After so many years my review on cherry and cherry copy switches

[bazemk1979]

I went trough so many cherry keyboard switches and then the copy cats Gatheron or Omron or whatever they are called.... They all have the same problem, after a year on every single keyboard that I owned they all show the exact same problematic symptoms throwing double,triple even sometimes 4 clicks and the longer you use the keyboard the worse it gets, it happens trough out all the keys for example I never use the tenkeypad but those keys developed the same problem....

The problem is not the key itself catching dust, I had a Korean keyboard that in matter of minutes I could of disassemble it and dusted out , cleaned the inside of the switches, then tried light lubing and what not else but to no avail....

Caught my self so many times typing the wrong password and being booted out from the log, or just typing and just to see the whole screen marked in red due to chatter of bunch of letters....

There is no way around this issue all Cherry and Cherry copy switches have, they are garbage and if you are willing to be soldering and desoldering switches and leds every 3 moths inn order to replace them so you can have functional keyboard then go ahead, but I got sick and tired of this so called German tech that craps out in the very first 5-6 months of very light typing and I don't even game any more and don't work as a typist....

So I decided today to finally fix the problem, took all my Cherry and Cherry copy keyboards that failed and dumped them in the garbage bin where they deserve to be, I strongly believe giving them to the Salvation Army will be the biggest curse to whom ever buys them.

Currently typing on an old IBM buckling one and have zero issues now finally!!!!

Its a shame that so many custom aluminum beautiful keyboards with beautiful keycaps are all based and dependent on an inferior trashy designed switches that they fail, ever single one of those switches failed me and I finally got that angry to throw them in the garbage, actually now that I think of I should of burry them 6 feet under!!!

To whoever decides to get into the keyboard addiction think twice what you get your self involved in with. Now I understand every since the Cherry design switches hit the market around 5-7 years a go you can see on all forums, FB,YT and whatever E media is out there people type and you see double and triple letters every where and there is no doubt in my mind people are sick of trying to go trough all the words and fix the spelling.

Cherry and all Cherry copy cats are a total fail and garbage product. This is the reason I left this forum because I totally lost interest in keyboards, pure disappointment,rant is done.

[ideus]

Is this a joke?

Just for the record, after years of using Cherry and its clones, they work flawlessly.

[alienman82]

removed.

[SpAmRaY]

After 4+ years at 10+ hours a day 5 days a week, I've only had 1 keyboard out of dozens I've used have any failing switches and that was my original ducky shine 2, I had to swap out 3 or 4 switches.

All the rest have always just worked.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[bazemk1979]

No joke at all, dumped failing WASD keyboard, dumped Ducky one, dumped CM keyboard. The Korean keyboard I had I sold it that was also developing the same problems and I told the buyer that I opened up the switches and cleaned them up, guess what a few weeks later he contacted me and told me that the switches started to  chatter again...

There is no doubt every single keyboard based on Cherry and Cherry copy switches are garbage. There is no way in hell I will ever buy this type of mech keyboard that I know it will start failing in less than a year, like I got no better thing to do but to desolder and solder back new switches every 3-4 months

[SpAmRaY]

There has to be some environmental or specific use factor involved here.

If this happened to all cherry switches there would be a lot more people complaining.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[tp4tissue]

maybe it's the humidity where you live..

[chyros]

Heh, wow, this guy dislikes Cherry even more than I do .

[SBJ]

Heh, wow, this guy dislikes Cherry even more than I do .

Yeah definitely a strong dislike for Cherry switches.
I mean I am not a huge fan either, but as someone with not many alternatives or other choices, the Cherry switches I've had haven't been an issue for me.
Gateron's, on the other hand, I've had huge issues with.

[tp4tissue]

bazemk1979 is clearly thor and can only type using mjolnir on every key..


In that case, Cherry mx is clearly the Strongest keyswitch ever, considering it's worked for months in that environment.. and only a FEW keys were destroyed ..

[bazemk1979]

Heh, wow, this guy dislikes Cherry even more than I do .

I do live in florida so that may be the case, but last time I remember opening the switches to clean them up the contacts were made out of brass, at least I think they were. Brass should not fail amongst humidity

[SpAmRaY]

Heh, wow, this guy dislikes Cherry even more than I do .

