Rubber grip around mouse swelling and bunching up

[OrlyP]

What would typically cause this? Happened to a Logitech M585 and now also to two Rapoo M500 mice.

Logitech:

I had to totally remove the wrap from the Logitech and painted the underlying white plastic with black spray paint to hide the rough surface. It's only slightly better now but at least it's still usable. It now looks like this:

Then about a year ago, I got two of these Rapoo mice for my other computer. Time went by and they both pretty much looks like this:
Rapoo:

Despite how my mice looks, I keep my hands pretty clean and avoid touching food and snacks when I use the computer. Does disinfectant alcohol do this? How do I prevent this and is there a way to make it shrink back to roughly its original size?

 

[sko]

This seems to be "normal" nowadays - most likely because of very cheap rubber.
I've never seen this on old mice, even if they were in use for ~10 years and regardless if they were "high end" or the cheapest junk available...
Newer ones only last ~1-2 years before rubber parts are getting sticky, bloated or completely disintegrate. Usually this happens first to the rubber ring around the mouse wheel, causing it to slip.

 

[rtech]

Disinfectants typically contain alcohol which dissolves glue very well (i have plenty of experience with isopropyl)

 

[i386]

I've never seen this on old mice, even if they were in use for ~10 years and regardless if they were "high end" or the cheapest junk available...

Probably because the old mouses were build with chemicals that are now more restricted or even banned (eg bpa was banned from a lot of stuff in the eu since 2011)

 

[OrlyP]

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, it may seem that using alcohol-based hand disinfectant had something to do with it. I got all three mice within 2020-2022, right smack in the middle of the pandemic.

On the side, I also work on my small engines (mostly portable generators) and when cleaning carburetors and whatnots, there are chemicals such as degreasers that can shrink rubber O-rings and gaskets. I was thinking if I can smear a bit of said chemical, diluted of course, on the affected rubber on these mice if maybe it might reverse the process. Got nothing to lose as they're ruined anyway.

Another general advice I've read online is to submerge just the part of the mouse with the rubber on it in hot or boiling water. The idea is that the hot water will soften the rubber enough so that I should be able to ply it back into shape.

Bottomline is, I hate throwing stuff away. Worst case, I'll just peel the rubber off and put a coat of paint on the exposed plastic.... PlastiDip it, even.

 

[OrlyP]

Created a new thread for mouse recommendations here: https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/recommend-a-wireless-bt-mouse.41676/

Thanks!

 

[sko]

Probably because the old mouses were build with chemicals that are now more restricted or even banned (eg bpa was banned from a lot of stuff in the eu since 2011)

As if there weren't any rubber compounds available any more that are durable...
There's only one reason: built-in obsolescence by using the cheapest crap available, and that's not only true for the rubber but for many other parts. Durability has absolutely zero importance for beancounters (in fact they hate it), and those muppets have the most saying in every product development nowadays.