How do you keep your cameras clean?

[APW]

I have one mounted on the pay station facing the entrance of the bay and one mounted on the dryers on the outside of the building. They are only 1.5 months old and are already hazy. I have my clean up man clean them daily. What do you do besides replace them every few months?

 

[MEP001]

I use the "scrubbing bubbles" bathroom cleaner and a non-scratch scouring pad.

 

[soapy]

I use a 25% solution of muratic acid and water. Dab it on the glass lense and let it sit for a minute or 2 then wipe it off with a dry cloth and then wipe with a wet towel and rewipe with a micro fiber towel. I have some cameras in my auto bays that are 12 years old and still put out a good picture.

 

[pgrzes]

i use a dab of rhino brite(hf) on a micro fibre. then a damp micro then dry micro. I have a camera in my automatic that we have to do this every few weeks.

 

[mjwalsh]

I have one mounted on the pay station facing the entrance of the bay and one mounted on the dryers on the outside of the building. They are only 1.5 months old and are already hazy. I have my clean up man clean them daily. What do you do besides replace them every few months?

Almaprowash,

I wonder if someone still makes a housing that has a small windshield wiper on the front outer lens of the housing. When back in 1982 we put cameras with a waterproof housings .... at that time very expensive cameras & housings ... in each of our 3 totalled enclosed (with overhead doors) bays. I kid you not ... we would just operate a switch on the controller for each camera & the outer lens would be clean again.

It would take a bit of manpower but I could actually resurrect that setup ( the motors still work) with the much newer cameras mounted inside. Over the years I guess I got a bit lazy on keeping up on the windshield wiper use part of the 24VAC power supply - controller. Keep in mind ... my bays are self service so in an express or similar car wash ... it could be programmed based on some kind of sensor & it could be potentially helpful. The whole setup was Panasonic bought high dollar from an Audio Visual supplier who were ... oh so tempting ... to do business with since they were only about 3 blocks away. They had branched out from just doing equipment for the local TV stations into some jail surveillance at that time too etc. Cameras were way much more scarce at that time back in 1982. That wiper on the still used fancy outer housing is one of the better memories I have with those now very much outdated & otherwise obsolete cameras.

It is not like I am trying to advocate going this way if it can be found or made inexpensive enough ... I just thought I would share my early experiences with the remotely controlled windshield wiper approach.

mike walsh www.kingkoin.com

 

[Scott220]

I tape a clear plastic bag over mine in the automatic bay. Worked perfect with no distortion as long as plastic is tight over lense. I took it off to replace a year later and forgot to put one back on. In a few months the lense had a heavy soap film. After trying a number of products I reluctantly used diluted Kleen Wall on the lense and it worked perfect. I wouldn't install in bays without plastic covering them..

 

[cdreed06]

I take a piece of clear packing tape and tape over the lens, making sure its stuck good to the ring around the lens. It works great for about a month or two then I pull that off and put a new one on. Low cost, easy.