Do a Google search and you’ll find a hundred threads on the subject. The consensus seems to be 15 minutes to take it back to bare plastic with rubbing alcohol. That plus endless debates about whether Lightspeed should replace the control unit for free.
They used to offer an upgrade to the Zulu 3 for a modest amount
@Peter_Mundy: yes, should have taken into account to contact the support – really a mess; found these bigger discussions in some threads now, too
Funny coincidence, but there is an article about this very problem in the German magazine Der Spiegel. In German, but I’m sure one of the translation services will help.
I contact Lightspeed and report back their reply here.
According to threads elsewhere on this subject, Lightspeed has previously offered to replace the control box for $100 but (naturally) prefers to offer you a trade-in on your old unit. It’ll be interesting to hear if that is a consistent policy or if it depends on the customer and agent. You won’t anyway be the first or the 100th to ask.
The 15 minutes with alcohol approach works fine too.
Car detailers deal with this stuff too. Google ‘Clean Soft Touch Plastic’ I believe older Ferrari’s suffer from this…
The advantage of the $100 upgrade was that they supplied the new kevlar cable as the replacement
request in progress…
It’s funny how what seemed sensible can backfire… These rubber coatings were all the rage years ago, and nobody thought about the life test…
But a lot of plastics bio-degrade over time. It’s a tradeoff of usable life versus “being green”. The traditional ABS is good for maybe 20 years; less if V-0 rated (a fireproof regulation).
