Printed acrylic asks very little, but the two things that damage it are both things people do with good intentions: cleaning it with the wrong spray, and hanging it somewhere with direct sun.
Cleaning
A dry microfibre cloth handles almost everything. For marks, damp the cloth with plain water and wipe gently, then dry it. That is genuinely all it needs.
What to avoid: ammonia-based glass cleaner, alcohol wipes, and anything abrasive including paper towel. Acrylic is softer than glass and scratches from the same treatment glass shrugs off. Glass cleaner in particular can cloud the surface permanently, and that cannot be polished out at home.
Sunlight
Any print fades in direct sun eventually, ours included. A wall that gets a few hours of direct afternoon light through an uncovered window is the one to avoid. Indirect daylight is fine, which covers most walls in most rooms.
The battery
One AA, not included. A silent sweep movement draws slightly more power than a ticking one, so expect to change it a little more often than you would a standard clock. If the hands start to lag or stall, that is the battery, not the movement.
If it stops
Change the battery first — it is the answer nearly every time. Check the hands are not catching on each other, which can happen if the clock has been knocked. Beyond that there is nothing user-serviceable, so get in touch.
If it arrives damaged
Photograph it and email us within 30 days of delivery with your order number. We remake and reship at no cost, or refund in full, and you do not need to ship the piece back before we act.
See the full wall clock range.
The first week
Two things are worth checking once, shortly after hanging, and then never again.
That it is level and sitting flush. A clock hung on a screw that is slightly proud of the wall can rock a few degrees when a door slams. That does not damage anything, but it will gradually rotate the piece off level and it is easier to fix in week one than to keep correcting.
That it is keeping time. Give it three or four days and compare it against your phone. A quartz movement should not drift noticeably in that window. If it has lost several minutes, the battery was weak from the start — fit a fresh one before assuming anything is wrong with the movement.
Rooms that need a little more thought
Printed acrylic is undemanding, but three rooms are harder on it than the rest.
Kitchen. Airborne cooking grease settles on everything, and once it has built up it needs more than a dry cloth. Wipe with a damp cloth every couple of months rather than letting it accumulate — a light film comes off with water, whereas a thick one tempts people towards a degreasing spray, which is exactly the thing that will cloud the surface.
Bathroom. Humidity itself is not a problem for acrylic or for the print. Standing water is. Keep it away from the shower line and off the wall directly above a bath.
Conservatory or sunroom. The hardest room, and honestly not a room we would recommend for any printed piece. Sustained direct sun will fade a print, ours included, and no coating prevents that indefinitely.
The battery, in more detail
One AA cell, not included, and the choice matters slightly more than people expect.
Alkaline is the sensible default — cheap, widely available and entirely adequate. Lithium lasts longer and is far less likely to leak, which is worth the extra if the clock is somewhere awkward to reach. Rechargeable NiMH cells run at 1.2 V rather than 1.5 V; they work, but they reach the movement's cut-off voltage sooner, so you will be changing them noticeably more often.
The one genuine risk is leakage from a cell left in place long after it died. A leaking alkaline cell corrodes the contacts and that damage is not repairable at home. If a clock is going into storage or into a room nobody uses, take the battery out.
Moving house, or taking it down
Acrylic scratches from contact with harder surfaces, so the packing method matters more than the padding. Wrap the face in a soft cloth or bubble wrap before anything else touches it, remove the battery, and store it flat rather than on edge. Do not stack anything on top: acrylic is rigid but not unbreakable, and a point load on a flat panel is how it cracks.
What is covered, and what is not
Said plainly, because it is better to know now than to find out later.
Covered. Anything wrong that we caused — damage in transit, a printing fault, the wrong item, or a parcel that never arrives. Tell us within 30 days and we will replace it or refund it. A photograph of the damage speeds it up considerably.
Not covered. A change of mind on a personalised piece, a spelling error in the name you supplied, fading caused by hanging it in direct sun, scratches from cleaning, and corrosion from a battery left in too long. None of those are recoverable, which is why the sections above exist.
From the range
Clocks these steps were written for: