I received a bundle of dust covers to review from DigitalDeckCovers. This company lets you customize the heck out of the dust covers and we’ll talk more about that as well. There is plenty to cover here. Before we jump in I think that it’s worth mentioning that this review won’t cover the pros and cons of having dust covers for your consoles. The short answer is that the pros drastically outweigh the cons. In other words, yes, you should have dust covers. This review is going to tackle everything from the shipping experience to the durability of the product. Let’s dive right into it and at the very end, you’ll find the surprise!
Shipping:
This review is about dust covers. I also wanted to do a quick mention of the shipping of the items. Really, I think the video itself can do more of the talking for me. It’s a full unboxing as it were of the items and how they were packaged. The video is four and a half minutes and as informational as I could make it by talking off the top of my head. The rest of this review will be an indepth, thought out retrospective about the products.
Color Options:
When you find yourself ordering your dust covers from DigitalDeckCovers, you’ll soon find that you have a lot of color options to choose from. Once you find the console or electronic device that you want to buy the dust cover for, you don’t simply click “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart”. No, the website has you click “Select Fabric” and it’s like this simply so that you can see that you have a ton of options to ultimately choose from. In this section though, we’ll be exclusively speaking on the subject of the colors that you can choose from.
Once you’re on the following screen, you are required to choose a fabric from the drop-down menu. There are the following colors (again, we’ll get to the fabric types in the next section): black, silver, royal blue, off white, navy blue, light blue, and camouflage. What I decided to do originally was to choose a different color for each system as that way I could spot the system on the display shelf without needing to think about what it is. Which means I could walk up and know what it is and not have to guess and check. However, I changed my mind at the last moment, and ultimately opted out to choose all black. This gives a nice uniform look for my game room and I just decided to arrange my consoles on the display shelf alphabetically, so that I can still tell what they are just by glancing at them.
In terms of how the color ends up looking when it arrives to you versus how it appears on the ordering screen can be different. Anyone who has ordered clothing online before can attest to how frustrating it can be. You have a nice backlit monitor and it makes the colors bright and vibrant, but when the shirt arrives to your door and you get it out in normal light, it appears darker or just not how you wanted it to look. Well, I can definitely say with full confidence that the black dust covers are a true black. They’re nothing other than very dark black. I will touch more about the fabric types in just a moment, but the type that I chose, I got because it can be easily washed.
And I can also speak to the fact that after washing and drying one three times, the color still appears deep and true. If you are like me though and get all black, you definitely may want to think about the longevity of the color. I would only maybe wash it once a season and when you do, use some of the Woolite Darks brand of detergent. Or once a year you could wash it with a black dye, but that then would affect the color of the DigitalDeckCovers logo on the front. If you buy some of the other colors and you want to keep their colors as vibrant as day one, Cheer has a ColorGuard line. Neither of the detergents are cheap, so if you buy them only for the dust covers, I would suggest only using them on the dust covers and the detergents will last forever.
All in all, between the color options, how true to the picture the items are in real life, and you can wash certain types of fabric and not lose color straight away, means that this so far is great. Hands down, 10/10
Fabric Options:
We’ve made it to the fabric options now, and boy, is there truly a lot to choose from! I’ll not just tell you the fabric options, but I’ll also let you know what colors come in what fabric types. You have: black nylon, silver nylon, royal blue nylon, black cotton, off-white cotton, navy blue cotton, light blue cotton, camouflage cotton, and that’s it for the standard fabrics. There are premium fabrics as well if you want to spend a little bit more. For an additional $3.50 you can get vinyl fabric in a black color. For $2.50 more you can get quilted cotton in a black. And for $5.50 more, you can purchase a doublesided quilted (meaning quilted inside and out) nylon in a black!
Here is a fabric details page if you want to read more, also a picture of their fabrics.
So, the cotton fabric is the only fabric that they advertise as washable. That is the one that I purchased, mainly because I figured if dust collected on the cloth, I’d like to just wash it. That’s not to say, of course, that you could get some of the more plastic choices like nylon or vinyl and just wipe them down with a wet cloth every so often. But to me, that felt like a moot point, because without dust covers, I was already wiping my systems down periodically to remove dust. I wanted cotton so every so often I could take all of my dust covers off, put them in the wash, dry them and put them right back on, fresh as a daisy.
You may also be wondering if the cotton shrinks. I did not notice any major shrinkage overall. However, I will say that I did “tumble dry low” on my dryer and only dried it for long enough that it got dry. And by that I mean, I didn’t just set it to an hour and walked away. I checked on it until I found that it was dry enough to reapply to the console. Every dryer out there is different, but once you’ve discovered the perfect length of time to leave it in the dryer, you can simply do it that long every time. You could let it simply air dry, but that would have some dense wrinkles left and ironing these covers is certainly harder to do than just drying them in the first place.
