Your Amazon Echo doesn’t move around too much — in fact, you probably give Alexa commands without ever looking at it. But that means it’s easy to neglect the layer of dust and other gross buildup that has formed over time. The good news is you can give your speaker a thorough cleaning so that it looks new and sounds great again. Microfiber cloths, a lint roller and a vacuum cleaner with smaller attachments (like what you’d clean your laptop with) are all great tools to use, and we’ll tell you when and how to use them on which part of the speaker. These tips apply to pretty much every Echo speaker, from those with fabric covers like the Echo Dot, to the touchscreen Echo Show and the plastic Echo Input and second-gen devices. Here’s how to get your smart speaker all cleaned up.
Lightly tap your Echo device
If your Echo speaker is super dusty, do yourself a favor and cover your nose and mouth with a medical face mask. After all, you don’t want to breathe in anything that’ll be coming off your device. Next, you should lightly tap your speaker to remove any loose debris that’s sitting on the surface — make sure you do this over a trash can to avoid getting dust everywhere. You should still plan to vacuum the area after your deep clean.
Use a toothpick to dig crumbs out of small spaces
If you’ve ever touched your Echo devices buttons after devouring crackers or something else that produces tiny crumbs, then you probably have bits of food wedged in the buttons. Use a toothpick to scrape them out — if they’re jammed in there, you may need to use a sharper object like the edge of a business card. We don’t recommend using knives or any object that could scratch the speaker or possibly injure you.
Run a lint roller over the cloth
If your Amazon Echo ($100 at Amazon) has a fabric shell, use a lint roller to grab dust and particles that are sitting on top of the cloth. You’ll want to lightly run it over the fabric to avoid smooshing the dirt deeper into the cloth. Since the fabric is woven, this won’t grab all the gunk, but it’ll get everything lingering on top.
Never clean your Amazon Echo like this
Never attempt to clean your Echo with alcohol, window cleaner, stain remover or pretty much any liquid that isn’t water — and then only sparingly so you don’t get liquid inside the device. Don’t run your Amazon Echo under the faucet — it’ll ruin your speaker. Keep away from cans of compressed air — the high pressure can damage the internal microphone and speaker. Now that you’ve got your Echo speaker clean, check out these four places in your house that you should never put your Echo device. You may also be interested in how to fix these eight problems that plague the Amazon Echo. Article from CNET