[Wilson]

PRODUCT: Diamond Chip Cleaner

MANUFACTURER: Diamond Casino Products http://www.diamondcasinoproducts.com/

THEIR CLAIM: "Cleans and Sanitizes, Extends Chip Life, Leaves a Germ-Free Surface. Safe for the environment."

RETAILER: The Chip Room http://www.thechiproom.com/

WHAT IT DOES: Safely and easily cleans dirty chips without any damage or scrubbing. Soak for 10 minutes and wipe clean, no rinsing.

COST: $10.95 per 8 oz. bottle (cleans 125+ chips) $16.95 per 16 oz. bottle (cleans 250+ chips)

MY EXPERIENCE: This sh** works!
(I am not affiliated with this product in any way)

I read all the articles from the experts on how to safely clean collectible chips. I have purchased every product ever mentioned and tried them all. Many of them worked, but still required a lot of careful scrubbing. Some cleaned my chips, but changed the color slightly (not good). And virtually everything would take off a foil hot stamp with the slightest rub across the face of the chip (also not good). I tried the pink goop that is supposed to be "Magic". Well, it cleaned 20 beige chips wonderfully until I realized it had also "magically" tinted them slightly pink (not good).

So I read a discussion on The ChipBoard (where some of the collectors hang out and chat) about this cleaner with great interest. Someone on the board volunteered to "sacrifice" some of his chips to the experiment and then posted his results. They looked great and he was happy so I figured why not.

The manufacturer makes chip cleaning machines ($6k+) and this cleaner and some other products for casinos. Jim at The Chip Room is the only retail source I know of and he's a nice guy. (Even if his website plays what sounds to me like obnoxious porno music) Sorry Jim.

I have gone through 2 bottles of the stuff and continue to be amazed by the results. I have spent my time at the kitchen sink with a baby toothbrush trying to clean chips so I didn't believe really dirty chips would come clean without scrubbing after only a 10 minute soak. Well they do!

I'll let you click on the links above to read more about the product. But I will give you a couple tips:

I found a small piece of microfiber dishcloth or shop rag worked best for wiping off the chips. Maybe because it had a little tooth to it? I also seemed to get better results when I wet the cloth with water and then wrung it out before using it. As it got more and more dirty, I just rinsed it out and kept wiping.

I keep 2 trays going while I'm watching a movie. I lay out 50 chips in the solution and after 15 minutes I take them out one at a time and wipe them off. When I begin wiping off the chips in the first tray I lay out my next batch in the second tray. When I'm done with Tray #1, the chips in Tray #2 have soaked and are ready to be wiped off. Refill Tray #1 and Repeat, repeat, repeat.

I learned that good condition hot stamps were not changed or harmed by the solution. However, an already damaged hot stamp might be harmed. For instance if it was already peeling or flaking, then it might fade or come off while I was wiping off the chip. But good hot stamps didn't change a bit, whereas with other methods they would wipe off immediately no matter how careful I was.

Keep your used solution in a container with a lid and just keep using it until it stops working. (And keep it separate from fresh solution, don't pour it back in the bottle) Try to ignore the disgusting gunk floating around in there, it still works even when it doesn't look so good. I poured mine through a coffee filter when I couldn't stand looking at the chunks anymore. Still worked great!

I even tested it by leaving a couple different kinds of chips in the solution overnight. No harm done to the chips, hot stamps or inlays. You may need to leave really, really soiled chips to soak longer than the 10 minutes. When I clean white chips, I leave them in for 30 minutes. The finger jam just melts off and they wipe clean on the first pass.

Here's a link to the orginal discussion about this product on The ChipBoard:
http://www.thechipboard.com/cgi-bin/tcbarc14/tcbarc14.pl?read=468804
and the 2nd experiment:
http://www.thechipboard.com/cgi-bin/tcbarc14/tcbarc14.pl?read=469302

Here's a scan of my before and after. I realize it looks like 2 different shades of yellow, but they are the same chips. I think the scanner adjusted the color to compensate for the incredible brightness of the freshly cleaned chips.

Bottom line, I'm one picky consumer and I give this product a big thumbs up.

[TenPercenter]

Great review Wilson. Glad to see the stuff works so well! I think I'll get some.

I am going to add this review to the hidden Drafting forum and make you a reviewer. If you want to earn points and get this posted in the Articles section, you can come in DRafting and format it for Articles.

[Kalimba]

Yeah. Great review of what appears to be a great product. I've got probably 500+ Paulsons that need a good bath, so I'll definitely have to get ahold of some of this.

Couple of questions: Is Jim @ the Chip Room the only source because Diamond doesn't sell directly to the public? Also, when using the solution, do you still find that a toothbrush is needed in some instances, like for cleaning the canes and corners of the hats on a Paulson?

[Wilson]

Originally Posted by Kalimba

Couple of questions: Is Jim @ the Chip Room the only source because Diamond doesn't sell directly to the public? Also, when using the solution, do you still find that a toothbrush is needed in some instances, like for cleaning the canes and corners of the hats on a Paulson?

