I said it many times now and for many months but it seems those replies are never seen LOL
Let me try once more :
PEI CAN be be cleaned using Acetone but we should not do it as it affects the material.
The reasons for our plates loosing adhesion in almost all cases comes down to residue, nothing more, nothing less unless there is severe physical wear and tear.
Now: What sort of unwanted things might land on our plates?
Almost anything you can imagine…
Ideally we would always wear gloves but we don’t…
Ideally there would never any dirt or grime land on the plate but it does…
Ideally we won’t leave smear marks or fingerprints but we do…
If you clean things a lot you get a hang of what works for what.
Cleaning the plate with soapy water is always a good FIRST step, especially if liquid glue or gluesticks were used.
The soap binds to water on one end of the molecule and to dirt and SOME grime on the other end.
Making sure we actually remove things rather than smearing them around.
But soap can’t remove everything, especially not if you don’t use the right sopa and type of sponge.
Alcohol, be it ethanol or Isopropanol are SOLVENTS - means they don’t remove things they dilute them.
To use them wisely we have to use a clean and preferably lint free cloth.
Thing with alcohol in the pure forms we use it that some of the worst contaminants are only affected very little.
A far better second step is to use a good, streak free window cleaner - the ones with a little bit of ammonia in them work best here.
For a smooth plate you can use anything lintfree, including a paper towel, for a textured PEI plate I recommend using microfibre cloths.
Try not to let the window cleaner dry on the plate, prefer to dry it while wiping with the cloth for best results.
I still am on my first textured PEI plate and it has seen around 100 rolls of various filaments with no signs of wear or lack of adhesion…