Ritek DVD+RW's in water?

[thayne]

Does anyone know of any problems soaking ritek DVD+RW disk's in water to remove paper stick on labels?

Does anyone know of a safe way to remove sharpe ink from one?

Thanks

[BJ_M]

water will not hurt them ...

as for sharpie -- no idea .. maybe some of that stuff that is supposed to remove any stain .. or just sand it off -- if its a dvd disk as the dye is in the middle layer and not the back .. (at your own risk anyway) ..
any dissolvents that would take it off otherwise would damage the plastic also (gas, lighterfluid, etc ) ..

[Bob W]

Try soaking in a 70% or less solution of Isopropyl alcohol, that should get any label off. Myself I have never had any label problems, however some say they have.

[ZippyP.]

Sharpie ink can be polished off with toothpaste and a soft cloth. This method can be used on the other side to polish out scratches but only as a last resort.

Makes it nice and shiny!

[thayne]

Try soaking in a 70% or less solution of Isopropyl alcohol, that should get any label off. Myself I have never had any label problems, however some say they have.

I don't have problems with the labels, but I have a few I want to re-use and re-label for something else.

Sharpie ink can be polished off with toothpaste and a soft cloth. This method can be used on the other side to polish out scratches but only as a last resort.

What kind of toothpaste? The toothpaste I use has little "polishing" crystals in that I think would scratch the surface.

[Bob W]

I have actually used auto rubbing compound on the active area of an original DVD to remove a scratch and it worked. I doubt using toothpaste or rubbing compound on the backside of a disc is going to damage the recorded area.

[LanEvo7]

Does anyone know of a safe way to remove sharpe ink from one?

If you wrote on a regular dvd disc, not the printable kind with the paper surface on top, some rubbing alcohol will get it off. The higher the percentage, the better. I usually use 70%. Pour on a soft lint free cloth, and wipe it with some controlled force(i.e. not enough to scratch the DVD surface).

[mybook4]

hey, just putting this out there. Don't people advise against using alcohol based markers for labeling discs. Wouldn't it be like 10 times worse to use so much alcohol. LOL

[Ron B]

Hello-You might want to check out your local plastics supplier. They usually sell a number of polishing and cleaning solutions that may used to clean up your discs. We use a number of them to clean and remove scratches from camera equipment, so they will probably be OK to use on an optical disc.

[Skynet107]

A word of warning. Water WILL DAMAGE a CD/DVD over time. The water leeches in through the edge of the media and destroys the substrate. Do NOT SOAK any dvd/cd in water! I have seen DVD's ruined by continued exposure. Washing DVD's with a mild soap and water works very well though.

[Gurm]

Isopropyl Alcohol in a dilute enough solution will take the sharpie off with some rubbing and will NOT hurt the DVD (it's what's in CD/DVD cleaning solution after all).

I recommend AGAINST soaking in water, as did Skynet.

You don't have to be AS concerned with DVD media - unlike CD's, where the shiny front layer is NECESSARY for the disk to function, the reflective layer on DVD's is UNDER a layer or two of plastic. They learned SOMETHING at least.

- Gurm

[BJ_M]

A word of warning. Water WILL DAMAGE a CD/DVD over time. The water leeches in through the edge of the media and destroys the substrate. Do NOT SOAK any dvd/cd in water! I have seen DVD's ruined by continued exposure. Washing DVD's with a mild soap and water works very well though.

if water can soak in -- then can air - which will oxidize the dye layer anyway and ruin the disk ..

the disk specs say that ithey are supposed to be sealed - if they are not -- they are crap disks ..

air will damage the alum and dye very quickly ..

[Skynet107]

if water can soak in -- then can air - which will oxidize the dye layer anyway and ruin the disk ..

the disk specs say that ithey are supposed to be sealed - if they are not -- they are crap disks ..

air will damage the alum and dye very quickly ..

Not true. Water breaks down the seal much much faster than air because of minerals and chemicals, and plus the density of water is many times greater than air. This process does not take place from air exposure alone.

