That retro-bright trick I swore was a myth actually worked on my yellowed SNES

I spent like 6 months telling everyone on here that the hydrogen peroxide and UV light thing was just internet hype. But last weekend I finally tried it on my Super Nintendo that looked like a old coffee stain. I used 12% cream developer from Sally's and set up a cardboard box with a cheap UV lamp from Amazon. After 8 hours under the light the top shell was almost back to that original gray color and I felt pretty dumb for being so stubborn about it. Has anyone else had a similar experience with a method they thought was bogus?

2 comments

2 Comments

harper_murphy1mo ago

MAN, I still think you got LUCKY. I tried the exact same method on my yellowed Dreamcast and it came out looking WORSE than when I started, with weird white streaks and patches all over the plastic. Plus nobody talks about how the peroxide weakens the plastic over time - I've seen photos where people's shells got brittle and cracked a year later. And let's be real, most people don't have the patience to get the light distance and time right, so they end up with a mess. You basically pulled off a chemistry experiment that could have gone sideways real easy.

charlesowens1mo ago

That's the thing with these DIY fixes people see online @harper_murphy... they only show you the success stories and never the real risks. It's like watching someone perfectly restore a rusty car on YouTube but not seeing the ten failed attempts they had before that one video. The peroxide trick works great for some plastics and terrible for others, and nobody knows exactly what mix of chemicals was used in their specific console shell twenty years ago. I've seen the same thing happen with people trying those home oven cleaner tricks on vintage computer cases... sometimes it's a miracle cure, other times it melts the plastic into a sticky mess. The whole "try it yourself" culture skips over the fact that most of us don't have controlled lab conditions in our garages. Your warning about the brittleness is real too... I know a guy who fixed his yellowed Nintendo but the shell cracked when he tried to put a screw back in six months later.