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If I was to be 100% honest, I would say I’m a tidy freak, but not a cleanliness freak. Everything needs to be in its place for me to be able to sit down and relax, but I am not thrilled at the thought of having to dust, hoover, etc. I am sure if you are reading this article, you feel the same way!

I do do it, but over the years I have been looking for ways to make this a whole lot less painful. I thought I’d share my tips and tricks with you – and the gadgets I use.

What’s the Deal with Cleaning Anyway?

Well, the issue with NOT keeping your home theatre free of dust, pet hair and grime is that it accumulates on surfaces, gets stirred up as you use the room and your equipments’ fans, and then get drawn into your equipment by those same fans causing long-term damage such as:

• Reduced cooling capacity: this is because cooling channels, heat sinks and circuit boards are covered by dust and grime which actually reduce both air flow and cover those boards with a warm blanket of dust.
• Premature failure: if the components don’t get enough cooling, they might fail prematurely. We have seen this with AVRs and Projectors, but can happen to any of your equipment.
• Reduced Picture Brightness for Projectors: The fans will drag dust and grime into projectors and reduce light output. I have seen a light loss of up to 40% after 5 years of use. No matter what the manufacturer tells you: consumer projectors do not have sealed optical blocks: not your JVC, not your Epson, not Optoma, etc. I know because I take these units apart for cleaning. To seal an optical block costs a LOT of money in both R&D and manufacturing. They simply don’t do it at the price levels we are talking about. Even some commercial units don’t, they simply implement better filtering. It’s only the very high-end commercial units that do this. Sometimes a manufacturer will bring that commercial unit to home theatre customers (such as Sony), but this is rare. So no, your projector does not have a sealed light path.
• Reduced Picture Quality for Projectors: accumulated dirt and grime can also result in colour shifts, uneven uniformity and even dust blobs that will ruin the picture, and result in a warranty claim, or a very costly repair if our of warranty.

Now extra cooling can help in some cases, such as with AVRs and Amps – so have a look at our cooling article – but it can actually HURT with regards to projectors as extra cooling with dirty air will drag more dust and grime into the optical block.

Keep Dust and Grime Out

By keeping dust and grime out, you reduce how regularly you need to clean your theatre. There are three strategies I have found:

1. ALWAYS close the home theatre doors when cooking; this is obviously to keep steam and cooking oils out and stop them from depositing on your expensive gear. They will land on your surfaces, your projector’s lens, and even internals. They are impossible to get out without a complete disassembly. Even then, the polarisers which keep contrast high on projectors can be ruined by moisture permanently and they cannot be wiped without destroying them.
2. DO NOT RUN ducted air-condition during lunch or dinner times. This is because ducted aircon generally has its main zone in the living area with the most amount of dust, cooking steam and oils circulating. This is then dragged into your home theatre. I always switch off the Home Theatre zone before we start cooking and won’t turn it on until the room is clear of any smells.
3. Invest in an Air Purifier: I personally use a Philips Air Purifier, but they aren’t very popular in the US. Since this is a bit more complex – but important – topic, let me bore you with some detail.

Air Purifiers

Air purifiers have two filter types:

HEPA: at the minimum have a filter to filter out dust. Good ones have a HEPA filter that captures smaller particles including ones that cause allergies. It is best to get an air purifier that has a HEPA filter as it will capture the really fine particles that can be stirred up by fans in your equipment easily.

Carbon filters: the other filter type is called a carbon filter. Carbon filters might be used IN ADDITION to a HEPA filter, and their job is to filter out gases mainly.

If it is only dust you want to filter out, then you can get a unit with only a HEPA filter. If your home theatre is close to your kitchen area or you have aircon circulating air from your living area during cooking, even accidentally, then HEPA + carbon filter will reduce some of the grime and oils better from cooking than a HEPA filter alone.

I’ll list my picks, but read on for the star of the show: cleaning with robots.

Regularly Clean Your Theatre

So we have done everything we could to make sure dust and grime are captured before they have time to settle on surfaces and then be dragged into your equipment by the cooling fans. However, it is still important to clean your theatre regularly. This includes dusting, vacuuming and wiping surfaces.

Dusting

Removing dust should be done in the following order:

1. Dust the back of your equipment / equipment racks. These can sometimes have a lot of built-up dust.
2. Remove filters from equipment, dust them off and replace them. The reason to do this early on is because they might drag dust out into the room. The only exception to this might be projectors. I generally do the projector filter(s) in a completely clean room as any dust incursion could damage it.
3. Dust the walls with a microfibre duster
4. Dust surfaces with a microfibre duster

Remember the following: microfibre cloths are for capturing dust and dirt and should be used DRY without any water or liquid, otherwise they make a whole lot of mess and leave residue on surfaces.