[thayne]

How can water & chemicals brake down plastic? Plastic containers are used to store both for long periods of time. If the disks are truly sealed they should be okay, that's kinda what I was wanting to know with my question. If they aren't sealed on the edges then I could see there may be a problem.

[BJ_M]

if water can soak in -- then can air - which will oxidize the dye layer anyway and ruin the disk ..

the disk specs say that ithey are supposed to be sealed - if they are not -- they are crap disks ..

air will damage the alum and dye very quickly ..

Not true. Water breaks down the seal much much faster than air because of minerals and chemicals, and plus the density of water is many times greater than air. This process does not take place from air exposure alone.

density of water has nothing to do breaking down seals unless you were below sea level a great deal ..

so if you used distillled water (which contains NO chemicals or minerals) you should be ok ? distilled water is just Hydrogen and Oxygen.

There is also a great amount of humidity in many parts of the world .. water in that state should be able to dissolve seals even better - but this is not the case - unless the seals bonding agent was broken down already (as what happened to laser disks (laser rot))..

The manuf. of dvd disks dictates that they be sealed perm. .. that is the spec. and I didnt make it up .. soak a disk in water for 2 - 3 weeks if you want to (add detergent if you want which aids in penetration) - unless there is a added solvent such as one of the *zene goups, carbon based solvents or a polyurethane purposed dissolving agent .. water is NOT going to hurt it ..

[Skynet107]

BJ_M you can theorize all day and night, but I have seen first hand CD's destroyed by water exposure. Sure you can use distilled water but how many people have distilled water around for cleaning purposes? I had CD's in my car that were destroyed when they got wet from my window being opened a crack. The water leeched right into the disc and discoloured the die substrate rendering it useless. And this was a commercially pressed CD. I also saw a DVD (a rare concert DVD) destroyed by water exposure, same thing happened, the water breeched that protective layer and ruined it. If you are so certain then soak your precious DVD's in water for awhile and see what happens, just stay away from my collection :P
U act like CD's are held to highest standards of production quality. They are very very cheap pieces of crap that are delicate as hell. Really, CD's should have been put inside a protective mechanism not unlike a ZIP disk. Some old panasonic CD drives had a mechanised shell that protected the CD, but that is off topic.

[thayne]

CD's are different than DVD's. CDR's have their data layer on the very top of the disk and it's not protected by anything. DVDR's on the other hand have their data layer sandwiched between to layers of plastic. Comparing the two is like comparing apples and oranges.

I may just test one and soak it in tap water foor a week or so just to see what happens

[BJ_M]

BJ_M you can theorize all day and night, but I have seen first hand CD's destroyed by water exposure. Sure you can use distilled water but how many people have distilled water around for cleaning purposes? I had CD's in my car that were destroyed when they got wet from my window being opened a crack. The water leeched right into the disc and discoloured the die substrate rendering it useless. And this was a commercially pressed CD. I also saw a DVD (a rare concert DVD) destroyed by water exposure, same thing happened, the water breeched that protective layer and ruined it. If you are so certain then soak your precious DVD's in water for awhile and see what happens, just stay away from my collection :P
U act like CD's are held to highest standards of production quality. They are very very cheap pieces of crap that are delicate as hell. Really, CD's should have been put inside a protective mechanism not unlike a ZIP disk. Some old panasonic CD drives had a mechanised shell that protected the CD, but that is off topic.

all first generation cd's had shells ... nothing specific about panasonic ..

I am not theorizing - but accually being in the bussness , i know what i am talking about. water - by its self (hence my distilled water barb) - will not hurt properly made dvd's and stamped cd's .. cheap and/or improperly constructed disks will be damaged but they would not last long anyway as they would also be exposed to air ...

[ceptico]

Try this

http://www.mantech.co.za/KONTAKT/K50.htm

[BJ_M]

Try this

http://www.mantech.co.za/KONTAKT/K50.htm

Plastics (except polystyrene),

[ceptico]

DVD and CD´s are made of Polycarbonate.I don´t know if it is the same as polystyrene.
As i had a lot of problems with DVD Labels i´m going to use this product to remove them.

I´ll post the results