Decaying rubber - why do manufacturers still use the stuff?

[DHR]

Just picked up my battery charger and found that it's rubber coating has started to 'decay' leaving a horrible sticky mess. It's only a £30 jobby so not overly annoyed but it's brought memories back of my B&W speakers that went the same way

Other than to generate another sale after X number of years, why do manufacturers use the stuff still! It feels great until it makes something unusable.

I've heard various fixes for it over the years, IPA brush, bicarb paste etc. but I'm forever amazed at how often the stuff still gets used.

 

[DHR]

So I finally got around to cleaning up the BL700 battery charger I initially posted this about.

I think I've now found another option that worked way better than I expected... bicarbonate of soda Can't recall where I originally read it now, but mixed into a paste it worked a treat, brought the soft touch stuff up brilliantly.

It'll definitely vary based on the compound that was originally used but yeah. success. Just need to be brave enough to try it on some old B&W speakers now that suffered the same fate.