I do live in florida so that may be the case, but last time I remember opening the switches to clean them up the contacts were made out of brass, at least I think they were. Brass should not fail amongst humidity

What exactly did you do to clean the switches? And what was 'dirty' inside that made it necessary to clean?



Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[riotonthebay]

 )

Haven't had this issue or ever heard of anyone having it at nearly the frequency you do. Either you're the unluckiest person every or there's indeed an environmental factor.

[bazemk1979]

)

Haven't had this issue or ever heard of anyone having it at nearly the frequency you do. Either you're the unluckiest person every or there's indeed an environmental factor.

The switches were not dirty or dusty at all but since I was going to post the keyboard for sale and the keyboard started to show chatter problems on more than 5 keys I thought ok let me open up the switches and dust them out, I didn't found any dust in them though.... Every single keyboard with cherry switches or cherry design switches developed this problem. I never had problem with any of the Model M's nor with the  rubber membrane keyboards. Whatever the cause is I'm totally unimpressed with these switches, finally I freed up the closet by dumping yesterday 4 keyboards

[riotonthebay]

)

Haven't had this issue or ever heard of anyone having it at nearly the frequency you do. Either you're the unluckiest person every or there's indeed an environmental factor.

The switches were not dirty or dusty at all but since I was going to post the keyboard for sale and the keyboard started to show chatter problems on more than 5 keys I thought ok let me open up the switches and dust them out, I didn't found any dust in them though.... Every single keyboard with cherry switches or cherry design switches developed this problem. I never had problem with any of the Model M's nor with the  rubber membrane keyboards. Whatever the cause is I'm totally unimpressed with these switches, finally I freed up the closet by dumping yesterday 4 keyboards

Right, but if this supposed issue was as widespread, common, and consistent as you describe, you'd expect to see more people on a keyboard forum complaining about it. Unless the issue is so dramatic as to render those people's keyboards entirely unusable, such that they couldn't post at all… maybe that's what Cherry wants!

But I don't think that's the case, so I'm going to chalk it up as an unfortunate anecdote.

[ideus]

This seems like an out-lier; that, coming from a single user may be only related with his particular environmental and general usage patterns. It only proves that his particular conditions causes these switches to fail, prematurely. Otherwise, those users of old Cherry keyboards dated in the eighties should be reporting similar failures in hordes; which is not the case as we all know.

[chyros]

I'll be honest; although I don't like Cherry switches, I've found they didn't fail more often than other brands of switches. I've owned dozens of Cherry boards and nothing would indicate they're as bad as this. Sometimes switches failed, of course, but not that often.

[tp4tissue]

I'll be honest; although I don't like Cherry switches, I've found they didn't fail more often than other brands of switches. I've owned dozens of Cherry boards and nothing would indicate they're as bad as this. Sometimes switches failed, of course, but not that often.

It's very possible the Geekhackers own too many damn keyboards, so there's not a single one of us truly wearing in any one keyboard..


But that's not been my experience, since Tp4 only uses Ergodox..

[chyros]

I'll be honest; although I don't like Cherry switches, I've found they didn't fail more often than other brands of switches. I've owned dozens of Cherry boards and nothing would indicate they're as bad as this. Sometimes switches failed, of course, but not that often.

It's very possible the Geekhackers own too many damn keyboards, so there's not a single one of us truly wearing in any one keyboard..


But that's not been my experience, since Tp4 only uses Ergodox..

No, that's DT you're thinking of mate .

[tp4tissue]

I'll be honest; although I don't like Cherry switches, I've found they didn't fail more often than other brands of switches. I've owned dozens of Cherry boards and nothing would indicate they're as bad as this. Sometimes switches failed, of course, but not that often.

It's very possible the Geekhackers own too many damn keyboards, so there's not a single one of us truly wearing in any one keyboard..


But that's not been my experience, since Tp4 only uses Ergodox..

No, that's DT you're thinking of mate .

Are you saying DT owns m0ar boards than Geekhack ?


Them r fightn' words..

[chyros]

I'll be honest; although I don't like Cherry switches, I've found they didn't fail more often than other brands of switches. I've owned dozens of Cherry boards and nothing would indicate they're as bad as this. Sometimes switches failed, of course, but not that often.

It's very possible the Geekhackers own too many damn keyboards, so there's not a single one of us truly wearing in any one keyboard..


But that's not been my experience, since Tp4 only uses Ergodox..

No, that's DT you're thinking of mate .

