Ergo Clears vs Zealios

[lunas]

I've been debating jumping in on the WhiteFox drop. If there were tactile Zealios it would be a no brainer, but those are long gone. Another option is to buy with clears and mod those to Ergos, but how close do the two feel?  I'm fine lubing since the work is part of the fun of a kit, but will the end result with Ergos be the same as a zealios? (after lubing 60 switches I may change my description of "fun").

I know the Zealios use a Gateron housing (and look awesome), but is there a noticeable difference in feel between Ergo Clears and Zealios assuming a similar spring weight? Anyone with first-hand experience that can compare the two?

[slickmamba]

zealios are significantly smoother compared to both modern and vintage mx clears lubed and springed the same way.  At least in my experience.

[steve.v]

Whitefox is nice; check out the preonic 50%. Maybe zealios will be available then; I would get zealios over modded cherry clears in my opinion.

[KaminKevCrew]

I would suggest you do what I did, and buy one of the kits. I bought mine with gateron clears, because I haven't yet tried them, and I wanted to have the keycaps.

I'm going to use different switches, those are just the ones I picked.

The reason I say that is that with zeal's new interest check on the cyan/aqua zealios, it looks like there might be a new GB that will have the clicky switches, and the tactile ones, since he will be making an order to gateron regardless.

As such, I suggest you go for the white fox, then grab the zealios when they become available again, as they almost certainly will. With how fast zeal did the first group buy, I wouldn't be surprised if you were to get the new switches by the time the white fox gets to you, what with the fact that at this point you'd be waiting for some time, since it will be with the second run of boards.

[lunas]

You've all convinced me it's worth it to jump on this drop now and keep a lookout for zeals in the meantime. Ergos are still tempting but it seems like purples are worth the wait. Plus, like KaminKevCrew points out rightly I might even get switches before the white doc anyway. Thanks for the feedback.

[Rayoui]

As others have said, the Zealios are quite a bit smoother than lubed Ergo Clears. However, after doing a build with the Zealios I found that the stems are a bit too wobbly for my liking, particularly with SA profile keycaps. I ended up going with Ergo Clears for my B.face build. Some people aren't bothered too much by the looser stems. You'll just have to decide which is more important: maximum smoothness or a tighter feel.

[Findecanor]

zealios are significantly smoother compared to both modern and vintage mx clears lubed and springed the same way.  At least in my experience.

I got Cherry MX Clear sliders, lubed them and put them in Gateron KS-3 housings. Unmodified purple Zealios are still smoother.

[asgeirtj]

Zealios are much smoother and better than ergo clears imo

[lunas]

I lucked out and got in on the WhiteFox with 67g Zealios, so I'll get some firsthand experience with these in few months. It will be interesting to see if I notice the wobbling you mentioned Rayoui. Maybe the stock caps won't have the same issue.

Down the road, after some more soldering time, I may convert my current MX Clears to Ergo for comparison. My Pok3r is plate mounted though. What a pain to desolder everything.

[sintklaas73]

Panda-clears lubbed feel great IMO. What exactly is different with this switches compared to the classic gateron's? Is the stem fully re-design so that the tactile bump is more pronounced?

[E3E]

I prefer worn-in lubed "vintage" ergo clears over Zealios, but I have to admit that they are very similar and that Zealios are smoother out the box.

Linear Zealios, the less talked about variants, feel practically as good as vintage MX blacks though.

[kishagi]

Why do I feel like I messed up by not buying more Zealio Switches??