"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: