How long till PBT caps get shiny?

[NguyenAdam]

I have some OEM Filco ABS caps as of now. They are starting to get pretty shiny and oily. I clean it with Isopropyl alcohol, but it doesn't help much. So I'm thinking about getting some PBT caps, but I was just wondering how long does it take for it to get the shine? I've only had my Filco for a few months, and the keys are really starting to get to me. The slippery, oily keys do not feel good to the touch. D:

[fossala]

They take quite a while, look at peoples HHKB/Realforces. You can see substantial wear on the spacebars (abs) but on the rest of the keys (pbt) there seems to be non/little. Also Model M's that are 20+ years old don't seem to have much/any keycap wear.

[wongster]

Ripster's PBT spacebar took 6 months to get "shiny" (it wasn't truly glossy and slick) vs. the 1 month it took for the ABS spacebar to get shiny (actual shiny). He has a comparison of it in his PBT vs. ABS thread.

I also recall someone posting a picture of an HHKB new vs. 5 years of use, and the PBT keys held up really really well (imo).

Personally, there has been no sign of wear on my PBT caps (been about half a year since I've had them), while my Leopold caps were shiny in about the same time. I also do not particularly enjoy the oily key feeling, so I immensely enjoy my PBT keys.

Hope that helps!

[koralatov]

Maybe a little OT, but I’ll ask anyway: why are spacebars made out of ABS when all the other keys are made out of PBT?  Wouldn’t it make sense to make them all out of the same material?

[Tarkoon]

PBT deforms when cooling during production much more than ABS does and because of this long caps like space are really difficult to produce...

[dorkvader]

You can see the effects of this, as many PBT spacebars are a little twisted or deformed. My unicomp one has a bit of a dimple right over the center stabilizer, but that's where I put my thumb, so it works out for me.

[silat]

Ripster's PBT spacebar took 6 months to get "shiny" (it wasn't truly glossy and slick) vs. the 1 month it took for the ABS spacebar to get shiny (actual shiny). He has a comparison of it in his PBT vs. ABS thread.

I also recall someone posting a picture of an HHKB new vs. 5 years of use, and the PBT keys held up really really well (imo).

Personally, there has been no sign of wear on my PBT caps (been about half a year since I've had them), while my Leopold caps were shiny in about the same time. I also do not particularly enjoy the oily key feeling, so I immensely enjoy my PBT keys.

Hope that helps!

To be fair ripsters glossy/shiny spacebar was not all because of typing:)

[Surly73]

That's a pretty open ended question for a forum where there's a guy who wears keys through to the stems in 6 months (and swears it's not something different about him).  I have a 1993 model M which started life in a commercial environment for years, sat on the shelf for a bit, then became my daily driver at work.  It has the two-piece PBT dye-sub keys and there is virtually no distinguishable wear on the keys.  You have to look for it, and it manifests as a little bit of extra shine between the texture dimples of the PBT and not significant erosion of the texture as a whole (which is what you usually see on ABS).  Comparing the space bar and 'T' key to something never used like Scroll Lock hardly shows any difference.  Certainly none to a casual observer.

It's really quite durable, but it's also hard to make a generalization to how long they'll last for you.  I think in the case of my model M we're looking at far higher than 6x suggested by the ripster comparison.  Almost 20 years in service with almost no visible wear/shine.

[darksakul]

I agree,there are too many factors to consider for wear and tear. Everyone is different so the wear and tear I put on my keys are different that Ripster or anyone else.
How oily your skin is and how rough you are are factors to consider. Also not all PBT keys are made the same. As with ABS plastics, with PBT no 2 batches are exactly the same. If the chemical composition of the keycap is off even by a little the key cap will have a different resilience to wear and tear. Even with different companies that product PBT, each has their own recipe or formula for PBT.

With the obvious IBM model M takes wear and tare like a champ, and I am sure some older Cherry POS keyboards could be the same way. Those keys meant for the average consumer market isn't going to have the same quality.

[alaricljs]

I purchased a similar PBT set to ripster's around the same time (from same place and same brand) and use them exclusively since then.  I am at my computer 12+hours per day and my space bar has a shiny edge where I rub my right thumb as though it were a worry stone.  It's not from my typing, because other keys would show wear and they don't.

[iindigo]

Body chemistry, nail length, keystroke pressure, and all sorts of other stuff factor into wear. My ABS keys typically show only moderate wear even after years of use. It certainly depends on the board, though - my old "clear wedge" apple keyboard is as shiny as a mirror while the newer aluminum one shows very little wear in the same time span, and my WASD keys so far seem to land somewhere between the two extremes.

I imagine I could use PBT keys for decades without showing heavy wear.

[Squelos]

How long can you expect your realforce to last ? I see people talking about 5+ years, but is that while its being used on a daily basis ?
I doubt rubber domes can last all that long. IMO  Rubber domes < cherrys concerning durability.