Cleaning and maintaining speed cubes

When you hold and turn your cube, over time, dirt, excess lube and skin particles are deposited and build up in the spaces between the cubelets. Grime can accelerate the wear and tear of your speed cube and scratch the plastic. It also slows your cube down and may cause it to seize up. To enjoy your speed cube for as long as possible, we recommend that you clean and lubricate your cube from time to time.

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Table of Contents

How to clean your speed cube

In order to clean your cube, you will need to take it apart and clean the individual parts separately. Always memorise how much the tensioning system or screws were tightened so that you can customise your cube with the same settings once you are done cleaning.

Remove all cubelets. Start with an edge piece.

With a soft toothbrush, remove any coarse dirt from the tenons of the centre pieces, edge pieces and corner pieces. An electric toothbrush can be used as an alternative. Thanks to their long bristles, they also work well to remove even stubborn dirt from the notches or the honeycomb surface of GAN speed cubes.

Use a kitchen towel or towel to remove any excess speed cube lube from the cube pieces. Avoid using a loose-knit microfibre cloth as it could scratch the plastic surface. This would reduce the performance of your speed cube.

Wipe the core with a damp cloth as well.

Let the cleaned parts dry for a few minutes, then reassemble your cube. Make sure all metal cube components are completely dry before you put everything back together again to prevent them from rusting. The same goes for exposed magnets.
Important: Put the cubelets together so the cube remains solvable. You can find more information about this below.

Add 1-3 drops of lubricant to your speed cube. Turning the cube will distribute the oil evenly.
Tip: You can find detailed information on how to lubricate your cube below.

Re-adjust the tensioning system of your cube to retain your comfortable rotation feel.

Last but not least, clean the outside of the cubelets with a damp cloth to remove skin oil and lube residues. Use very little or no soap and only a little water, so nothing trickles into the gaps of your cube. Here too, only use a cloth that won’t scratch the cube surface.

How to make sure your cube remains solvable after it has been reassembled

Speed cubes can only be solved if, from the start, some cube pieces are in the correct position. Since you turn the solved cube before your game, this is a given. However, when you reassemble a cube from scratch, it is up to you to make sure you place some of the cubelets in their intended positions so the cube remains solvable. Which of the pieces depends on the grid size of the cube:

Speed cubes with an even number of layers (2x2, 4x4, 6x6, 8x8, 10x10): Arrange the cubelets so that four white corner pieces are correctly distributed on one cube face. Do the same on the opposite side with the four yellow corner pieces. Then continue with the remaining cubelets.

Speed cubes with an uneven number of layers (3x3, 5x5, 7x7, 9x9): Make sure you position the four corner pieces and the middle edge piece of the respective colour correctly on each side of the cube. Use the colour of the centre piece as your guide.

How to care for your speed cube using lube

Lube is a special silicone lubricant for speed cubes and other twisty puzzles. With the use of speed cube lube you can influence the turning characteristics of your cube and protect its inner workings from rapid wear and tear. After you’ve cleaned your cube, you should add lube to give it the care it deserves. You can also use the lubricant if your cube’s solving performance drops or it starts to make loud noises during turns.

Pull the cube slightly apart at the edge pieces or remove one edge piece. This gives you enough space to reach the inside of the cube with the lube.

Put 1-3 drops of silicone oil in your speed cube. If you use three drops of lube, then add it to the cube from three different sides.

Turn your cube a few times in all possible directions. This will distribute the lubricant evenly.

If your speed cube feels a little greasy afterwards, you used more lubricant than your cube needs. In this case, use a kitchen towel to wipe off any excess lube.

If you want to lubricate your cube from scratch, you can also apply lube oil to individual cube pieces and the core of the speed cube. How this is done is shown step-by-step in the video, using a 5x5 speed cube as an example.