Macenstein

Posted by Lab Rat

These days, it is fairly common knowledge that Apple’s iPods have a tendency to scratch rather easily. But that wasn’t the case a few years ago. Not that the iPods didn’t scratch back then, it just wasn’t as well publicized. There were even lawsuits from disgruntled customers who were “shocked� that the units were so easily damaged. I always thought it was reminiscent of the rash of tobacco lawsuits in recent years. You can almost understand someone who grew up in the 50’s who watched adds for cigarettes featuring the Flintstones cartoon characters suing the tobacco companies, but nowadays, anyone who buys a pack of cigarettes knows the risks.

Well, my dirty little secret is that despite knowing the risks, I have never owned a case for any of my 3 iPods. I know, I know, I am a horrible person. It isn’t so much that I didn’t care if my iPod got scratched, I just thought the iPod looked nicer when not completely covered in leather like some over the hill biker chick, or encased in some thick Carbonite tomb like Han Solo.

Unsurprisingly, two years later my 4G iPod was pretty much looking like I had left it in my pants pocket and thrown it in the dryer a couple times. There were a number of scratches, most small, but many that could be felt by running my fingernail across its once pristine surface. In addition, the thing was covered with swirl marks and other small scuffs. In short, the thing looked like a 2-year-old iPod, and I was feeling sorry for it.

Plastic Surgery

I had heard about RadTech’s Ice Creme M line of plastic polishers, and thought perhaps they could be just thing to help my iPod age a bit more gracefully. After all, the thing still worked great, it has just lost its sparkle.

I was not expecting miracles from Ice Creme M, but I actually got one. As you can see from these photos, Ice Creme made a world of difference on my iPod’s screen, and its case in general. I was worried that some of my scuff marks, while plenty visible in normal light, might not show up well enough in photos, so I actually took my car key and scratched a deep “X� into the side of the screen (Notice I was not brave enough to do this to my 5G iPod!)

Above: My “before” actually looked even worse than this photo showed. You can see the difference Ice Creme M made on my iPod, even getting out my deep “X” scratch.

Ice Creme M ships with two different polishing compounds (an “Aâ€? and a “Bâ€?). The A works as the more abrasive chemical, and is what you use to “sandâ€? out the major blemishes. The “Bâ€? compound is used (if necessary) to remove some swirl marks and just smooth the iPod in general after you have used the A compound to do the dirty work. Using the supplied chamois, I found it took me about 2.5 – 3 hours to completely restore my iPod. RadTech estimates it will take about 45 minutes to an hour, so I suppose it depends on how bad off you iPod is. Soon after starting the process, I began to wonder it I had gone a little too deep on my keyed “Xâ€?, because the Ice Creme seemed to be making no difference. However, 40 minutes later, I was seeing a very noticeable difference.

I ended up taking a break at about the 1.5 hour mark, as my hand muscles were beginning to ache a bit (a fairly strong, sustained pressure is necessary to get results here). I returned to my iPod the next day and finished the job in about another hour, and I must say, I couldn’t be happier with the results. My iPod looks great, and perhaps the thing I notice most is just how smooth the things feels! It really does feel like the iPod I first unwrapped two years ago. You don’t notice how much friction all those tiny blemishes add to the surface of your iPod until they are gone.

Ice Creme M’s compounds can also be used to clean the metal back of the iPod, although here it is especially important to read the instructions, as too much polishing can thin the metal. I did not have great results removing the swirl marks from the back of my iPod, but again, I was able to make the surface feel incredibly smooth, and I never look at the back of it anyway.

Critiscisms

I don’t really have anything bad to say about Ice Creme. The only problem I ran into was in trying to remove a scratch located very close to the click wheel. RadTech cautions about getting too much polish on/near the click wheel’s grooves, and include a couple Q-Tip-like brushes for applying their compounds in areas where precision is required. I found I wasn’t really able to get enough pressure with these to get the job done as well as I did with the chamois, but I don’t blame RadTech for this. I think the results I got from this product are amazing.

Conclusion

RadTech’s Ice Creme M is an amazing polishing compound that removed even the deepest of my iPods scratches and restored a “like new� smoothness to the device. While a good amount of elbow grease and time is required to get perfect results, it was well worth the effort. Coming in at $25.95, the product ships with enough of the polishing compound to restore a half dozen or more iPods. It can also be used on other portable devices such as PSP’s, iBooks, PDA’s, etc. Pretty much anything with an acrylic surface. If you are a gadget-freak like me, odds are you own about 3 or 4 products that could benefit from Ice Creme’s restorative powers.

The only problem is now that I have restored my iPod, I feel I need to go buy a case for it. I wouldn’t want it to get a scratch, now, would I?

Ice Creme M scratch remover by RadTech

Price: $25.95

Pros: Works as advertised, even deep scratches can be removed with enough time, works on a variety of devices, not just iPods

Cons: Can be a little tricky to get good results if your scratch is located right around the click wheel.