I spilled a cherry smoothie on my keyboard - Please help!

[TFace]

I have a Corsair Vengeance K70 Cherry Red mechanical keyboard, and I spilled a cherry smoothie onto it.  The good news is all but 8 keys are still good.  The bad news is that I can't get the remaining keys to lose their stickiness.  I've repeatedly flushed them with professional grade alcohol, used my Sonic Care toothbrush to try to brush inside the switches, and blown them out while still saturated in alcohol with compressed air all to little effect.  Short of buying a soldering setup and completely removing the switches, do I have any options?  I've considered trying to inject a little silicone lube into the sticky keys, but I'm not sure how effective that will be.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[PointyFox]

You spilled red Cherry smoothie into a Cherry red keyboard?  )

Alcohol doesn't dissolve sugar well.  You'll need to use warm water.

[litster]

Welcome to GH.  What a double cherry entrance! 

To Fix the remaining keys, you may want to de-solder the sticky switches, open them up, and wash them real good, if the rest the electronics are not shorted.  That is the only good way to fix it. 

[TFace]

I have no experience with soldering anything.  Is it something I can learn to do via Youtube pretty easily?  Buying the necessary equipment will probably cost a lot less than buying  anew keyboard.  lol

[PointyFox]

So should I take it apart and then soak the board the keys are soldered onto in distilled water?

No.  It would be difficult to remove the water afterward and your board may become damaged if you don't.   If I was you and didn't want to do any soldering, I'd repeat what you did with the alcohol using water, then repeat it again with alcohol to flush any excess water out.

[PointyFox]

I have no experience with soldering anything.  Is it something I can learn to do via Youtube pretty easily?  Buying the necessary equipment will probably cost a lot less than buying  anew keyboard.  lol

Yes.  Soldering is easy.  The tools you'll need will run you around $6-$13.

You'll need something to heat up the solder, and something to suck up the solder.

You best choices are :

Soldering iron with built-in desoldering bulb (cheap and easy)
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062731


Soldering iron + solder sucker  (cheap)
http://www.amazon.com/Elenco-Electronics-ST-12-Soldering-Tool/dp/B0002LLWZY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392623733&sr=8-1&keywords=soldering+iron

[dorkvader]

learning to solder and desolder is pretty easy: you can certainly learn from a youtube video.

If you just want to solder this one thing, the cheapest option is to borrow a setup from someone else, but you can get a "firestarter" type soldering iron for about $10. Soldering braid will help in removing the switches, but isnt strictly necessary. A small amount of solder is also required. I recommend getting some from someone to buying some: it'd take such a trivial amount to solder just afew switches.

Also, if you live in the same country as another GH'er, someone might offer to replace the broken switches for you. Not sure if it's worth shipping your keyboard twice, though.

And if you plan to be doing some soldering after this, I would use it as a good opportunity to invest in some at least decent equipment.

[PointyFox]

learning to solder and desolder is pretty easy: you can certainly learn from a youtube video.

If you just want to solder this one thing, the cheapest option is to borrow a setup from someone else, but you can get a "firestarter" type soldering iron for about $10. Soldering braid will help in removing the switches, but isnt strictly necessary. A small amount of solder is also required. I recommend getting some from someone to buying some: it'd take such a trivial amount to solder just afew switches.

Also, if you live in the same country as another GH'er, someone might offer to replace the broken switches for you. Not sure if it's worth shipping your keyboard twice, though.

And if you plan to be doing some soldering after this, I would use it as a good opportunity to invest in some at least decent equipment.

I would not recommend a desoldering braid.  They are very difficult to use. 

Extra solder is required for desoldering if you try to suck up the solder and fail to get it all.  You'll need to apply the solder again because a sufficient amount is required for good suction.
Of course you'll need solder for when you resolder the switches to the board. 

You can remove the switches with just a soldering iron.  What you do is touch the tip of the iron to both the switch contacts at the same time, while pressing the switch out of the PCB.

[niubio]

I have a Corsair Vengeance K70 Cherry Red mechanical keyboard, and I spilled a cherry smoothie onto it.

That quote made my day Double cherry shot. Welcome to GH TFace!

If you really don't want to desolder switches (although that's the best way to do it), you can open them one-by-one from the top, and clean the inside with cotton-wool tips + alcohol/warm water + hot air to dry it up. There are special universal electronic "contact" atomizers that dissolve spilled liquids, they may help also.

[dorkvader]

learning to solder and desolder is pretty easy: you can certainly learn from a youtube video.

If you just want to solder this one thing, the cheapest option is to borrow a setup from someone else, but you can get a "firestarter" type soldering iron for about $10. Soldering braid will help in removing the switches, but isnt strictly necessary. A small amount of solder is also required. I recommend getting some from someone to buying some: it'd take such a trivial amount to solder just afew switches.

