Care
Soap, water, and a soft cloth
Acrylic is easy to look after and easy to ruin, and the difference is entirely about what you clean it with. This page is short on purpose.
Quick answer: how do I clean acrylic doors?
Warm water, a drop of washing-up liquid, and a soft microfibre cloth. That is the whole method, and it is the only one an acrylic door ever needs. What matters far more is what to avoid: never use a paper towel, a scouring pad or a melamine sponge, and never use a solvent — no glass cleaner containing ammonia, no isopropyl alcohol, no acetone, no all-purpose spray. Acrylic is softer than glass so abrasives scuff it, and it is a polymer so solvents craze it into a fine web of cracks that cannot be undone. Wipe in straight lines rather than circles, use a second dry cloth to finish, and dust with the cloth slightly damp rather than dry, because dragging grit across a dry panel is how most scratches actually happen.
Do
- Warm water with a drop of washing-up liquid
- A clean microfibre cloth — one is supplied with every wardrobe
- Wipe in straight lines, then finish with a second dry microfibre
- Dust with the cloth slightly damp, never bone dry
- Plastic polish (Novus 2, Displex or equivalent) for light scuffs
Never
- Glass cleaner — most contain ammonia, which crazes acrylic
- Isopropyl alcohol, acetone, thinners, all-purpose spray
- Paper towel — wood fibre is harder than acrylic and it scratches
- Scouring pads and melamine "magic" sponges — these are abrasives
- Dry-wiping a dusty panel, which drags grit across the surface
Why solvents are worse than scratches
A scratch is mechanical and usually reversible — the polymer is displaced and a polish moves it back. Crazing is chemical: a solvent relieves the internal stresses in the sheet and the surface fractures into a fine web of cracks. It is not on the surface, so it cannot be polished off, and it scatters light in a way that makes a clear panel look permanently fogged. This is the failure mode worth being genuinely careful about, and it comes almost entirely from one household product: ammonia-based glass cleaner.
Polishing out a scratch
- Clean the area with soap and water first, and let it dry completely.
- Apply a pea-sized amount of plastic polish to a clean microfibre.
- Work it in small circles over the scratch with light pressure for about a minute.
- Buff off with a second clean, dry microfibre.
- Repeat once or twice. If three passes make no difference, the scratch is too deep — contact us about a panel replacement rather than escalating to a coarser abrasive.
Care questions
How do I clean acrylic wardrobe doors?
Warm water, a drop of washing-up liquid, and a soft microfibre cloth. That is the whole method, and it is the only one an acrylic door ever needs. What matters far more is what to avoid: never use a paper towel, a scouring pad or a melamine sponge, and never use a solvent — no glass cleaner containing ammonia, no isopropyl alcohol, no acetone, no all-purpose spray. Acrylic is softer than glass so abrasives scuff it, and it is a polymer so solvents craze it into a fine web of cracks that cannot be undone. Wipe in straight lines rather than circles, use a second dry cloth to finish, and dust with the cloth slightly damp rather than dry, because dragging grit across a dry panel is how most scratches actually happen.
Can I use glass cleaner?
No, and this is the single most common way people damage an acrylic door. Most glass cleaners contain ammonia, and ammonia attacks acrylic — not immediately and not visibly on the first use, but over months it produces crazing, a fine network of surface cracks that scatters light and cannot be polished out. If a bottle does not explicitly say it is safe for acrylic or Perspex, assume it is not.
I have scratched a clear panel. Can it be fixed?
Usually yes, which is one of the real advantages acrylic has over glass — a scratched glass door is scratched forever. Light scuffing polishes out with a plastic polish such as Novus 2 or Displex, worked in small circles with a clean microfibre and then buffed off. Deeper marks need a two-stage approach, starting with a finer abrasive compound. Tell us what happened and we will send the right product and instructions free; if it is genuinely beyond polishing, a single panel can be replaced at parts cost without replacing the wardrobe.
How do I clean the aluminium frame?
The same way — damp cloth, mild soap, dry off. An anodised finish is the converted surface of the metal itself rather than a coating, so it is very durable, but it is still worth keeping abrasives off it: a scouring pad will dull the sheen locally and that patch will always catch the light differently. On the powder-coated finishes, matte black and bone white, avoid solvents for the same reason as the panels.
Fingerprints keep showing on the clear doors.
They will, and it is the honest cost of choosing clear. A satin frosted panel diffuses the oil from a fingertip instead of holding a sharp print, which is a genuine practical reason people end up preferring frosted. On clear, a weekly wipe is realistically what it takes. Keep a microfibre in the room and it is a ten-second job rather than a chore.
Anything to do about humidity or mildew?
The frame and panels are unaffected — neither aluminium nor acrylic supports mould, which is much of the point of the material choice here. What can suffer is the contents, particularly leather and linen in a sealed bay against an external wall. If the room is not air-conditioned overnight, specify at least one bay with a woven mesh panel: it is the only panel that ventilates, and it costs less than replacing a mildewed jacket.
Do the hinges need anything?
Not routinely. If a door starts to sit proud at one corner, the hinges adjust in three planes with a Pozidriv screwdriver and it takes about two minutes — there is a diagram in the assembly instructions. Do not oil them; the soft-close dampers are sealed and lubricant on the cam surface makes the action worse, not better.