is it safe to clean the model m keycaps with alcohol?

[Shyfe]

i already cleaned most of the letter ones with water and dish detergent but i wanted to wipe the ones like the shift and space bar that have a lot of crevices with rubbing alcohol. is this safe?

[InSanCen]

i already cleaned most of the letter ones with water and dish detergent but i wanted to wipe the ones like the shift and space bar that have a lot of crevices with rubbing alcohol. is this safe?

I've used Isopropyl Alcohol with no problems... (Hell, it better not affect anything, I use it on £2,000 camera lenses!)

IIRC this is just the posh name for Rubbing alcohol, a bit of googling will probably tell.

[Shyfe]

actually im pretty sure alcohol on camera lenses ruins the coating it has.

[bigpook]

I like to use 1:1 mix of distilled water and white vinegar. Works great on LCD displays too.

[nanu]

Almost the same as kishy; I have a spray bottle, and dilute 70% Isopropyl even more, by almost half.  I don't use it on LCDs, though.

[Manyak]

Why dilute it?

I've always used 90-something% alcohol for cleaning computer parts, it cleans better and evaporates faster that way.

By the way, Clorox wipes do wonders at cleaning plastic PC parts, even better than rubbing alcohol.

[MsKeyboard]

Manyak,
Great catch on the Clorox wipes.  I use them all the time, but never thought of cleaning keyboards with them.  Tried one out, and does not seem to bother the printing any.....Thanks

[quadibloc]

Isopropyl alcohol was used to clean older computer disk drives back when the disks were removable in things that looked like giant plastic cake covers. Rubbing alcohol is usually denatured (poisoned, so people can't drink it, so that liquor taxes are avoided) ethyl alcohol.

[rdjack21]

Majestouch recommended Simple Green.

I tend to agree with Majestouch Simple Green is a really good cleaner. Just make sure you dilute it according to the instructions. I keep a couple of gallons on hand all the time.

[keyb_gr]

I've used 94% denatured alcohol to clean up glue remains on my AT102DW with no ill effects. The case of a G80-1000 wasn't bothered by white spirit (though now I'd also use the alcohol there, as it doesn't have this nasty smell).

Normally concentrated dish cleaning liquid does a pretty good job though.

[timw4mail]

I don't think rubbing alcohol generally effects the types of plastics used on keyboards and keycaps.

I've used rubbing alcohol ~85-90% to clean keycaps, keyboards, and even my MacBook. I've not had any issues.

[MsKeyboard]

Sounds like Dudeism to me!

[MsKeyboard]

don't start posting in the Dudeism Forum

Gotta love this quote.........

The guy who made the video must be on a strict drug regimen

Imagine the places you can go in those threads....Later

[Mercen_505]

Back on topic (for a moment): I've used rubbing alcohol, generic brand glass cleaner, and even lightly gone over keycaps with Magic Eraser when they were seriously gunked up. No damage to report whatsoever.

[InSanCen]

actually im pretty sure alcohol on camera lenses ruins the coating it has.

Well, I use a 70% solution, and have done for a number of years.

Never touched any kind of coating yet, on any of my lenses (Canon, Sigma, Tamron, Carl Zeiss currently).

IMO, it's far better (Not to mention significantly cheaper) than a lot of the "dedicated" spray type stuff out there.

YMMV though, don't go nuking a nice lens or camera, just 'cos one person on the web hasn't had any problems.

[clickclack]

I use alcohol exclusively for the first cleaning(70% and 90% Isopropyl) of the key caps. I have used It on over 200 keyboards and way over 20,000 keys! And I have yet to have encountered a problem. I do not let them soak in a container of it ( for no other reason than I have no practical need to).

I also have used Comet on a little over 10,000 keys and have had no problem other than a light film left if I didn't rinse enough afterwards. Comet usually gets them to look bran spankin new!!! And lets say you have a film left (easier to tell by extensive touching or if the keys are black) you can easily wipe them off with anything you have laying around (even your fingers). I prefer to wipe them off afterwards with just a tiny bit of alcohol to give them that fresh out of the factory look =)

And a little note of caution, please dont use alcohol on lenses. I have a collection of old lenses for experiments and such and I have actually seen a surface coating degredation after wiping with alcohol on a couple of them. I would also be carefull since some lenses have front glued rear seated front elements (wow that was a mouthfull!) and I wouldn't want the solvent to seep under and mess with it.

[adrian-g]

Haha, I don't know if this is frowned upon here at Geekhack, but I just cleaned a bunch of old keycaps by prying them off and throwing them in a 25% rubbing alcohol/ 75% water mixture in a ziplock bag. If they are really dirty, you might want to add a few pinches of salt to help knock the dirt off.

[calavera]

Can't I just use regular soap and water to clean a bunch of dye sub key caps?

[gilgam]

There is a lot of confusion with the rubbing alcohol term

there is the standard alcohol (ethanol) sold at 70-90% and mixed with another toxic (and you get denatured alcohol) to prevent people from drinking it. It's the less toxic alcohol (if we don't care about beverages ;-) ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol
Cleaning with it seems to be safer but it's still a solvent and the denatured alcohol may leave some film, best is absolute ethanol (no not Absolut vodka) , way harder to find and much more expensive...

then there is the isopropyl alcohol, more toxic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isopropyl_alcohol

the most common choice is the ethanol, isopropyl alcohol is harder to find.

[BucklingSpring]

I was interested in what the camera guys had to say so did a search and found a chemist's view:

"NOT use rubbing alcohol, since many of these have things added for massage."

I dunno.  I'd use Everclear because you can drink it if the keys start melting.

Good advice from the camera guy, regarding added stuff in rubbing alcohol. Although the visual impact on lenses is much more dramatic than on a keyboard. You wouldn't probably notice the remaining film on a keycap. Just think fingerprints. Stick your thumb on a camera lense… You don't need to be a CSi expert to know what it does. Then take a sterile keyboard, press a key, any key… And ask a friend to tell you which key was pressed by inspecting the keyboard.

[audioave10]

When you first said "bang" and "Zooey" I thought...er....nevermind.

[BucklingSpring]

You sir have a dirty mind.  Get thee to /b/.

Funny coming from the guy who just wrote "Use UV light on your keyboard".

[BucklingSpring]

Have you noticed how well the Trackball DPI Measurement Thread is doing since you left it?

LoL - Grows like weed. It's out of control man. :-)

Your dunkey ball sucking monster is alive.