To expect whiteboard cleaner to work?

[TWilkwine]

I'm a teacher and write on a whiteboard throughout the day, wiping it off as I go. There's no money for anything (I bought the pens) and we had one bottle of liquid cleaner in the cupboard. I used a small amount and wiped the board down and it took off all pen and made it look shiny and new.

Then I wrote all over it again, tried to use the dry erase rubber and it was like the ink had stuck. No matter how much effort, it smeared, you could still see the words and couldn't write over it clearly.

I tried again and the same happened again. I can't be using up the whole bottle every time the board needs wiping down! Is it designed for this to happen, so you have to buy more? Does it just not work? How do I lift the residue off??

I had this, I think it might be cheap pens or old board

Draw over the dried on pen with new whiteboard pen and wipe off immediately. You’re welcome 😀

Hand sanitiser works on very old dried pen, I found. Might be worth a try, we all have gallons of the stuff sitting around ...

Yes came on to say hand sanitizer on paper towel, cleans it right up!

Hand sanitiser sounds like a great idea, thank you! Just hope I haven't taken the sheen off or damaged it with what I've used...

Hard work and time consuming for a lot of text though.

Another teacher with a rubbish board here. After inheriting a classroom with a board that I couldn't clean any pen off I did a lot of googling. I've started using wd40 on my board once a week. Spray on the entire board and then buff off. Takes ten mins on a Friday and it's really helped. Any time I have stubborn pen marks I spray a bit on and buff it off but they're becoming less and less. Just don't lean on the board or let the kids lean on it until the next day or so otherwise you might get stains on your clothes.

That also works if you’ve used a permanent marker by mistake.

Was just coming to say about wd40! Helps keep it wipeable when it’s old and rubbish

Hand sanitiser will damage the board.

An old or poorly maintained board Will soak up the ink so then it’s harder to clean.

I also use hand sanitiser, works great. Sounds like the top layer has come off the whiteboard.

I use a water spray and a jiffy cloth or microfibre. Doesn't leave a residue or damage the board. Also free. If it is very old, writing over the old ink can help too as someone else said.

WD40 on the board once a fortnight. Dry wipe or use water in a spray bottle in-between.

Flash 'Spray Wipe Done' has cleaned up a lot of nasty old whiteboards that I inherited from another class. Use a decent cloth instead of bloody blue roll though 😉

You’ve taken the coating off. Not much you can do now. Sorry.

Try vanilla essence - it worked on one of our boards with old pen. Maybe try a corner first to be on the safe side!! Oh and a soft cloth like microfibre.

Do you think I have the YPO cleaner to thank for this? I haven't used anything else yet

YPO?

When his happened to me, I spent hours getting it clean then I covered it with sticky back clear plastic which I could write on. It will last for a good half a term before needing replacing.

The brand we order stationery from. It's cheap and the glue sticks are absolutely awful (none left from September) but the spray was labelled as whiteboard cleaner.

An excellent idea!

Either a bit of magic sponge ( heap enough to buy and I cut mine into quarters!) or a wet cloth is the way to clean it. Does sound like the YPO cleaner has taken the surface off 😳

I was forced to order from them for years.

I don't think their stuff is terribly good, to be honest. We were always told not to overuse the cleaner, but - honestly - cleaning whiteboards has always been a pain.

In many respects, blackboards were easier...However, the chalk dust never agreed with me.

Magic sponges all the way. Total game changer. The Range sell the as sponges for cleaning your home spa. I wonder how many spas they think I own when I buy in bulk!
Also Staedtler pens. I buy my own because they make such a difference.