what is the best way to remove smoke stains from plastic - white plastic gone yellow
Dishwasher soap has enzymes that clean of lots of organic things, and smoke is organic. I'd clean them all in the dishwasher, though it might remove some paint from painted pieces. Gentle cycle, if it has one. And you don't want too much heat on plastic, so turn off the dry function.
Soak them in laundry detergent hot water and bleach leave them soaking over night the next day they will be clean.
i am assuming you mean from smoke as in cigarettes, which usually yellows because of nicotine and tabacco (like teeth will when you smoke). i would try bleach soack or vinegar soak.
The digital thermostat in my apartment is, for some stupid reason (like they stupidly make white trash cans), made of white plastic. The building's only 15 yrs old, so who knows why they chose that color for it when I know there were other options available. Not smooth plastic, either, but textured, so full of a million nooks and crannies, and you really have to scrub hard. Everything else can be wiped down using a spray cleaner or a dish soap solution, but not a thermostat with stupid rubbery buttons on it to push (those are impossible to clean), because the buttons leave spaces for chemicals and moisture to get inside and ruin the works. As a smoker, this thing is the bane of my existence to clean. I've found that using the rough side of Clorox bathroom wipes works the best, and even that takes 2-3 wipes and a lot of scrubbing. A magic eraser doesn't cut it on this thing. I've been surfing to find something to clean it that doesn't suck an hour of my life (I can't scrub hard to due having carpal tunnel, ulnar tunnel, arthritis in my hands, and nerve damage from a spin injury, joy), so these answers were all disappointing as I've tried them all and they don't work.
If it has yellowed from cigarette smoke, I would say you are pretty much out of luck. I have seen cigarette smoke etch glass. I would recommend trying Simple Green full strength. Some types of plastic that are molded in a white color will turn yellow over time even if smoke is not present. I have a telephone that started out white but over the last 10 + years different parts of it have turned varying shades of yellow. I assume it is because the different parts are made with different types of plastic or different formulas. And there is no smoking in my house.
