Cleaning keycaps with... denture cleaning tabs!

[sixty]

"Let me see that keyboard, dear."

This came to my mind when I was reading a random unrelated German article that mentioned how some kid got sick by chewing on nasty lego bricks.. anyway the end of the article had some tips for parents on how to clean Lego bricks, so their kids don't die from infections (and rather choke on them instead, I guess). One of the tricks was to put them in a huge bowl with some dental cleaning tablets.

I figured that Lego bricks and keycaps are close enough.. so I gave it a try today with some boards.



I used the "Kukident Active Plus" brand - which should be easily available in Europe. They came in at 2,40 Euros for 33 Tabs. Pretty good deal. If you already lost all your teeth and are using dentures anyway then you are probably already set.

Here is what I did:


1) Get some big bowl, put in at least 4 or 5 tabs, depending on how many keycaps you plan to clean.


2) Add the keycaps, make sure they are evenly distributed around the tabs.
Now here is the cool part - I also added in all stabilizers as well, because the tablet box claims: "Our corrosion preventive special formula protects your dentures metal parts from rust and corrosion." - What more could we ask for?

Note: I had to add another tab here since the keycaps turned out to be more than expected (damn terminal boards!)


3) Add hot water. A lot of bubbles will start rising and the water will probably change colour.


4) Let it rest for a while and let those tabs do their magic. After about 20 minutes the foam started to disappear and the keycaps should be good to remove.

5) Time to get the keycaps dry again. This is up to you. I usually use a pasta sieve and give them a last clean with cold water. After that I use a hair-dryer to dry them.

So far I am very happy with the results and it even cleaned some keycaps which seemed really filthy with worn in grime.

Example:

[keyb_gr]

That's some great idea there.

An academic research paper on this would certainly be entitled "A novel method for cleaning keyboard keycaps". :D

It seems like these denture cleaning tabs are quite useful for cleaning all kinds of things, as a quick search showed. And apparently it's not exactly a new discovery either. Interesting chemistry cocktail... some acids here, some peroxide there, and a major ingredient sems to be sodium bicarbonate. That should make for some nice chemical reactions.

[timw4mail]

My only concern with such a method is if a denture cleaning tab is abrasive.

[itlnstln]

Originally Posted by timw4mail

My only concern with such a method is if a denture cleaning tab is abrasive.

They are gently abrasive (due to the effervescence, not the tab itself, per se), but nothing that would damage a key. It's probably a lot less damaging than putting them in the dishwasher.

[keyb_gr]

Originally Posted by itlnstln

It's probably a lot less damaging than putting them in the dishwasher.

Or cleaning them by hand.

[o2dazone]

Yeah, cleaning them by hand would require rubbing, and we all know that can really hurt the natural texture of a keycap (especially if you're rubbing your Wang)

Can't wait to try this out, probably the best method I've seen so far ^^ (dishwashers scare me)

[rdjack21]

I agree with o2dazone I can't wait to try that out. I have some keys that need to be cleaned but have been too lazy to hand wash them lately. So I will head down to the local drug store and get some denture cleaning tabs myself and try this out.

[BucklingSpring]

I always use the dishwasher for cleaning my keycaps.

Works extreemly well.

I place the keycaps in a cleaning bag to prevent them from wondering around.



They come out squeaky clean and never damaged any.

[ripster]

On my grocery list. Thanks for posting this!!

Nice undies Buckling!! I tried the dishwasher too and although it does do a good job I found with Black Vintage keys (the NeXT Enter key) the heat seems to be a problem. They came out a tad discolored. Some Simple Green seemed to fix that right up. Dishwashing soap I'm sure is much more abrasive that the denture cleaner. With Ivory keys dishwashing may not cause discoloring so YMMV.

[o2dazone]

I could see the dishwasher being an alternative if you're getting "Hacker style" keyboards from ScarryGarcia. For the daily board chow and finger muck, I could see myself turning to less abrasive cleaning methods

[ripster]

Yeah, and depends on the dishwasher. My stupid Bosch doesn't seem to have a way to turn off the hot water. I used to wash my son's newish Logitech $9.99 special all the time in the dishwasher and they came out great so I just think it's due to heat and vintage black plastic not going together well.

I blame the Germans.

[BucklingSpring]

Originally Posted by ripster

I blame the Germans.

It's a good rule of thumb. :-)

My dishwasher is a noname piece of sh*t and the light wash is not very hot. I can appreciate how a good Bosch can be damaging just by doing well at what it has been designed for.

[watduzhkstand4]

bling bling!

[cmr]

lol the sparkle

[Rajagra]

While you're soaking the caps, don't forget to floss between the switches.