I called Diamond directly to order a larger quantity, and their price was actually a couple dollars higher and they really prefer not to sell to the public. He grilled me pretty good about how many chips did I have (yes, I was embarassed to admit the exact number) because I was asking about the chip cleaning machine. (I like to dream big) He said he has an agreement with Jim not to sell to (or poach) his clients and since I know Jim (from the boards) I was happy to have Jim make the profit on my sale. And it saved me a couple bucks.

Ex-nay on the toothbrush-ay. That's the whole point of my enthusiasm, no scrubbing, ever. If the chips are really gunky, soak 'em longer. Those little top hats can be a real pisser and the cool vintage Paulson concentric circle around the rim? No more toothpicks to clean out that puppy.

It must be made of some kind of enzyme, you can see the gunk melting off the chips while they soak. To see if my chips are done, I dip my finger in and lightly stroke the dirtiest chip. If that slight touch leaves a clean streak on the chip, they're done. Then you just pull it out of the soup (no rinsing) and wipe it dry. Now I can clean chips while I watch a movie / TV. (Yippee) Because cleaning chips is ba-HO-ring.

Now, I will say that there is a certain type of very old, heavily used chip that can not be brought back to new condition. If a chip has some kind of surface damage from extreme wear, it retains a slight stain after cleaning. It appears that the damaged surface becomes slightly porous and won't release all the dirt no matter how long I soak it. But when this kind of chip is clean, you can look at it closely and see it obviously was different than the other chips to begin with. I'll try to find one a do a close-up scan for you tomorrow. I'm in the middle of my nightly "Metromelt" and shouldn't be operating heavy complicated machinery like a scanner right now.


METROMELT:
8 oz Hot Chocolate
1 oz Bailey's
1 oz Malibu Run
1 oz 151 proof rum
1/2 oz Creme de Cacao
Dash Cinnamon
Whipped Cream (optional)

Oooo Baby, Oooo Baby Baby...........

[DDD424]

Originally Posted by Wilson

Ex-nay on the toothbrush-ay. That's the whole point of my enthusiasm, no scrubbing, ever. If the chips are really gunky, soak 'em longer. Those little top hats can be a real pisser and the cool vintage Paulson concentric circle around the rim? No more toothpicks to clean out that puppy.

It must be made of some kind of enzyme, you can see the gunk melting off the chips while they soak. To see if my chips are done, I dip my finger in and lightly stroke the dirtiest chip. If that slight touch leaves a clean streak on the chip, they're done. Then you just pull it out of the soup (no rinsing) and wipe it dry. Now I can clean chips while I watch a movie / TV. (Yippee) Because cleaning chips is ba-HO-ring.

Wow, you sound like an infomercial! Boy, I'm eagerly awaiting your scans tomorrow, I ordered some of the used st. jo chips from jim and have been soaking and scrubbing them the last 2 days, takes me about a minute of hard scubbing for me to be satisfied with each chip, I've got a couple hundred to go. You mentioned something about damaged surfaces and not cleaning the same, what results would you get when you soak cracked chips? Can anyone who has ordered the cracked paulsons from jim and used this post some scans please? Boy, I'm excited, possibly no more scrubbing!!!

[Wilson]

Originally Posted by DDD424

Wow, you sound like an infomercial! Boy, I'm eagerly awaiting your scams tomorrow

Scams? A Freudian slip perhaps?

If you have already spent significant time scribbing chips, you will understand my babbling enthusiasm. I'm looking at over 10,000 dirty Paulsons, there's no way I can stand at the kitchen sink that long.......

The chips I'm talking about have almost a scaly, marbley look on the surface. Like a defect in the manufacturing process? Maybe not enough compression? Or just old worn out chips....

I'll try to post some s-c-a-n-s tomorrow.

[DDD424]

Big oops, lol, i definately meant scans.

[furious_pete]

If you like the Diamond cleaner you should try Novus #1. Novus has a line (3 formulas) of plastic cleaners that are designed for removing scratches from plastic. From the website: "#1 Novus Plastic Clean & Shine leaves a lustrous shine that resists fogging, repels dust and eliminates static." I have personally cleaned a couple sets both Paul-Son tophat & cane and Bud Jones with Novus #1 and it works great, much like you guys have described with Diamond - Just soak and wipe clean. The product descripitions are actually more or less the same (aside from specifically mentioning chips) and you can get a half gallon jug of Novus #1 for less than $20 delivered on eBay with buy-it-now.

Ive tried other domestic cleaning products like Sprayways "CrazyClean", 409, Tide, etc. Most of those other products seem to be a bit harsh on the chips. Not only do I have to scrub the chips harder because those cleaning solutions arent as effective at removing the dirt but after Im done I notice the chip colors look washed out and the chips need to be oiled - I didnt have this problem at all with the Novus.

The Novus also had another unexpected benefit - it got rid of the "casino stink" on one of my sets of used casino Paul-Sons. The other cleaners tried to replace the stink with a fragrance that they stink ultimately overpowered.

I was initially uneasy using a designated plastic cleaner for clay chips but the results were really good.

[Pimpdawg54]

Wilson,
After seeing your pics, I bought a bottle to clean the cherry's that I got. Your description is right on the money. This stuff made the cleaning really easy. To not scrub was a beautiful thing. This product is definitely worth the money.

[X-Files]

I just bought this to try and clean some nasty chips. Hopefully it will work. I will post my results.