Remove Grime by Wiping Surfaces

Dust has some fat and oils in it from people using a room, or cooking oils, etc. This is why it’s important to dust and then wipe surfaces with a cotton cloth.

1. Wipe any glass surfaces with window cleaner and a clean soft cotton cloth.
2. Wipe any wood surfaces with a dry cotton cloth. If need be, you can damp the cloth somewhat. If you must use furniture polish, make sure you don’t spray it in the room, as it’s more grease than will end up in the air. Put some on a soft cotton cloth and wipe the furniture with it. Use as little as possible and air the room straight away.
3. Wipe any other surfaces with a damp cotton cloth, with a bit of water and vinegar or surface cleaner without any oils in it.

Vacuuming

You might be surprised, but this is – mostly – the fun part. I have two robot vacuums at home that I use to clean all the floors and bathrooms, which saves me heaps of time. Let me clue you in.

1. I run the robot vacuum 3x a week on the top floor, 2x a week on the middle floor and 1x on the bottom floor. Dust seems to accumulate much more on floor 3 that we use a lot. The theatre is on floor 2 and it does’t get as dusty.
2. I then use a very good vacuum – my Dyson Ball, to do deep cleaning once a month to suck up the dust from deeper in the carpets. Although, it does find a lot less dust now that the robot vacuums clean regularly.

The main thing to be careful of is this: you need to use a filter in your robot vacuums that doesn’t push dust into the air to settle on surfaces. I actually changed form the default brand filter for my Roborock vacuum to an aftermarket one after I saw that the aftermarket one left a lot less dust on surfaces after a big clean – especially on the glass cooktop upstairs – and kept much more in the bin. So this is kind of important.

Ok, so now the brands that I use at home.

The following vacuum is what I use to clean under furniture (and clean the bathrooms with the disposable mop attachment.)

I know other brands are also very popular in the US such as Roomba, but I just love Roborock so much. If you want to get a Roomba, read the reviews closely as there are some great models, and some not so great models.

Then I think a Dyson is pretty much a necessity for a “clean-room finish”, at least in my home. It doesn’t matter if you get a cordless one or a corded one. I chose a corded one for day to day use because the battery in the cordless one is very expensive and when that fails, you’re in for some replacement cost. But it’s up to you and your budget.

Ok, so you may ask, how many bloody vacuums do you need? Actually, you just need one good one. But I have 5 vacuums altogether, because of convenience.

1. One Roborok
2. One Lefant
3. One Cordless Dyson
4. One Corded Dyson
5. One Electrolux stick which I love around the house for a quick clean.

Yes, I guess I’m a vacuum addict.

Mopping

The final step is to mop any floors which are not covered by carpet. This needs to be done as often as the floor gets dirty, but generally a good idea once a week at the minimum in high-traffic areas. Although, my policy is shoes off at the door, and not dragging any dirt into the house, let alone the home theatre.

Closing

Ok, to lighten things up, let me tell you a funny story. I am ok with catching small spiders around the house, but we live in Sydney, Australia, which is graced by the gentle but HUGE huntsman spider.

This is not at all an aggressive spieces, but it is huge and looks scary. It does have fangs to sink into you if you annoy it enough. What’s more, it is incredibly fast as it runs on the floor and the walls and can jump at any moment’s notice as you chase it. So let’s just say I let my (Australian native) partner do the necessary and put them outside when time calls for it. I’m a bit squeamish like that being from Europe and all.

Well, the home theatre entrance is next to the front door. I go to take out the trash and open the front door. A big huntsman runs inside. I’m going… oh dear, ok what do I do. I need to get a container to catch this bugger before it runs into the home theatre. Well, as soon as the thought crosses my mind, it start running into the home theatre. The image flashes in front of my eyes with that thing jumping on me in the middle of a horror movie. Not really into 4D home theatre of the kind!

All of a sudden the adrenaline kicked in and I became Thor against this massive spider. I went, NO SIR, THAT IS OFF LIMITS and went to put it out of the house with some container I grabbed onto as I launched across the room. I was even surprised what came over me.

Anyway, there you go. That’s how important home theatre is to me… dust, grime and massive scary spiders are not welcome and will be put out. I encourage you to do the same!