I love my cotton aspect though. They sit nicely on the system without needing to be stretched over corners and edges. It washes and dries very well and again, the color doesn’t seem to run out of the cloth. Again, they knocked it out of the park with the quantity and variety of choices. If you’d like to request a pack of swatches and fabric samples, they’ll gladly oblige you there as well. Which means they want you to know exactly what you’re buying before you commit to anything. Below the picture, I have a quick video of me showing off the samples. 10/10
Quality:
You may notice in some of my pictures that the dust covers fit flawlessly. You may also notice in some of my pictures that some dust covers do not fit flawlessly. I’ll get back to why some look right and some look wrong here in just a moment. I would like to first talk about the dimensions in terms of what they have on the website. When you see the device that you want a dust cover for, you click “Select Fabric” and then after you’ve chosen your fabric you can add the item to the cart. But they will always give you the choice to modify the dimensions before you place the order. This is because they know that there is a potential for special sizes and editions and modifications to every console. They want to make certain that you’re okay with the stock dimensions that they have on file. If not, no big deal, give your console a quick measure, and then let them know if their dimensions will work for you. Or if not, tell them the dimensions that you need to have for your specific scenario. This lends itself heavily to how much the site cares about you getting the correct product the very first time that you order it. Which to me is better than guessing and checking and waiting for shipping back and forth. In terms of sizes, they have a ton of console covers and covers for other electronics, but you can also request any dimensions that you’d like if you don’t see the device you need to be covered on the site. This means if you have a custom item that you want to be covered or if you have a device that nobody else has, you don’t have to have it collect dust. They’ll make it happen for you and you’ll have all of the same color and fabric options that all of the other dust covers have.
Now we can touch on why some of my consoles fit into dust covers better than other consoles. I changed the dimensions of the Phat PS2 dust cover to fit over my memory cards in the front and my HDD expansion/Network adapter in the back. I also knew that at some point I’ll be upgrading from an XBOX One S to an XBOX One X, so I modified the dust cover dimensions for the XBOX One S so that I’d have one that was already the correct size for my XBOX One X coming in the near future. They have Atari 2600 on their site now, but when I ordered mine, they did not have an Atari 2600 on the site and asked me to measure mine for the dimensions. So I took to measuring that, which was tricky. Anyone with an Atari 2600 knows that they’re taller in the back. That means that the dust cover itself would be slightly skewed. However, when I received it, it worked like a charm! Now they officially have the Atari 2600 on their site, so you don’t have to worry about measuring yours. But it just shows that they’re dedicated to meeting your fickle, nerdy requests. Last of all, I have my Nintendo 64 and the cover for that is super droopy. But this is because I wanted to have a N64 cartridge left in the cartridge bay at all times. As you can see in the pictures below you can see that it looks okay without a cart, but it looks right at home with a cart in.
But that’s not all in terms of quality of service and of the dust covers. They have more options for you to choose from! You can choose to have the dust covers also cover the backside of the console as well. Furthermore, you can also have them have the entire backside open so that if you want to leave the consoles plugged in, there is no unplugging and replugging your cords every time. This decision was the biggest hangup for me personally. Because a lot of my retro systems I leave on display on a shelf and rarely play. But the other side of that is, I only rarely play them because the current game room I have is too small to have a CRT with these older systems hooked up to it. So does that mean at some point in the future I’ll have a larger room with the ability to play the consoles and should have an opening on the back of the covers? Presumably. So I went ahead and chose to leave the back portion open. They may look ugly from the backside of the device, but it’s worth noting that 99% of the time you won’t be viewing that side. The downside to it is that you won’t have four corners hugging your system. It’s more of a thing where you align the front two corners of the cover onto the device and then drape the backside of it on top of the device. This means you’re moreso using gravity than four tight corners of fabric to hold it into place. If you’re never one to play systems and you simply collect and display them. Then do not choose the open back option. You’re going to find more value in the closed back.
I do finally have some small issues though. I think that they should have an option to have a closed backside but have the holes for the cables cut out. This would give collectors who play their systems the ability to leave the cords plugged in and just pull their cover backward when they’re using it, and then return it forwards when they’re done with the console. I also think that they’re logo is a bit too large. I love that I get to represent a company in my game room and it gives this since of mystery when people can’t see what’s beneath the cover. But I think the logo should be maybe down in a lower corner of the front instead of on the front center. I also think that there should be an option to embroider up to 20 characters in place of the logo for maybe $5 extra. That way my cover could say PlayStation 2 if I wanted it to, for example. 8/10
UPDATE: I was informed of some more information. They typically put the logo on the widest side of the dust cover. That way customers can decide if they want to face the logo away from them. However, in my scenario, I chose not to have a backside, so that means that the logo is on the front. I was informed that the logo can be omitted entirely by request, just use the comments section of your order to mention it. However, there still is no custom logo option. So don’t try it, if you like the logo, leave it. If you want it left off, let them know in the comments.
Additionally, I was further informed that they would be able to add cable holes for those of you who would want that. You simply need to tell them the specific size and locations of the holes. Again, this needs to be mentioned in the comments section of your order. This is great for those who want it and further show the vendor’s dedication to creating a product that you want the very first time you order it.
