Yep, washing works. It depends on multiple factors and can be risky, but it works. I absolutely would not wash the PSU though and would just replace it.

I personally tend to discard smoker's hardware if it somehow finds its way into my hands (i absolutely would not buy it). Salvage what i can, like CPU, and replace the things that stink. Unless it is special enough in some way to be worth bothering with. It is just too annoying to clean up and way too gross. Some stuff like CD/DVD or floppy drives is nearly impossible to clean up...

I use wet dust cloth for cleaning boards and GPUs. With a small screw driver wrapped in cloth I can get everywhere. I recently bought a Corsair 800W PSU and cleaned all connectors and cables with wet cloth as well as I could. PSU connectors will also get cleaned with electronic contact spray as I don't want to risk overheating/fire. I usually also open PSU and clean it with wet cloth.

After cleaning they look almost like new.

I wash most of my parts under warm running water, works quite well. Mild soap, soft bristle brushes, etc. Been doing this for many years.

While some people's process may differ a little, generally speaking, as long as you're gentle, thoroughly rinse, and make sure it's completely dry, it often produces excellent results.

For me, power supplies are ... hit and miss. I recently started to save some older PSU's from the recycle bin, but only if they pass a good visual inspection and get a full recap once it's clean.

^ Same here.

Been taking apart stuff and washing them with dish soap + lukewarm water for many years now. Everything still working. Just have to make sure stuff is dry before powering it on. Usually I have so many stuff to clean at once that I never get to assemble them back together for at least 3-4 days... so that leaves them plenty of time to dry, especially during the sunnier / warmer times of the year. I tend to avoid washing electronics when it's cloudy and rainy and/or humid, as that prolongs the drying time too much sometimes.

The only thing I DON'T wash with water are fans, for three reasons:
1) If they have ball bearings, that will usually decrease the life of the ball bearings. It also may decrease the service life of sleeve bearing fans due to soapy water washing some of the lubricant away.
2) Iron core on the stator tends to rust badly afterwards, particularly on the cheaper fans.
3) Some cheaper fans also use very porous magnets on the rotor (fan blade assy.), making that rust too.
So for fans, I just brush off the dust and then wipe everything with a wet wipe. If the fan bearing is noisy, I take it apart and fix that too... and while at it, do the cleaning with the wet wipe then, as it's easier to clean the fan when taken apart.

I also don't wash floppy drives, optical drives, and HDDs, obviously. Well for floppies and ODDs, I now regularly take them apart as far as I can (for ODD's, usually all the metal casing + plastic tray + bezzle) and wash only those parts.
HDDs just get a rub-down with a wet wipe and PCB taken off to clean with IPA if very dirty (plus, SATA RoHS drives frequently need their headamp contacts cleaned, particularly WD and Seagate.)

For PSUs, I only wash them if they were really too dirty/dusty... and only if I can allocate at least 1 week for them to dry afterwards. Same for LCD monitor PSUs. The reason for this is that the transformers tend to soak up water and take a bit longer for all of it to evaporate / go out of there. So 4-5 days under good sunlight is minimum recommended by me.

Archer57 wrote on 2025-06-16, 13:08:

I absolutely would not wash the PSU though and would just replace it.

With the number of socket A 5V-heavy systems I have, that would cost an arm and a leg every time to get a modern PSU with beefy enough 5V rails.
And it could be waste of a perfectly fine PSU.
Some older OEM machines with proprietary PSUs might make it particularly hard to find a replacement too.
So at this point, I almost always refurbish the original PSU, unless it was some gutless garbage that really was never fit to power the system.

momaka wrote on 2025-06-19, 21:48:

With the number of socket A 5V-heavy systems I have, that would cost an arm and a leg every time to get a modern PSU with beefy […]
Show full quote

With the number of socket A 5V-heavy systems I have, that would cost an arm and a leg every time to get a modern PSU with beefy enough 5V rails.
And it could be waste of a perfectly fine PSU.
Some older OEM machines with proprietary PSUs might make it particularly hard to find a replacement too.
So at this point, I almost always refurbish the original PSU, unless it was some gutless garbage that really was never fit to power the system.

I do sometimes fix power supplies too, but for it to happen a few criteria must be met:

• No washing required. PSUs deal with mains voltage (240v out here), if isolation is compromised because of oxidation or leftover water inside the transformer or something it can be a safety issue with no way to be sure it is not happening.

• No smoker stuff, that's just gross and i'd much rather pay for a different PSU than deal with it.

• It was good to begin with. A lot of old power supplies are pretty bad and not worth saving and only a few good ones exist. Even just that 5Vsb implementation which kills stuff when a cap fails is good enough reason to discard a PSU.

Of course custom/proprietary PSUs may be an exception, but if it is really bad i'd prefer to rig something up with modern power supply if at all possible.

At least out here it is still possible to get good old PSUs for 5v heavy systems in good condition for relatively cheap, even just buying caps for a full recap can easily be more expensive. And for most systems, including s462, inexpensive modern power supplies can be found which will work too...

I also highly prefer using modern PSUs in general - both standards/safety and tech in general improved significantly in past few decades and i want those improvements...

Funny enough washed a 386 on Wednesday! It looked to only be dusty but it spent the last 10 years in an abandoned factory so who knows what animals have crawled inside and what they have done.
I've also washed old servers in the past that are black with dust.

Typically I leave the hardware for a full week to dry out, It's not like I'm working to any deadlines.

Someone else here used the dishwasher (I'm guessing NOT with the dishes)

I've never broken anything cleaning it. Actually, cleaning tends to fix things, so good job!

I use similar technique: Spray with cleaner(soak a minute), scrub with various brushes, rinse (hot), and blow immediately after. I will be confident in powering on/testing after this point. The blower definitely evacuates the water. Just need to be careful with the LGA sockets, as wind can brutally bend the pins.

I've used the same process on PSUs before, too and used them right after. Even the junk ones have never burst into anything fun (yet).