic coatings are common on touchscreens such as laptops, tablets, and phones. Their purpose is to repel oil and dirt, making the surface easier to clean. Note that the two coatings are not mutually exclusive, and many screens use both an anti-glare coating and, on top of that, an oleophobic coating.
Unfortunately, both types of coatings are rather delicate and can be damaged by chemicals commonly found in wet wipes. Alcohol, which is present in most wet wipes, is strong enough to dissolve both anti-glare and oleophobic coatings. While using a wet wipe just once is unlikely to cause permanent damage due to the relatively low concentration, frequent use can gradually dissolve and strip the coatings over time.
Without the oleophobic coating, your screen will attract more fingerprints, and without the anti-glare coating, you’ll see stronger reflections from sunlight and indoor lighting, making it harder to see the content. Damage that occurs unevenly can arguably be even worse, as it leaves areas with more reflections and a patchy appearance.
Alcohol isn’t the only ingredient in wet wipes that can damage these coatings. Ammonium compounds, mild acids (usually citric acid), and various other solvents and surfactants can also slightly degrade the protective layers. Even wipes marketed as safe for electronics contain many of these chemicals, though typically at lower concentrations.
Wipes Can Damage Keyboards and Other Plastics, Too
When people clean their laptop screens or monitors, they don’t usually stop there. The keyboard, mouse, and trackpad often get the same alcohol-wipe treatment. In fact, it’s even more tempting to clean and disinfect these surfaces since they’re touched constantly and tend to get even dirtier.
However, alcohol and other solvents commonly found in wet wipes are very harsh on some types of plastics, rubber, and soft-touch coatings. Keyboard letters can wear off, colors can fade, and plastics or rubber can dry out and take on a dull, faded appearance. This significantly accelerates the wear on those materials, so it’s best to avoid alcohol wipes altogether.
My wife used wipes every day to clean her laptop, and in addition to damaging the screen and drying out the keyboard, the soft-touch finish on the trackpad eventually started peeling off entirely.
While it’s possible the trackpad would have peeled eventually anyway, the wipes likely accelerated the process by several years. I actually had the same laptop, and my touchpad didn’t peel at all because I didn’t use wet wipes.
Acetone wipes, like those used for removing nail polish, are particularly harmful—they can completely melt polymers. Just look at what happened to my Logitech G502’s side buttons when I foolishly tried using acetone to remove glue residue!
If the wet wipes are particularly, well, wet, they can cause even more harm. If liquids seep through the keys and reach the motherboard underneath the keyboard, they can cause a short circuit. Admittedly, this is extremely unlikely, as it would require a large amount of liquid, but it could theoretically happen.
You Don’t Even Need Alcohol to Clean
While alcohol wipes can do a better job of cleaning screens and keyboards because alcohol dissolves fingerprints and dirt more easily, they’re absolutely not necessary for cleaning your monitor or laptop.
All you really need is a soft microfiber cloth and some tap water—or even better, distilled water, so you don’t leave hard water marks. Microfiber cloths have superfine fibers that won’t scratch the surface but will still wipe off almost anything, even if it’s greasy or sticky.
They pull dust and oils into the fibers, leaving you with a squeaky-clean surface. Paper towels or toilet paper can be tempting, but they’re far too harsh and can scratch the screen while leaving lint behind, and they don’t even clean nearly as well as microfiber.
Turn the monitor off completely, then dab a bit of water onto the microfiber cloth and wipe the screen. You can use a circular motion, side to side, or up and down—it doesn’t really matter, though circular motions are better at removing tough stains like soft drink splashes. The water will dissolve most stains with a little elbow grease. It’s important to use a very light touch, as pressing too hard can damage the screen internally.
Immediately after using the damp microfiber cloth, wipe the screen down with a dry one. This minimizes the risk of water seeping into the monitor while also removing any potential streaks or lint. That’s really all you need to clean a monitor.
For a mouse and keyboard, I typically use a hard-bristle brush to get into the grooves and crevices as much as possible, then follow up by wiping the surface down with a very slightly damp microfiber cloth, immediately followed by a dry one. For smaller crevices, a slightly damp cotton swab works well.
For mechanical keyboards, you can simply remove the keycaps and wash them with warm water and a mild soap, such as liquid hand soap or dish soap. Just leave them to dry for a couple of days afterwards or longer, as water gets deep into the stems and could potentially end up in the switches.
While wet wipes are perfectly safe for your skin, don’t use them on your monitor, laptop, TV, phone, or pretty much any other surface they weren’t designed for. They can strip off the anti-glare and oleophobic coatings on your screen. The risk may not be huge, but it’s completely unnecessar,y and you can easily avoid it by using a microfiber cloth and a bit of distilled water instead.
