How to Clean a Chartplotter Screen Without Ruining It (and the Cleaners Worth Buying)
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Short version: rinse the salt off with fresh water first, let the screen dry, then wipe any smears with a soft microfibre cloth and a cleaner made for coated screens, applied to the cloth. No ammonia, no vinegar, no paper towel. And check what your plotter's maker says about alcohol, because they do not all agree.
That last point is where most of the arguments start. Spend ten minutes on any boating forum and you will find one skipper swearing by half and half alcohol and water, another by vinegar, and a third by nothing but a damp cloth. They cannot all be right, and the manufacturers have opinions of their own.
What the makers say
Garmin's current GPSMAP x3 manual recommends an eyeglass lens cleaner specified as safe for anti-reflective coatings, applied to a soft, clean, lint-free cloth. It warns against ammonia, waxes and abrasive cleaners; some older Garmin marine manuals also rule out alcohol, so follow the manual for your exact model. For routine cleaning, Raymarine's Axiom+ instructions rule out abrasive, acidic, ammonia, solvent and other chemical-based products, and jet washing. Its Element manual is specific about salt: rinse the screen with fresh water to remove dirt and salt deposits, let it dry naturally, and only then wipe off any smears with microfibre. For disinfection, the Axiom+ manual specifies 70 percent isopropyl alcohol on a wipe or lint-free cloth, followed by a freshwater rinse and natural drying; stronger concentrations must not be used.
The forum recipes overlook differences between models. Raymarine rules out acidic cleaners; Garmin specifies a lens cleaner suitable for anti-reflective coatings. Follow the cleaning procedure for your own display, especially before using alcohol.
Do and don't
Do | Don't |
Rinse or mist with fresh water first | Wipe dried salt with a dry cloth |
Use soft microfibre, or a PVA chamois to dry | Use paper towels, which Navico's engineers say never to use |
Spray the cloth, not the screen | Jet wash the helm |
Use only a cleaner permitted by your display's manual | Use Windex, vinegar or household sprays |
Fit a cover when the boat is not in use | Leave the screen baking in the sun all season |
One more reason for the freshwater rinse: dried salt crystals act like fine sandpaper. A Navico engineer told Discover Boating that dried salt deposits can scratch the fragile LCD screens, and Panbo once reported hearing of Furuno NavNet screens being ruined with Windex.
Six cleaners worth having aboard
Alglas ALG/CR215 Visial wipe
The most interesting product here, and the one with a catch. Alglas is a British maker of cleaning products for aircraft and air traffic control, based in Brixham since 1986, and it lists its Visial range as designed to clean instrumentation for the aviation, aerospace and marine industries, with radar and touch panels among the primary uses. Each sachet holds a wet wipe and a dry polishing wipe, and Alglas reports static reduced by up to 90 percent in laboratory testing. That matters at sea, where a charged screen pulls salt dust straight back on. Every UK NATS radar display has been cleaned with Visial since 1996.
The catch: the wipe contains isopropyl alcohol. That alone does not establish compatibility with a chartplotter. Check your exact display's instructions before using it, and avoid it where the manual excludes alcohol. It is also sold through aviation suppliers in cartons of 1,000, which suits a charter fleet or a professional skipper better than a weekend sailor.
Chemtronics Screen Prep
A twin wet and dry wipe from a US electronics cleaning specialist, and the product Furuno's Larry Till told Discover Boating his team often reaches for. Chemtronics' own data sheet says compatibility must be checked with all anti-glare coatings, and it does not state the alcohol content.
CAIG Marine Screen Cleaner MSC-504
A marine-specific spray with no alcohol and no ammonia, plus an anti-static claim, sold with a 12 by 12 inch microfibre cloth. Check compatibility with your Garmin model before use. It is a US brand and can be hard to find elsewhere.
T-H Marine Wave Away
A 1.5oz alcohol- and ammonia-free spray with a microfibre cloth and pouch, small enough to live in the console. It runs out quickly and makes no anti-static claim.
WHOOSH! Screen Shine
Sold by marine retailers as alcohol free, ammonia free and anti-static. A good one for the tablets and phones that now do half the navigating, less so for the installed electronics, since it carries no marine credentials.
303 Marine Clear Vinyl Protective Cleaner
Not for screens at all, but for the clear covers and enclosures that protect them. It adds UV protection, is described as safe on Strataglass and Eisenglass, and needs reapplying every three to five weeks. Keep it off the displays, which Garmin says are sensitive to protectants and waxes, and note it carries a California Proposition 65 warning.
The best cleaner is a cover
Every maker and marina guide ends in the same place. A cover keeps salt, sun and gull droppings off the screen and saves most of the cleaning. Fit it whenever you leave the boat, and you will need the products above far less often.
Sources: Garmin marine support guidance and GPSMAP manual; Raymarine Axiom and Element manuals; Raymarine Axiom+ Installation Instructions, document 87414 Rev 4, pp. 78–79; Discover Boating, Coming clean: the truth about screen care; Panbo; Ocean House Marina; Alglas (alglas.com); Chemtronics; CAIG Laboratories; T-H Marine; TackleDirect (WHOOSH!); 303 Products via Fisheries Supply.
