If you’ve owned a PS5 controller for any length of time, you know the brilliant-white color attracts dirt quickly. Thankfully, there are several ways you can keep your controller looking brand new.
All you need is rubbing alcohol, a microfiber cloth, and a small brush (a toothbrush will work just fine). With some gentle scrubbing, you can restore your PS5 controller to brand new condition, even cleaning those hard-to-reach crevices, ports, analog sticks, and buttons.
If your controller isn’t very dirty, a quick wipe-down with a microfiber cloth will work just fine, along with some compressed air to remove dust from cracks.
But if your controller is dirty or stained, here is the best method.
How to Clean a PS5 Controller
You will need:
Key areas to clean:
- D-pad
- Analog sticks
- All buttons
- Cracks
- Grips
- Remaining Surfaces
Working in small sections is helpful, so we recommend choosing a starting point like the D-pad or analog sticks and working left to right.
- Unplug your controller (you don’t want there to be any power on when you get it wet)
- Take your compressed air, attach the small tube to the nozzle if yours came with one, and give your controller a thorough spray. This removes loose dust and dirt easily.
- Run the compressed air along every crack and around every button to remove as much dust as possible.
- Take your brush of choice and wet it with rubbing alcohol. Gently scrub along any hard-to-reach areas like the buttons, D-pad, and analog sticks. Move the analog sticks in a circle to clean the hard-to-reach areas. Remember to be gentle during this process.
- Wet your microfiber cloth with rubbing alcohol and clean the surfaces, such as the grip area and any other easy-to-reach areas. Massage the controller surface until all the dirt is wiped away.
- At this point, take a look at your controller. If there is any dirt or grime left, wet your microfiber with rubbing alcohol one more time and gently massage those dirty areas.
- Finally, grab your pick tool, or even a toothpick, and run it along the cracks of your controller.
- Give your controller a final wipe down.
- Now your controller should be looking brand new!
Other Cleaning Methods:
This method above is tried and true. You can clean any controller device with the same method. But if you are concerned or want to go above and beyond, this is what we recommend:
- Buy alcohol wipes. With these, you can skip the microfiber and just wipe it down. These are GREAT for the maintenance of your controller. We like to wipe our controllers down once per week with alcohol wipes.
- Q-tips are also a great cleaning hack, especially for buttons and other small areas. Use the same steps above but using a Q-tip will give you great results.
- A steam cleaning will really restore your controller to brand new levels. If your controller is extraordinarily dirty or grimy, we’d recommend buying a small steamer like this one.
How Do You Keep Your Controller Clean?
Now that your controller is clean, how do you keep your controller clean? Here is the best way to keep it looking new:
- Buy alcohol wipes and wipe your controllers down on a weekly or bi-weekly schedule. When you game, dirt and oil from your hands can make a white controller like the PS5 controller extremely dirty in a short amount of time.
- To avoid this, consider washing your hands before playing. Again, the dirty oil from your hands will slowly make your controller dirty.
- Keep food, snacks, and drinks away from your controller when gaming. Cheeto dust and controllers do not mix!
- If you know yourself and want to be cautious, consider buying a skin or cover for your controller.
With these tricks, you should be able to keep your controller looking clean for much longer.
Wrapping Up
Keeping your PS5 controller clean is not hard, but if you do some regular cleaning it will make it even easier to have a clean controller. In summary, we covered:
- Tools needed for cleaning
- Areas of the controller to clean
- Other methods of cleaning
- How to keep your controller clean
We hope this helps you keep your controllers clean for longer!
Other Cleaning Problems:
How do you clean sticky buttons on the PS5 controller?
- If you’ve spilled something sticky on your controller, slowly dab a microfiber with rubbing alcohol in the impacted area. If it is too small for a microfiber, try soaking a Q-tip and dabbing the area. The rubbing alcohol will slowly loosen up the grime. If it seems wet, don’t worry because rubbing alcohol dries on its own.
How do I avoid controller drift?
- Controller drift is a result of unwanted particles lodging themselves around the joystick housing of your controller. To avoid this, it is important to pay attention to the environmental contaminants around your PS5 controller. When possible, keep the controller away from salty snacks, pet fur, or just plain dust. All of these may cause contaminants to enter unwanted areas. It is also recommended to keep raging to a minimum as that can quickly destroy the joystick housing.
My controller is clean but doesn’t work, what do I do?
- At this point, we recommend talking to a professional.