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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: kwantz on Sun, 21 August 2011, 19:22:10

Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: kwantz on Sun, 21 August 2011, 19:22:10: I was just wondering how often do you clean your keyboards?
What process do you go through and what do you use to clean it?
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: sinis on Sun, 21 August 2011, 19:26:11: every week or so with grain alcohol from time to time, just wiping over the whole board with a cloth
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: Lolcakes on Sun, 21 August 2011, 19:29:42: Please keep in mind though that Filco boards should not be cleaned with alcohol. It ruins the coating of the keys.
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: kwantz on Sun, 21 August 2011, 19:32:26: what about inbetween the keys and the switches. How do you properly clean the gunk/dust that may get trapped in there. Blow it with air?
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: sinis on Sun, 21 August 2011, 19:36:02: Quote from: Lolcakes;402908
Please keep in mind though that Filco boards should not be cleaned with alcohol. It ruins the coating of the keys.
i doubt that with ethanol

the wiki said an old filco lost its coating from isopropanol. thats a difference.
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: N8N on Sun, 21 August 2011, 19:40:17: I'll have to remember that. I tend to use isopropanol to as a general purpose cleaner (it does a fantastic job of taking Sharpie off most plastics, which i occasionally have to do for various work-related reasons to tedious to explain) so I have been using it as a keyboard cleaner as well. However I don't have any Filco keys so I suppose I'm still OK. (unless it takes off Cherry Corp. or Noppoo infill, in which case I'm hastening my keyboards' early demise.)

I figure the doubleshots are safe with just about anything short of acetone or lacquer thinner though :)

As for cleaning in between the keys, yeah, compressed air, or I wipe the plate down with Windex or isopropanol whenver I have the keycaps off for the inevitable noodling.

Oh, and for the record, ethanol does not taste bad. There's a small glass of Kraken rum sitting next to me as I type this, although my usual ethanol-bearing beverage is either beer or bourbon. All I've found to be quite tasty.
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: False_Dmitry_II on Sun, 21 August 2011, 21:31:12: I prefer vodka.
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: Hydroid on Sun, 21 August 2011, 21:43:54: Every week or so I dust it down and wipe the exterior, and then every couple of months a complete key removal to clean underneath and wash the keys.
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: liist on Sun, 21 August 2011, 22:00:18: Blow air deep under and shake it out. Will take out the keys one day, but keyboard isn't that bad so far.
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: sinis on Sun, 21 August 2011, 22:26:37: Quote from: ripster;402912
Denatured Ethanol was worse. Plus tastes bad. Sig>Keyboard Science>Keys>Lasered vs Pad
Show Image
(http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=20843&d=1310688231)

I still doubt it. (http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?21251-Ethanol-and-Filco-Keycaps)
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: Spinsle McGee on Sun, 21 August 2011, 23:23:58: I clean it when it gets the slightest bit dirty.
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: sinis on Mon, 22 August 2011, 01:28:16: bullish? what do you mean.

i just said ethanole indstead of denaturated ethanole. Here it is 96% ethanole. working with 45%ic methanole is friggin crazy o0 you breathe more methanole while working with it, than can be healthy anymore.

Ethanole is only in one case a stronger solvent. this is in the fact it is more like water. ethanole is a more ionic solvent than isoprop. so if it is stronger, it depends on what you want to dissolve. on dissolving lacquers it wont even matter i think. most laquers should be inert against those two.

this is what wondered me. and what i wanted to find out. no reason to feel adressed.

how long did it take for the keycaps to get cloudy?
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: sinis on Mon, 22 August 2011, 01:34:11: calm down mister.

why you should answer my questions? why not for gods sake? when you feel bull****ting dont blame me.!

i never said you can get pure ethanol. open your eyes! can you read in america?
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: sinis on Mon, 22 August 2011, 01:44:31: still no answer from mr. i know everything.

i wanted to provide some information with recent testing. also some info from my chemistry classes. as you did the first tests i thought you would bless me with your greatness, so i know how long i must test.

just go on *****ing
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: sinis on Mon, 22 August 2011, 01:48:44: and *****ing again

i just thought you misunderstood something i wrote, but now i know you do not even try to understand
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: sinis on Mon, 22 August 2011, 02:09:43: Quote from: ripster;403033
(Attachment) 24826[/ATTACH]
recognize yourself
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: sinis on Mon, 22 August 2011, 02:14:23: i bring nature to the thread and to the wiki. i bring truth.

and you are ****ting all over it. onto the thing you call yourself the number one of
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: sinis on Mon, 22 August 2011, 02:18:01: buy some reading competence and maybe you will start to understand
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: sinis on Mon, 22 August 2011, 02:22:28: not as much as you hit that methanole, as it appears
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: sinis on Mon, 22 August 2011, 02:31:00: exactly what i am telling you since a lot of posts

you back on earth?
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: sinis on Mon, 22 August 2011, 02:44:02: with the 55%ethanole 45%methanole mixture, do you know how long it took the keys to get cloudy?

Hast du verstanden?
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: Captain Hat on Mon, 22 August 2011, 09:46:38: sinis, I think you're arguing at cross-purposes here. Your statement that pure ethanol does not denature Filco keycaps may well be true, but that information is useless to an American who cannot buy pure ethanol without working for a lab. Ripster's point isn't that you're necessarily wrong, just that even if you're right the advice to most users stays the same because they cannot practically obtain the same material you are using for your tests.