Are you saying DT owns m0ar boards than Geekhack ?


Them r fightn' words..

WAY more. That survey that went out recently clearly showed that, too. DTers are the oldest, have the oldest keyboards, and have the most keyboards.

I've got ~150 and I'm not even a heavyweight .

[Kavik]

I've had two boards with Cherry MX switches for about four years. One of them did develop key chatter on the spacebar after about three years, so I had to desolder the switch and swap it with the scroll lock switch. This was my work keyboard. My gaming keyboard hasn't had any issues. My Matias board did develop chatter on the left arrow spontaneously one day (after it decided to stop working entirely until re-seating the switch).

Slightly related tangent: I've been dealing with a weird issue with the Model M I gave my brother. On his computer, it spazzes out and spams Ctrl + F and also won't type upper case Cs (IIRC). I can't reproduce the problem on my computer, and this happens to him via PS/2 and via PS/2 to USB converter. I'm wondering if his metal tanker desk may be interfering somehow. I thought I'd buggered up the bolt mod, but it should at least be consistent if so.

As annoying as it is, I can at least say I like the ability to swap a switch as apposed to discarding an entire keyboard as would be the case with a rubber dome or possibly even a Model M if the membrane went bad.

[bazemk1979]

One thing I did forgot to mention since I got tired of ordering switches, desoldering the bad ones and soldering new ones I also tried the last resort that I could of think of and just simple remove the old solder and resolder the contacts again, this naturally didn't fixed the problem and to be honest the solder joints were nice and shiny looking, not over cooked nor under cooked...

Here is the thing it gets me and probably pissed me off the most, the fact that the switch wont just fail but instead send out many keystrokes and I only pressed it once. I think if the key would of just flat out died then I might of been cool with that, but the only issue I have ever encountered is chatter, same symptom for them all and that's what pissed me the most, its like having a car and when it fails it always the same part failing. I mean funny part is that keys that are barely used were failing. The Cherry switches were so raised and hyped to the point that when I had the Korean keyboard I thought to my self crap something is failing with the motherboard so it must be shortening my switches and they get the chatter reaction. After I tried every trick in the book I decided to replace the switch and voila all was back to normal, but then as time passed by other switches developed the same problem.

This is my experience only, 4 keyboards in the trash and sold Korean one before it started to develop more problems.... I have no longer to worry about this because I'm over collecting any keyboards and most likely I will try to sell the bolt moded IBM's that I have on ebay, but if my IBM Model M should ever fail I would not even dear to buy another mechanical keyboard, maybe just maybe I might consider the Unicomp if they are still in business by then.

[FoxWolf1]

Last summer, I purged a bunch of my keyboards in preparation for a move. I'm now down to what were my six most-functional keyboards.

Of the two keyboards I kept that use MX-based switches, both of them have chatter issues.

Cleaning them helps, especially cleaning off the PCB, not just the switches themselves, for some reason, but never permanently resolves the issues. My hands aren't steady enough for soldering (I've butchered every keyboard I've tried it on), so that wouldn't be an option even if I trusted that it would fix the problems, which I don't.

All in all, I'd find it very hard to recommend MX-based switches-- not when there are things out there like ALPS for the "feel" connoisseur, optical or Hall effect if you want something that can shrug off dirt and spills without failing (the latest crop of sub-$70 opticals on Amazon claim that if they get dirty, you can just wash them off with a hose!), and more.

[Targa-TV]

I'll be honest; although I don't like Cherry switches, I've found they didn't fail more often than other brands of switches. I've owned dozens of Cherry boards and nothing would indicate they're as bad as this. Sometimes switches failed, of course, but not that often.

It's very possible the Geekhackers own too many damn keyboards, so there's not a single one of us truly wearing in any one keyboard..

I can speak up for Cherry Corp since my G80-3000 comes from an office environment (seller said at least a decade of use). It's not causing issues for me.

[merlin64]

Yanbo of MassDrop stated in a TopClack episode that one reason why we now have kailh box switches is because in a gaming cafe, you get lots of dirt from smoke/drinks/food/whatever else, that keyboards/switches were breaking quite often. The box switches may help to relieve some of that. The environment may play a big role in how switches last.

[davkol]

Cherry MX have been used at terminals, in warehouses and factories and elsewhere for decades. I somehow doubt they've been experiencing the same things (at the same rate) as OP.

