While modern flat panel TVs aren’t literally dust magnets like CRTs with their static charges, your TV will still gather dust and dirt as time goes by. This isn’t only bad because it degrades the quality of the image, but also because dust and dirt making its way into your TV can interfere with its normal operation and even shorten its life.
So, you need to clean your TV like everything in your home, but if you do it wrong, you run the risk of making things worse or even permanently damaging it. So let’s get the basics right and get that picture back to perfection without doing something regrettable.
The cleaning instructions specified by your TV’s manufacturer always take precedence. If any advice you read below conflicts with what your manufacturer recommends, then go with what your manufacturer says.
Tools to use and avoid
The first thing we need when cleaning a TV (or a monitor) are tools. You need a soft dust cloth that won’t scratch your screen, or a duster. In addition to this, you need about three microfiber cloths of a high quality. If you wouldn’t clean your glasses or expensive shades with that cloth, it has no business near your TV screen. If you need to use a liquid to clean your screen, then you need to use distilled water.
Do not use tap water or any drinking water. While the minerals in drinking water are good for you, if you wipe your screen with tap water, it will leave behind mineral residue when it evaporates that show up as horrible streaks. I made this mistake exactly once in my life with an LCD computer monitor, and I never managed to properly get rid of the mineral stains on it.
Do not use alcohol, ammonia, household glass cleaners, or rough paper towels on your screen surface. I like to use a purpose-made LCD screen cleaning solution, which comes with a microfiber cloth.
A cleaner once sprayed furniture polish directly onto the screen of one of my old LCD TVs, and it was not pretty. We managed to improve things by wiping it down with LCD cleaning fluid, but it never looked right again.
If you do opt for a specialized LCD cleaning fluid, carefully read the reviews from people who have used it. Like any product, not all of them are made equal.
Prep: Power down, unplug, and position
Once you have all the items you need to clean your TV, power it down and unplug it. Examine the dark screen for any stains or residue that might need special attention. I use my smartphone flashlight shining from off-axis to reveal fingerprints and stains on my TVs.
Depending on how your setup is arranged, you may want to move the TV to somewhere that makes it easier to clean or see what’s on the screen surface. For my wall-mounted TVs, I just clean them in-position.
Step-by-step cleaning technique
Using a dry microfiber cloth or a soft duster, start by removing the dust from the screen surface. Don’t press hard on the screen, for many reasons, but partly because you don’t want to scratch it with dust particles or anything hard that might be stuck to the screen surface. Gently wipe the dust from the top of the screen to the bottom.
Never make circular motions on the screen, regardless of what type of cleaning pass you’re doing. Excess dust should accumulate at the bottom bezel, where I usually gently wipe it away in a single horizontal motion.
If, after the dust has been removed, you can see stains, oily fingerprints or anything like that, you can proceed to do a wet cleaning of the screen. If you don’t see that, just stop at this point.
Dampen a clean microfiber cloth with distilled water, or with your LCD screen cleaning liquid, then wipe the screen down gently in broad vertical strokes from top to bottom. When you’re done, you may want to take a dry, clean microfiber cloth to repeat the same process but dry off any excess liquid. Never spray water or any liquid directly onto the TV.
Now you can turn your TV back on after putting it into its normal position.
Maintenance schedule and quick fixes
If your TV is nice and clean, and you make a point of never touching it directly on the screen with your fingers, then all it should need is a light weekly dusting with a clean microfiber cloth.
If you can see “stains” on the TV that won’t go away after being wiped with distilled water or LCD cleaning liquid, you may have a damaged surface coating or some other issue that can’t be fixed through cleaning. This is a good time to contact customer support for some advice, though in practice the best you can do is learn to live with it.
