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I have a waterproof Android smartphone that has rubberized edges.
I recently picked up the phone after using hand sanitizer at a medical facility. Now the rubberized sections of the edges are very tacky. They feel sticky.
I tried taking a wet 100% cotton towel and wiping the phone's edges real good. Doing this perhaps helped just a little, but not much.
What can I do to make the phone's edges feel like they did before this happened?
You can try wiping with plain (medical) ethyl or isopropyl alcohol to remove the gooey additives in hand sanitizer, if that is what is making the phone feel sticky.
However, there's a chance that the hand sanitizer partially dissolved the rubbery coating, so alcohol could make it worse, or remove the coating completely, so test in a small spot before wiping down the whole case!
If there is contamination left on the rubber, you could use a dish liquid solution on a warm damp dish cloth. Use care and try it along a bottom edge to see if it cleans without extra damage.
The rubber might be permanently damaged but you can salvage it with water and baking soda.
I had a similar problem with my mouse. I used baking soda dissolved in water to wipe it clean. It removed the stickiness but the rubber still did not feel the same as before, and it became sticky again after a couple weeks of use. So you probably have to repeat the process regularly until you replace the device.
I tried Goof Off and that seemed to work better than alcohol (did not work for me at all) and water and baking soda. Not perfect but better.
