The best way to clean your keyboard

A quick warning: Don't use hair driers on anything other than the coolest setting and from a bit of a distance... I once had a student at the Uni I used to work at come to me with a melted laptop keyboard - asking if I could help... well, yeah, don't use a hot hair drier! Muppet!

Originally Posted by jhbellsh
A quick warning: Don't use hair driers on anything other than the coolest setting and from a bit of a distance... I once had a student at the Uni I used to work at come to me with a melted laptop keyboard - asking if I could help... well, yeah, don't use a hot hair drier! Muppet!

Well it depends on the power of the hair dryer. The expensive one yea, the ones you find at the local or small pharmacy... not so much.

Well I finally took the step to clean my keyboard also. Took it apart, went to the window, and blew a part out :( Took me 20 minutes to find it in our garden, after I found out that I really needed the rubber spring under the space bar :|

Greetings!

Originally Posted by Flibblebot
Not to sound like some crazed fool, but you do realise that this over-reliance on antibacterial products - something wholly created by companies like Unilever that produce said products - is probably to blame for the increase in allergies seen over the last 10-15 years?

Not to mention that bacterias get more resistant to those anti-bacterial products, making them harder to kill.

I usually clean my keyboard with a cloth and alcohol.

I use the vacuum cleaner for crumbs.

Off with the electronics, out in the garden.

3/4 inch stiff bristled paint brush and a hose with a jet setting on the nozzle. I don't care that much about bacteria, so probably not the 'cleanest' way, but a hell of a lot of fun, for cleaning a keyboard.

My uncle has (or had?) this funky foam stuff. Whip the keys off, stick 'em in a jam jar or something (about a third of the keys at a time), spray the foam in, shake like you're having a seizure in your arm, rinse and repeat. They got very clean very quickly.

Originally Posted by Smilodon

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matticus
The dishwasher one surprised me a little at first, but I guess it makes sense.

If anyone is interested Tesco sell a 350ml can of air, "Fellowes Air Duster" for about £3.50. The cheapest I found in my local Maplin was a similar sized can for £12. And Whsmith for £9.

Don't buy those Fellowes cans! They blow! (haha... )

Seriously, though. They don't produce enough pressure to do anything. You only get very short bursts from it because the boiling point of the liquid is too low. When the can cools down the liquid stops to evaporate.

PRF have some good products in this section, but they are a bit hard to come by apparently.

CRC also makes some, but I don't think i have tried it.


Just buy a small air compressor. (WITH a tank!) Works great, and is reusable as long as you have power. :)

Thanks for confirming the Tesco offer is still going. Sure the pressure's no great shakes but if you can afford two of them who cares - they did both my PCs inside and out and both my keyboards before running out - for 8 quid, bargain.

In case I get bored of recycling aerosol cans, what's the going rate of an air compressor with tank? Is that something Maplins would have?

Annoyingly/ironically - only a few days after writing this feature, I spilled milk and cereal all over my keyboard - my nice shiny new Microsoft 6000 Wireless.

I immediately turned it upside down and whipped the batteries out. I then took the shower head and while it was still upside down, I hosed it down (milk smells naaaassty when it goes off). Still upside down, I dried it off with a towel and then blasted it with the hair drier for a little bit. Then I left it over night, still upside down, to dry.

I kept it upside down so none of the fluids could penetrate into the electronics. Put the batteries back in this morning and it's, well, just lovely!

Actually, now I'm in the market for a new keyboard, but I prefer heavy travel to the point of microswitching, as I learned to type on a really heavy typewriter. Argos sells keyboards like this for only a fiver (the ones that look like they're rebranded by Dell) but you have to keep the room dust free otherwise it'll help take the labelling off the keys over time.

So if anyone knows of a wired, PS/2 keyboard with keys raised at standard to high profile, that you can strike hard and get a solid response back, let me know, at the moment happy to go up to 20 quid. If it has to be USB then I can live with that.

Otherwise I'll just buy a plastic dust cover at the same time as the new Argos one, and vacuum my lounge twice a week...

Originally Posted by thehippoz
the newer microsoft keyboards come apart pretty easy- even designed so you can spill water all over it and it'll run out the bottom.. the innards don't get wet.. they should design all keyboards like that

they're not entirely foolproof.

i've killed a keyboard or two designed that way in beer-related incidents before

back on topic: similar to the dishwasher method, taking the top half of the keyboard to the bath/shower works wonders also :)

After thinking about it for a while, I have a bunch of dead keyboards or only half functioning ones at work, Any requests or testing you want me to try before I take them to the gun range?

Off topic.

Epic Fail:
http://pages.infinit.net/eps/fail.PNG

I use canned air to get out any big stuff stuck under the keys (not much because I don't eat around my computer) and the come Q-tips and rubbing alcohol and go around each key to get it clean

Originally Posted by The_Beast
I use canned air to get out any big stuff stuck under the keys (not much because I don't eat around my computer) and the come Q-tips and rubbing alcohol and go around each key to get it clean

alcohol makes plastic deform and turn smooth.

my keyboard is nether deformed or smooth

thanks for sharing and for reminding...my keyboard desperately needs it!

I'd say use a hairdryer for 2x5 minutes, 2 days in a row, and it's dry.
5mminutes of hot air heats up the keyboard enough to let the water vapor faster!

I tend to just throw mine away and buy a new one :)

.

Anyone considering Cyber Clean may be interested in checking Amazon for a cheaper price (£5.80 compared to Firebox's £7.95 at time of posting).

You can fully submerge any PS2 keyboard in a tub or bucket and have at it ! I prefer to use sink with a hose ! As for a USB keyboard... well I haven't gotten one dirty enough to have a rinse session.

Air Compressor + Vaccum + Brush.

THEN use paper towel + water and a cloth to dry.

ya
If old then its better to buy a new one but if working fine then clean with cleanser...!!!.

Originally Posted by Flibblebot
Why the focus on antibacterial cleaners?

Not to sound like some crazed fool, but you do realise that this over-reliance on antibacterial products - something wholly created by companies like Unilever that produce said products - is probably to blame for the increase in allergies seen over the last 10-15 years?

I admit that a dirty keyboard doesn't look paricularly nice, but it's unlikely to be the cause of any serious infection. Short of a dust and a shake every now and then, I don't clean my keyboard at all, and I have yet to succumb to the keyboard plague :p

I have to say thats all i do to! i have never caught the keyboard plague ether!!!! :>P

Originally Posted by jeffaree
I have to say thats all i do to! i have never caught the keyboard plague ether!!!! :>P

You're dicing with death then. :) If a dirty telephone can wipe out an entire race just imagine what a dirty keyboard could do?

how does this fit into the mods section?