I suspect that OP, being a florida man or an aligator, has omitted some crucial point here.

[Leslieann]

I agree with others, incorrect lube or something in the environment is at issue here.

This is not a new, untested technology.

[ideus]

I agree with others, incorrect lube or something in the environment is at issue here.

This is not a new, untested technology.

+1 MX switches, as product, have not survive in the market for all these decades, if they had the extremely high failure rate suggested by the OP.

[aspire5550]

I went trough so many cherry keyboard switches and then the copy cats Gatheron or Omron or whatever they are called.... They all have the same problem, after a year on every single keyboard that I owned they all show the exact same problematic symptoms throwing double,triple even sometimes 4 clicks and the longer you use the keyboard the worse it gets, it happens trough out all the keys for example I never use the tenkeypad but those keys developed the same problem....

The problem is not the key itself catching dust, I had a Korean keyboard that in matter of minutes I could of disassemble it and dusted out , cleaned the inside of the switches, then tried light lubing and what not else but to no avail....

Caught my self so many times typing the wrong password and being booted out from the log, or just typing and just to see the whole screen marked in red due to chatter of bunch of letters....

There is no way around this issue all Cherry and Cherry copy switches have, they are garbage and if you are willing to be soldering and desoldering switches and leds every 3 moths inn order to replace them so you can have functional keyboard then go ahead, but I got sick and tired of this so called German tech that craps out in the very first 5-6 months of very light typing and I don't even game any more and don't work as a typist....

So I decided today to finally fix the problem, took all my Cherry and Cherry copy keyboards that failed and dumped them in the garbage bin where they deserve to be, I strongly believe giving them to the Salvation Army will be the biggest curse to whom ever buys them.

Currently typing on an old IBM buckling one and have zero issues now finally!!!!

Its a shame that so many custom aluminum beautiful keyboards with beautiful keycaps are all based and dependent on an inferior trashy designed switches that they fail, ever single one of those switches failed me and I finally got that angry to throw them in the garbage, actually now that I think of I should of burry them 6 feet under!!!

To whoever decides to get into the keyboard addiction think twice what you get your self involved in with. Now I understand every since the Cherry design switches hit the market around 5-7 years a go you can see on all forums, FB,YT and whatever E media is out there people type and you see double and triple letters every where and there is no doubt in my mind people are sick of trying to go trough all the words and fix the spelling.

Cherry and all Cherry copy cats are a total fail and garbage product. This is the reason I left this forum because I totally lost interest in keyboards, pure disappointment,rant is done.

My newly bought gateron switches board was showing some repeated keystroke. I later on found out that it is due to the USB port not giving enough current due to the RGB led that my new bought have. Turning off the led fixed the issue immediately. Plugging the USB cable directly to my laptop also works. ( I was using a docking station, so the usb was plugged into the docking station when I encountered the problem)

Some questions: Did you try your boards on other computer/laptops? Did you use the same USB cable for all of them?
Sounds to me that it is probably not the keyboard's problem but the USB ports or laptop/comp problem.

[Giorgio]

The problem is you, or the wood house in the equatorial forest you live in.

[BucklingSpring]

There has to be some environmental or specific use factor involved here.

If this happened to all cherry switches there would be a lot more people complaining.

^THIS!

I have few cherry based boards, mostly relatively old. None failed me.
I know the more you have the less it's relevant.
My latest is a Deck Francium with browns, it's been my daily driver for more than two years and it's not showing any signs or repeat glitches.

[hapakey]

Don't blame the victim.

This is Key chatter.

A Topre will solve this.

[Leslieann]

Actually, I have a question for the OP...

This may be a long shot  but how old is your home? Was it built during the housing boom?
I ask because you fit the locale for "Chinese Drywall", which was a big problem with imported drywall containing hydrogen sulfide, which causes all sorts of issues with copper. It also has health implications.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_drywall

[klennkellon]

Cherry switches have issues but reliability isn't one of them.

Do you use your keyboard in a coal mine?

[Rayoui]

I've been using Cherry boards for many years and have never experienced any chattering with Cherry branded switches.

I have had chattering and other issues with Gateron switches.

I was stationed aboard a guided-missile destroyer for four and a half years and all of the keyboards on the ship were Cherry boards with the smart card reader. A warship is a pretty rough environment for any piece of equipment and I don't remember having issues with any of those boards.