Question on cleaning my Marantz

Mrs Watts

Mrs Watts

Active Member
Good morning all. Well after driving for several hours I now have my system at home and complete (for now) thanks to all that helped me make some decisions and took time to explain some things to me I really truly appreciate it! Anyway I ended up with a Marantz 2238b, a Rotel RDD 980 thingy majigger and a Rotel RDP CD player my speakers are some lovely ADS L500s with beautiful walnut veneered cabinets. Thanks to you guys I even managed to set it up all by myself and it sounds AMAZING I couldn't be happier. Anyway here is my question, due to the many vents on top of the Marantz I can see it will be easy for dust to find it's way inside, I am in no way comfortable in opening it up but I have an old school rainbow vacuum and was wondering if I ran it over the top along the vents if that would help some what and also is it ok to just remove the knobs and spray deoxit through those openings on the faceplate? Thanks
 
Register to hide this ad
Congrats!
You have a great start.
Don't Rainbows use a water tank? Some say washing with water is ok provided PROPER length of time for drying is allowed for. Don't want to short out stuff upon restarting the unit.
There are a couple things you do NOT want to get wet such as the tuning gang.
Many prefer a dusting brush, compressed air, and a vacuum. Be careful not to dislodge or break anything.
Chances are just pulling the knobs off the front and squirting Deoxit there will not do any good. Deoxit needs to get INSIDE the control in most cases.
Don't know about Marantz but many receivers will have 4 to 7 screws holding the outer case on the unit. Remove those and carefully (don't want to get hung up on the turner string or other items) remove the case. That will give you much better access for cleaning dust from the inside of the unit and Deoxiting controls.
Good luck.
 
Last edited:
It's ok to vaccum the unit ocasionaly but you really won't get the dust out. It's no big deal to remove the top and bottom to give it thorough cleaning[vacuum or compressed air]. To properly deox it you will need to remove the bottom so you can get at the tiny openings in the pots .just shooting deox from the outside won't be very effective if at all.
 
goodolpg said:
Congrats!
You have a great start.
Don't Rainbows use a water tank? Some say washing with water is ok provided PROPER length of time for drying is allowed for. Don't want to short out stuff upon restarting the unit.
There are a couple things you do NOT want to get wet such as the tuning gang.
Many prefer a dusting brush, compressed air, and a vacuum. Be careful not to dislodge or break anything.
Chances are just pulling the knobs off the front and squirting Deoxit there will do any good. Deoxit needs to get INSIDE the control in most cases.
Don't know about Marantz but many receivers will have 4 to 7 screws holding the outer case on the unit. Remove those and carefully (don't want to get hung up on the turner string or other items) remove the case. That will give you much better access for cleaning dust from the inside of the unit and Deoxiting controls.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks goodolpg. The rainbow does use a water tank but only to trap the dirt no water comes out anywhere. It looks like at some point I will need to conquer my fear of opening it up if I want to maintain it.
 
don philipe said:
It's ok to vaccum the unit ocasionaly but you really won't get the dust out. It's no big deal to remove the top and bottom to give it thorough cleaning[vacuum or compressed air]. To properly deox it you will need to remove the bottom so you can get at the tiny openings in the pots .just shooting deox from the outside won't be very effective if at all.
Click to expand...
Thanks Don Philipe but I am the most UN mechanically inclined person in the universe it took me over an hour last night to just secure the speaker wires to the speaker binding posts lol. Maybe I will be able to find someone on this site in my area and pay them to do it instead.
 
One other thing that might be important, some of the knobs (volume comes to mind on your Marantz, tuning knobs on others) may have little screws holding them place, so prying on them may not work and could even damage something. In case you do try to do some of the cleaning yourself.
 
goodolpg said:
One other thing that might be important, some of the knobs (volume comes to mind on your Marantz, tuning knobs on others) may have little screws holding them place, so prying on them may not work and could even damage something. In case you do try to do some of the cleaning yourself.
Click to expand...
Well that settles it I will have it done professionally! Thanks
 
It's not as intimidating as it all sounds (the retaining screws may be slot head or allen/hex keys), tools which are readily available, but there is nothing wrong with letting someone else do the work if you are not comfortable doing it yourself.
As I get older I am more content, well maybe not content but after some consideration more willing to let others do things I used to do myself.
I do think you've got a good start in this hobby with the gear you've gotten. Enjoy the music.
 
You need to remove the bottom cover to get at the pots on a 2238B. It's knobs have no set screws. They're on split splined shafts. The best way to get them off is to pry them gently while protecting the face with something like a credit card. There's really no point in taking them or the face off unless you want to clean the dial window.

I've got a 2238B I mostly recapped so I've been all over the inside of one and I didn't enjoy it. However, they're real easy to dust out because the amp board is horizontal and the tone board is vertical so cleaning both are very easy. If you do squirt DeOxit in the pots, set it up on its left side so the DeOxit doesn't drop into the dial or tuning wheel.
 
Last edited:
goodolpg said:
It's not as intimidating as it all sounds (the retaining screws may be slot head or allen/hex keys), tools which are readily available, but there is nothing wrong with letting someone else do the work if you are not comfortable doing it yourself.
As I get older I am more content, well maybe not content but after some consideration more willing to let others do things I used to do myself.
I do think you've got a good start in this hobby with the gear you've gotten. Enjoy the music.
Click to expand...
Thanks goodolpg!
 
ReactiveLoad said:
You need to remove the bottom cover to get at the pots on a 2238B. It's knobs have no set screws. They're on split splined shafts. The best way to get them off is to pry them gently while protecting the face with something like a credit card. There's really no point in taking them or the face off unless you want to clean the dial window.

I've got a 2238B I mostly recapped so I've been all over the inside of one and I didn't enjoy it. However, they're real easy to dust out because the amp board is horizontal and the tone board is vertical so cleaning both are very easy. If you do squirt DeOxit in the pots, set it up on its left side so the DeOxit doesn't drop into the dial or tuning wheel.
Click to expand...
No way I'm messing with it I am not handy with tools at all I will just have to have it done by someone else that knows what their doing!
 
goodolpg said:
...Chances are just pulling the knobs off the front and squirting Deoxit there will do any good. Deoxit needs to get INSIDE the control in most cases...
Click to expand...
A clarification - I think a typo was made here, I think Goodolp meant to say "Chances are just pulling the knobs off the front and squirting Deoxit there will NOT do any good...", hence the need to get inside the box to get access to spray it inside the volume control.
 
Thanks I figured as much, thankfully not having issues with scratchiness inbthe knobs as of yet but when I do I will take it to someone, going to post a thread seeing if anyone has recommendations for someone in my area. Also what section can I find equipment for sale by members?
 
Equipment for sale can be found on the Barter Town forum (see the AK homepage).
AFAIK, you need to be an AK subscriber to get access to it (which I don't, as I'm not in the US).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom