Do hand-cleaning products damage CDs and DVDs

[Halcyon]

Those figures will be best case scenario.
I have CDR's and CDRW that are unreadable and music CD's from the early 90's that are beginning to rot away.

---------- Post added at 10:24 ---------- Previous post was at 09:35 ----------

Apparently there are places you can go to have your CD's repaired, one shop being GAME.


https://helps.game.co.uk/en/support/...74-disc-repair

[Rillington]

Originally Posted by Paul

Yep, regardless of any cleaning products, recordable CDs degrade over time.
Depending on quality, their lifespan could be as short as 20 years. Commercial [eg Music] CDs [should] last a lot longer.

In short, No, a CD/DVD player simply shines a laser at the disk.
They wont be damaged any more than a torch would be if you shined it at one.

Thank you for the replies and for informing us that residue does not damage the actual player.

I think what these questions come town to is how CDs and DVDs are protected from all types of products and whether that protective layer protects the contents from things like handwashing products.

---------- Post added at 14:35 ---------- Previous post was at 14:32 ----------

Originally Posted by spiderplant

Just found this:

Optical disc formats 	Average longevity
CD-R (phthalocyanine dye, gold metal layer) 	>100 years
CD-R (phthalocyanine dye, silver alloy metal layer) 	50 to 100 years
DVD-R (gold metal layer) 	50 to 100 years
CD (read-only, such as an audio CD) 	50 to 100 years
CD-RW (erasable CD) 	20 to 50 years
BD-RE (erasable Blu-ray) 	20 to 50 years
DVD+R (silver alloy metal layer) 	20 to 50 years
CD-R (cyanine or azo dye, silver alloy metal layer) 	20 to 50 years
DVD+RW (erasable DVD) 	20 to 50 years
BD-R (non-dye, gold metal layer) 	10 to 20 years
DVD-R (silver alloy metal layer) 	10 to 20 years
DVD and BD (read-only, such as a DVD or Blu-ray movie) 	10 to 20 years
BD-R (dye or non-dye, single layer or dual layer) 	5 to 10 years
DVD-RW (erasable DVD) 	5 to 10 years
DVD+R DL (dual layer) 	5 to 10 years

That's a lot longer than your typical hard drive.

I bought my first CDs in 1986, and I haven't noticed any failing yet.

Neither have I, and I bought my first CDs in the early 90s. Yes the odd track on the odd disc doesn't play properly but it's very rare and from memory it's generally the last disc on the CD which has become corrupted over time.

[heero_yuy]

CD's hate circumferential scratches as this tends to upset the tracking and make them jump.

I have a polishing kit that will remove them but needs to be used sparingly as it removes some of the lacquer coating.

[Taf]

I don't know where this idea of a "lacquer coat" comes from. They have always been a sandwich between polycarbonate layers AFAIK.

Polycarbonate is highly resistant to most chemicals, but not Methyl Alcohol (Methanol).

Some hand sanitisers were found to be contaminated with methanol which cause them to be recalled and destroyed.

Some soaps contain moisturisers to stop the skin drying-out after use.

[Rillington]

Thank you for both replies.

I presume that this polycarbonate layer is what protects the content of the discs from being damaged when discs come into contact with all manner of different things, including the chemicals (and moisturisers) used in soap and other hand washing/sanitising and products.