Also, if you live in the same country as another GH'er, someone might offer to replace the broken switches for you. Not sure if it's worth shipping your keyboard twice, though.

And if you plan to be doing some soldering after this, I would use it as a good opportunity to invest in some at least decent equipment.

I would not recommend a desoldering braid.  They are very difficult to use. 

Extra solder is required for desoldering if you try to suck up the solder and fail to get it all.  You'll need to apply the solder again because a sufficient amount is required for good suction.
Of course you'll need solder for when you resolder the switches to the board. 

You can remove the switches with just a soldering iron.  What you do is touch the tip of the iron to both the switch contacts at the same time, while pressing the switch out of the PCB.

I have desoldered entire keyboards with just braid. It's not that bad.

It's true that you can remove the switch with just an iron, however, I would not recommend it to a beginner, especially on a KB without plated through holes. It is easy to damage the traces with the cyclic applications of heat and force. Even one slip-up can damage a trace: turning an easy repair into a complicated one.

Still, it's up to the OP what they decide to do. I can only offer my advice. Hopefully this is solvable without desoldering, but if desoldering is required, I would want to help the OP solve this problem with as small chance as possible of making it worse.

[meiosis]

Are cherry smoothies good? Actually sounds pretty good as a slushy

[varslot]

Haha, this is too ironical to not laught. Good luck with the keyboard though!

[fohat.digs]

Soldering iron with built-in desoldering bulb

I have never used on of these.

How do you get the solder out of the bulb when it starts to accumulate?

[margo baggins]

learning to solder and desolder is pretty easy: you can certainly learn from a youtube video.

If you just want to solder this one thing, the cheapest option is to borrow a setup from someone else, but you can get a "firestarter" type soldering iron for about $10. Soldering braid will help in removing the switches, but isnt strictly necessary. A small amount of solder is also required. I recommend getting some from someone to buying some: it'd take such a trivial amount to solder just afew switches.

Also, if you live in the same country as another GH'er, someone might offer to replace the broken switches for you. Not sure if it's worth shipping your keyboard twice, though.

And if you plan to be doing some soldering after this, I would use it as a good opportunity to invest in some at least decent equipment.

I would not recommend a desoldering braid.  They are very difficult to use. 

Extra solder is required for desoldering if you try to suck up the solder and fail to get it all.  You'll need to apply the solder again because a sufficient amount is required for good suction.
Of course you'll need solder for when you resolder the switches to the board. 

You can remove the switches with just a soldering iron.  What you do is touch the tip of the iron to both the switch contacts at the same time, while pressing the switch out of the PCB.

I have desoldered entire keyboards with just braid. It's not that bad.

It's true that you can remove the switch with just an iron, however, I would not recommend it to a beginner, especially on a KB without plated through holes. It is easy to damage the traces with the cyclic applications of heat and force. Even one slip-up can damage a trace: turning an easy repair into a complicated one.

Still, it's up to the OP what they decide to do. I can only offer my advice. Hopefully this is solvable without desoldering, but if desoldering is required, I would want to help the OP solve this problem with as small chance as possible of making it worse.

Seconded! I have desoldered entire boards with braid. Braid absolutely gets you the cleanest finish, even if I'm not desoldering with braid (I have a vacuum powered desoldering station now) I still use braid to clean up.

I definitely wouldn't recommend taking a switch out with just an iron - if there is a decent plate you simply don't have enough arms to disengage the clips holding the switch into the plate, push the switch, and desolder two joints - plus, if you have an iron with too much load that is going to trash your pads.

If you are a newbie stick to low wattage irons - 25-35w. too many watts used badly will kill your pcb!

If you are in the UK send it me I will swap a few switches for nothing.

[TFace]

Wow, thanks for all the replies.  I can tell this is a good community.  I'm glad I could give you guys a chuckle which the double cherry shot.  lol

For the record, I don't like cherries, so I don't particularly care for the smoothies, but I drink them for health benefits (helps fight gout).

I think I'll try getting a soldering setup.  It's something I've wished I knew how to do more than once, and I love learning new things and starting new hobbies.

[tricheboars]

never a better reason to get rid of that l33t gamer board. get yourself something classy now.

[Jixr]

corsair keyboard is borken?

Nothing of value was lost.

[TFace]

The K70 isn't good?  What do you recommend?

[Pacifist]

The K70 isn't good?  What do you recommend?

For backlit boards? Ducky

[heedpantsnow]

The K70 isn't good?  What do you recommend?

They're just ribbing you, it's a matter of taste.  Corsair boards aren't known for outstanding quality, but they're not total crap either.