Durability:
As I’ve already mentioned, I’ve washed and dried my covers three times to test several factors. How well the color stays, if there is shrinkage, or if they stretch. But there is durability yet to talk about. When thinking about the longevity of a cloth based product, you have to remember that there is also standard wear and tear. There are also factors like spillage; can the item resist fluids and stains? Does the threading hold up and how well the seams stayed sewn together.
I obviously have only had the dust covers for a couple of weeks now. I’ve tried to test them under the greatest of duress, which I think in a normal environment would just be taking them off and putting them back on repeatedly. If all you ever do is that, you’ll come to find that they hold up impeccably well. If you pack and move a lot, you may find that they’ll wrinkle and such. Or if you have a dust cover for something that you take with you to friend’s houses and parties. But under normal circumstances, I couldn’t find anything to do to them that would make them fray or stretch. I balled them up, tugged on their corners, and even folded one up and put it under heavy weight. But all returned to their normal shape and form when fluffed (albeit with some wrinkles).
What the biggest threat to cotton is, is liquids. If you get cotton, you aren’t going to find any resistance to liquids. It’s not only going to stain the fabric if it’s a lighter color, but the liquid is going to get on your console. So the cotton fabric at its core is only a dust cover. However, the vinyl is a good choice, as well as the nylon because it’s lined with PVC and may offer you a bit more resistance to liquids. The double-sided quilted nylon does not have PVC lining according to their site, so if you get it, please be aware that you may not have a protection against fluids. I would love a scotch guard option too, maybe for another $5 be able to have scotch guarding added. It’s worth noting that none of them can promise you 100% protection against liquids, you should still always be careful with drinks and such around your equipment. 9/10
Review of Individual Dust Covers:
- XBOX One S-It fits just as I wanted it to fit. I’ll be exceptionally happy if when I get my XBOX One X the measurements are right. I got the measurements for the XBOX One X from the internet and found a nice middle ground that worked for both the S or the X. I did that just in case I never ended getting an X somehow. The XBOX One S is the only system out of all of the systems that DigitalDeckCovers sent me covers for that I actively play. And I love the fact that I can leave the cords plugged in and just slide the dust cover off of the front. I wish the XBOX One S had more ventilation in the back rather than the top. I feel more comfortable waiting for the XBOX One S to be off for 5 minutes or so before reapplying the cover, just in case it isn’t cool enough to be covered.
- Atari 2600-The 2600 has a built-in video cord that hangs out of the back. I always wrap the cord around the console, as I would guess anyone does, to keep the 5 feet of cord from hanging around. The cord changes the dimensions ever so slightly, but not enough that when I drape the cover over the console that it wouldn’t fit. I think that maybe if I had chosen the dust cover that hugs all sides of the system, the cord would have to have been just wrapped up in the back of the system and hang out of the bottom of the dust cover. It just wouldn’t look right in my opinion. I think that the dimensions that I gave them worked out quite well. The caveat here though is that you can’t leave a cartridge in the cartridge bay as I like to do. So if you’re like me, you’re going to have to settle for leaving the game out of the console.
- PlayStation 2 Phat-As I mentioned before, I have extraneous pieces of hardware hanging out of my PlayStation 2. I have 2 memory cards on the front side of the console. I also have the HDD Network Adapter thing on the backside of my console. These add easily 3 inches to the depth of the console. I made certain that the dimensions that I gave them would cover all of that. When you apply the dust cover to the console with the extra accessories, it makes it look like a nice rectangle again. Instead of how it actually looks, which is a rectangle with some random appendages. The dust cover that I ordered doesn’t just look like it matches the other systems uniformly, it looks like a nice rectangle as the other systems do. Which to me is a good way of keeping my memory cards where they rightfully belong and not have to take them out and put them in whenever I’ve taken the dust cover off.
- Nintendo 64-The Nintendo 64’s dust cover technically fits without a game in the cartridge slot. But as you see in the photos, it looks a bit saggy. That doesn’t mean that I can’t use it like that, but I’m definitely going to take advantage of the fact that mine is so saggy so that I can keep a cartridge in the slot. However, the main hitch there is that it doesn’t look as uniform and rectangular as I’d like. But if I’m choosing between a dust cover that fits the cartridge that has extra fabric without a game in, and one that hugs it tight and I have to take the game out every time, I’m choosing the former.
So what’s the surprise?!:
If you use either of the links below to purchase anything from the DigitalDeckCovers website between now and January 6th, 2019 (that’s right, 2019), you can use a special code exclusive to our readers. This means even if the dust covers are slightly too rich for your blood, there’s no need to fret. You can slowly but surely buy as many as you need over the next year at a discounted rate. Simply use the code HACKINFO10 when checking out and you’ll receive 10% off of your order no matter the quantity or value!
If you would like to see more than just the dust covers featured here, click here to visit DigitalDeckCovers’ page.
If you just want to see what video game dust covers that they have other than what I’ve featured here, then click this link.
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