A clean, dry paintbrush is a great way to dust small buttons and knobs without changing settings.

Cleaning components: Blu-ray and DVD players, receivers, etc.

Next to TVs, these units may be the dustiest of all. They usually sit in a stack, with dust accumulating around and under them. Even those of us who conscientiously wipe them down usually leave the buttons largely untouched, and the spaces underneath and to the sides of them undusted. And the cables behind them? A breeding-ground for dust bunnies.

Here's the problem: these components usually have a lot of venting to keep them cool. That venting is designed to let air circulate — but it also lets dust circulate, and dust, once it gets inside the guts of your gear, isn't coming out again.

Ideally, of course, your gear is tucked away inside an A/V cabinet, where its exposure to dust, pet hair, or direct sunlight is limited. Realistically, however, a lot of people have their gear on open-sided shelves or even sitting directly on the floor. And even those of us who do have their components closed up know that dust gets into those cabinets and piles up.

The solution? Frequent attention to keeping those components neat and tidy. Careful cleaning, especially in the case of equipment with an optical laser (like a Blu-ray or DVD player), is likely to prolong your gear's life.

Cleaning the chassis:

1. Use a soft cotton cloth. A light spray of glass cleaner may be applied to the cloth to improve dust adhesion.
2. Always dust the topmost items first (you'll inevitably knock dust down onto other stuff).
3. Wipe away from vent holes, to avoid pushing debris into the component's interior.

Cleaning the front panel:

1. A soft, dry paintbrush is a great tool to use in getting buttons and knobs clean; you can dislodge dust without changing settings.
2. When cleaning the displays, again resort to a soft dry cloth. (A small amount of glass cleaner on the cloth may be used to remove smudges.)
3. A can of compressed air works well for hard-to-reach places, like the cooling fan behind the vents or the back of the component. Just be sure to watch where you're blowing dust — you don't want to blow it deeper into the chassis.

Optical lens cleaners, like this Maxell BRHD-LC lens cleaner, can make dusting inside your components a breeze.

Dust inside a component:
Blu-ray and DVD players often get pet hair or dust inside them, by way of that front tray. There are optical lens cleaner discs that can solve these basic dust and debris problems. These discs use small brushes or tiny holes in the disc that create wind to clean your player's lens and, in some cases, reduce the electrostatic charges that helped the lens gather dust in the first place. (Checking borrowed or rental discs for dirt before you put them in your player is another good habit to maintain.)

Dust inside a component's guts is harder to solve on your own. By taking off the cover, you're very likely to void the warranty. Besides, taking off the cover exposes a component to even more debris. If you have reason to believe that dust inside the component's chassis is a real problem, a repair service is probably your best bet.

Cleaning the cables:
Cleaning cables can be tricky. You don't want to dislodge, or even potentially damage, your connectors. Here are our suggestions:

1. If there's ample room, use a narrow wand extension on your vacuum cleaner to remove some of the accumulated debris from among your cables.
2. Again, a small paintbrush can be used to brush dust off of jacks and cables.
3. Clean gently: you don't want to have nice clean cables that don't work anymore, because you've bent the pins while wiping them off.
4. In general, you should unplug and replug your cables every year or so to make sure the connection stays clean, and to check for corrosion on poorer quality cables. If you do see any buildup, use a good contact cleaner, like DeoxIT®, to safely clean the connection.