Ripster, you are being needlessly obtuse here: You should know by now that Germans are likely to have the Engineering mindset (which to be fair I also have to a certain extent) of being obsessed with absolute truth regardless of how useful (or in this case, useless) it might be. Maybe you should consider not riling them? I dunno, maybe you enjoy it.
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: Waterdr1nker on Mon, 22 August 2011, 20:17:24: Quote from: ripster;403558
In my next round of testing I plan on urinating on Filco/Das keys. It's sterile and I like the taste of it. Haven't you ever wondered how Ghandi and Gerard Depardieu cleaned their keyboards?

Gee, come to think of it, I have not! Looking very forward to the next round of testing.

FOR SCIENCE!
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: mr_a500 on Tue, 23 August 2011, 04:35:53: Wow, this thread needs some cleaning. (isoproply alcohol on page 2 should do it)

Back to keyboards... I don't eat like a pig near my keyboards so I rarely do much more than the occasional vacuuming of dust or quick wipe with a damp paper towel. For used vintage keyboards I buy, it's another story. I pop off all the keys and completely disassemble the keyboard. I soak the keys in a big bowl of boiling hot water with dish soap. I then use isopropyl alcohol (on cotton swabs and paper towel) to thoroughly clean everywhere on the main board and hot water & dish soap on the case - avoiding labels and logos which might peel off. I dry each individual key (after they soaked for a while in the bowl of hot water) by wiping hard with paper towel to remove any scum which might have been missed. Everything is left to dry, then reassembled.

By the time I've finished all that, I swear I'll never buy another used keyboard again.
(...until somebody on geekhack posts links to an amazing vintage keyboard in the "Great Finds" section again...)
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: Shawn Stanford on Tue, 23 August 2011, 06:57:51: I clean my boards when the keys have that film of crud off-center of the impact area, or when the barrel plate is visibly full of detritus. At that point, I pull the key caps and take apart the case and run them through the dishwasher.
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: mmmty on Thu, 25 August 2011, 23:54:09: This is how to clean your keyboard.

http://cnettv.cnet.com/clean-disinfect-your-keyboard/9742-1_53-50110240.html
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: Shawn Stanford on Fri, 26 August 2011, 06:54:03: Disinfecting? Srsly? Lame...
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: mmmty on Fri, 26 August 2011, 07:55:25: Quote from: ripster;405322
Good instructions. Would be better if she did it in a bikini.

Even better if Natali was doing it in bikini.

(http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/34/2008/01/medium_ndc2.gif)
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: Bry on Fri, 26 August 2011, 08:00:59: I just dilute some rubbing alcohol with about 50% water. This works great on monitors also.
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: guilleguillaume on Fri, 26 August 2011, 09:00:15: Quote from: mmmty;405318
This is how to clean your keyboard.

http://cnettv.cnet.com/clean-disinfect-your-keyboard/9742-1_53-50110240.html

She is hot!
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: Mazora on Fri, 26 August 2011, 09:04:55: i cannot wash myself too frequently because of skin irritation (but in CANADIA its ok anyways). I wonder if that holds for keyboards too
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: Bry on Fri, 26 August 2011, 12:33:37: Quote from: ripster;405449
Nice way to destroy your screen.

You work for Dell?

Well I haven't gotten any results other than a clean screen, and I've been doing it this way for a long time.

AFAIK the monitor wipes you can buy have some kind of alcohol solution on them. Am I wrong?
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: Bry on Fri, 26 August 2011, 14:20:29: Quote from: ripster;405540
I use Klean Screen for the tough spooge. Normally a bit of water first applied to a microfiber cloth though. And I terrorize housekeepers that touch my bigscreen with anything else worse than a frenchman.

Alchohol IS a solvent, even the milder Isopropyl and Ethanol varieties. And Rubbing Alcohol in the USA at least has acetone as a denaturing agent.

The more you know...

I had no idea that there was acetone in rubbing alcohol. Damn lol
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: dj christian on Fri, 26 August 2011, 16:34:31: Why not use a microfiber cloth and a some destiled water? For the screen that is. Regarding the keyboard i don't have the slightest clue which fluid to use. Not after reading a few pages back it can wear the keycaps.
Title: How often do you clean your keyboards?
Post by: False_Dmitry_II on Fri, 26 August 2011, 23:28:11: I still prefer vodka.

But yeah, I generally don't clean my keyboards at all. The only time I do is when I get a new keyboard in that is used. The first mech board I got I used for 2-3 years exclusively and I don't think I ever touched it. Only a couple of months ago did I give it a once over with a mister clean magic eraser. If I ever bother to clean it (or if I figure out how to dye abs keys without killing them) it still needs a full disassembly and a dishwasher run.

I never did clean my original rubber dome, but it's still in pretty good shape, actually.

I only go all out and pop all the keys off, etc if it is horribly, terribly, untouchablely dirty. Or if I'm about to do a dye/paint run. Other than that I use the magic eraser, it seems to be by far the easiest way to clean one quickly (still for new-to-me used boards mainly).