Smokers stink

[hal]

I never realized how bad the stink was while I was a smoker. It's not the smoke - I actually still like a faint whiff of cigarette smoke, it's the residue left behind. When it accumulates, it's nasty.

I buy used computers, build them up and resell them. Smokey smelling computers isn't much of a problem. But MAN, you sure can tell the moment you break the seal on the box.

I just blow the dust out of the fan and then run them hard for a while. The smell dissipates pretty quickly. If it's really bad, I might clean the surfaces inside or the blase of the fan (VERY rare).

But I've got a puzzler here... a power cable from a mac mini.

It stinks! I sprayed it down and wiped it off. Still stinks... I put it outside to rest in the sun for a few days and get lots of fresh, circulating air. Still stinks.

I just hung it and sprayed HEAVILY with stinky window cleaner. Hours later, the ammonia smell is gone, but the smoke smell is still there.

I might have to throw this one away. Yuck!

I'm convinced that if I really knew that smell BEFORE I started smoking, I never would have started.

[Buzz]

You can lead a horse to water...
==

[samintx]

Try wiping with vodka on a cloth or moist baking soda

[Wags]

Better off drinking it.

[NewtonMP2100]

.....the really bad smokers......it is like Pig Pen....you choke on the smell....glad I never started smokin'.........

[jdc]

Its gets everywhere. And goes for hundreds of feet.

People driving down the street blowing out the car window while Im in my car. Cant even enjoy my car with the window down. Or walking.

Blech.

[jims]

I was a corporate pilot and in the early 80's when most people still smoked, our instruments would fail quite often. When the instrument shop would tear them down and let me look inside them the gyros bearings would be gunked up with the tar and nicotine. Very expensive to fix. I quit smoking in 82. Best thing I ever did.
jims

[hal]

samintx wrote:
Try wiping with vodka on a cloth or moist baking soda

moistened baking soda might work - my first attempt was with 91% alcohol - that USUALLY does it.

[Lew Zealand]

I love the smell of secondhand smoke except when eating and even then it's only mildly annoying. Both parents smoked when I was growing up, both quit later. It's a damn good thing I knew not to try cigarettes even once as I'd probably have been hooked first time.

[Sarcany]

hal wrote:
I might have to throw this one away. Yuck!

I'm convinced that if I really knew that smell BEFORE I started smoking, I never would have started.

At work, we've thrown out working Macs that belonged to chain smokers. Not only so gunked up inside as to be a fire hazard and nothing you'd want to touch even with thick gloves on, but the stench from cracking one open or leaving one running and heating up can be bad enough to force an evacuation of the building.

...

The last tenants in my apartment liked to smoke in a corner of the kitchen. For the first few months after I moved in, the gunk from the smoke-residue kept seeping through the fresh paint and turned the white walls into a speckled gray that carried a horrible stench like something rotting in a bath of tar and nicotine. After it was repainted 3 times and the gunk continued to seep, my landlord finally replaced that whole section of drywall.