Shopping time yesterday afternoon so I went to move the big red beast for the first time in a fortnight(ish) and noticed the phone holder stuck to the right hand bottom corner of the screen was dangling a bit wrong. After an exploratory poke, must work on my self control, it dangled down a whole lot more with great strings of transparent sticky plastic gloop running back to the screen.

Post shopping investigation showed the transparent plastic under the rubber suction thingy had melted. It also showed that removal in the heat of the afternoon wasn't going to happen. The stuff seemed to have approaching infinite stretchability with a Poisson Ratio nearly as high and that (gremlin decreed) perfect level of tackiness that won't actually stick and stay put as you try to work with it but leaves a near impossible to remove layer of tack gunk on your hands and tools. Think old, hot, cheap insulation tape adhesive remnants. Cubed.

In the cool of the morning it was a bit better mannered and scraped off the screen leaving a small deposit that succumbed to cellulose thinners.

Best scrapers I've found for all sorts of things when you don't want to damage the underlying substrate are the something plastic ones my master baker grandfather used to use to clean out his mixing tins and bowls. Flour makers freebies, logos long gone. Prefect combination of flex and stiff without scratchy sharp edges that is seemingly unobtanium today. Probably not made since 1950 something and I'm down to my last two. If I recall correctly he was muttering about not being able tor replace them when he taught me how to hand make bread, properly, round about 1960. Standing on a stool to reach the bowl. Wish I'd paid more attention.

I guess the moral is "don't leave things stuck to the screen." Now I have to find another which may be hard as that one was a freebie and rather better in practice than the paid for ones. Wouldn't really matter except I've gotten used to Waze!

Clive

Interesting tale Clive; There are all kinds of odd (and persistent) adhesives that are used with cars of course, and it irritated me in particular when something was stuck on plastic/painted/etc surfaces, meaning it was not possible to use a 'standard solvent' (eg. thinners/acetone/etc) to remove it - or it will affect that surface detrimentally... and turps/meths/white spirit seemed ineffective too. Yes, cars get hot and stuff bakes on and/or melts.....

On my travels I found something I can recommend though: "Goo Gone" (and I promise you I am not making that name up). Bit pricey though £10/8oz -and it whiffs a bit for a while too- but it has proved invaluable to me over the years.. it even gets chewing gum out off carpets/kid;s hair !! Not quite sure what it is based on (although I was intrigued enough to read the Patent) and it takes some time to work, but it does work ! Worth a try....

No doubt others have their own 'solutions' too !?

Happy ending to the saga.

A good deal of looking on E-Bay turned up what looked to be the same holder at £5 a pop. Arrived today.

Identical to the old one. Which counts as a result.

Item 293370412151if anyone else wants a compact one for a smaller phone, mine is an IPhone SE, that sits nicely in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

Clive

do you have a link Clive, or the item description? I searched ebay for that item number but it gave me nothing.

Although your initial endorsement of "this will melt all over the windscreen" might make me think twice about actually buying one

Looks like he has run out so no longer listed.

Found the same thing at £3.50 now.

Description is "Universal Mobile Phone 360 Rotating In Car Mount Holder Cradle Stand - UK Seller", new listing number 254071842688 .

To be fair it has been very hot and the car is parked nose on to the sun for the hottest part of the day. I suspect anything having a soft silicon pad under the (black) suction cap would have suffered similarly. I stuck it on about 2 years ago and it had stayed put until it melted.

Clive

I've had the same thing happen, I've found a lot of them are ok for around a year before they either degrade into gunge, or the plunger either splits or becomes detached from the rest of the holder rendering it useless.

Best lived one I've got is a random one brought in a petrol station in Coventry after discovering I had neither my charger or holder with me after catching the train there to bring a car back.