How to Clean a Mechanical Keyboard

excellent what's up everybody welcome back to Pauls hardware today I am doing a tutorial video on how to clean a mechanical keyboard and there's quite a few reasons why you might want to clean a mechanical keyboard for one thing they're quite expensive or they tend to be much more expensive than rubber dome keyboards for that reason you might want to take some time to help extend their lifespan by keeping them clean of dust debris or other contaminants that might happen while you're using your computer or engaging other various activities before this purpose I have a Corsair Vengeance k95 which was a very nice mechanical keyboard which happens to have coffee spilled all over it I have no idea how this happened but whether you're talking about a spill like the one I'm dealing with today or just a lifetime of contaminants in debris that have built up on your keyboard keep watching I'll show you how to clean it up so first off I want to give credit where credit is due so big thanks to all the reddit contributors over at our slash mechanical keyboards in particular the keyboards spill guide that was posted there by rip store 55 this video here would not be nearly as in-depth as it is without their contributions so thanks to all you guys and links in the video description of course if you guys want to check it out if you're watching this video let's start with tools for the job and the job by the way if it wasn't clear in the intro is to clean up sticky stuff dirt grime particularly to free up stuck keys or keys that aren't registering properly as a result of dirt buildup or of spills so you're going to want some paper towels and or coffee filters I also recommend some q-tips or swabs a small brush or a toothbrush is also very helpful you're going to want some canned air or an air compressor that's just for light dusting and cleaning you can also use a vacuum across the top of the keyboard to get dust and light stuff that's not stuck off of there you want some cleaning solution and for this I just recommend a warm or almost hot water that's what's best to use if that is not strong enough to remove the sticky stuff then you will want some isopropyl alcohol and I usually dilute this with water so it's not as strong 50/50 mix can work quite well please note here for alcohol or other cleaners you might be considering for keyboards that have a UV coating it can cause discoloration so definitely try water first and if you're going to use alcohols or cleaners use them sparingly test them first to make sure they're not going to cause any problems with the plastic and wipe them off immediately do not let them sit on the plastic of your key caps you will also want to straw I'm also going to be using a colander and then you also might want a big bag of rice or kitty litter if you want to dry things out a bit quicker that's optional I'm not going to be using that personally here another optional item is a key cap puller again you don't need this but it can make pulling the key caps off a lot easier you might also want some lubricant this is another optional tool for the job and this is really only going to be necessary if you're using stuff like alcohol which can remove some of the lubricant that is on the switches and stabilizers that's all for tools for the job next just some quick notes on some other methods of cleaning besides what I'm showing you here today you might have heard that recommended to put your keyboard in a dishwasher and some keyboards I think Logitech actually has one where they recommend this for mechanical keyboards I do not recommend full liquid submersion or putting it in a dishwasher at all basically for mechanicals just stay away from that if all the other methods that are listed here have failed if you try them in the keyboard still not working then you can possibly go with submersion or a dishwasher method but again only as a last measure and if the keyboard was just going to be thrown away otherwise if you do put it in a dishwasher use a setting with as little or as low heat as possible skip the drying cycle please and then also make sure that your keyboard is fully dry for at least two to three days before testing and then if you're going with this method remember you're probably going to need to relocate the switches as well as the stabilizers another question that comes up is will I be avoiding my warranty by cleaning my keyboard for the basic message that methods I'm showing you here you probably won't but in many cases it will be yes you will void your warranty that's if you damage the keyboard which often isn't covered or if you clean off like late the labels or the printing or the serial number or something like that then you probably be able to get your warranty coverage let's begin with the tragedy I've just spilled something all over my keyboard kind of like the coffee that I totally spilled intentionally on this keyboard right that was intentional okay so if you spilled something on your keyboard first thing to do okay I'm plugging right away then you're going to want to flip it upside down drain out as much of that liquid as you can clean up as much of the spill as you can with dry towels or paper paper towels with that sort of thing and then leave the keyboard to dry the rest of the way you can go right ahead with cleaning but usually it's best to let it dry just to be on the safe side once you've done your initial cleanup after the spill it's time for cleaning step one is going to be to pull off all of the key caps you might want to look up a keyboard map or snap a quick picture of your keyboard first up so you can put them back in the proper order particularly if it's the only keyboard to your only computer but to pull off the key caps you can use a key cap puller if you have one of these available and I know not everyone does although a lot of mechanical keyboards will come with one that's the best method to use if you don't have that then simply use caution don't force the key caps off make sure that you're pulling upwards in one direction and that you're not pulling at a strange angle you want the normal keys to lift straight up off of the keyboard you might wiggle them a little bit if they're not pulling off immediately I recommend starting at the edges so you can get kind of a good grip on those and then if you have larger keys pull the key caps off around those so you can get better access to them by our mind that keys with stabilizers the larger Keys like a space bar or the enter button can be left on if they're not dirty or they're not sticky but if you do need to pull them off then use a little bit of extra caution because there's different types of stabilizers and you want to make sure that you can pull the key cap off cleanly without pulling the stabilizers off as well step two is going to be to wash the key caps and here's where I will be using the colander just take all the key caps you pulled off put them in a colander wash them thoroughly with warm water if they are more stickier there's more residue use some dish soap on them just a little bit and then make sure you rinse them thoroughly and as with everything here allow them to dry completely step three is going to be the tray or the base plate of the keyboard itself there's a lot of different designs for mechanical keyboards so they're not all going to look just like this but here I would just use some paper towels or coffee filters paper towels if you need more material coffee filters I like because they don't tend to leave quite as much fibers and then just warm water to start out again you're going to want to go with warm almost hot water for all the cleaning here initially and then only move on to something stronger if necessary you can use q-tips or swabs for the nooks and crannies of the keyboard and then make sure you use enough water just to get your cloth a towel or q-tip damp avoid dripping because you don't want to add more water or more liquid to the equation here watch out for the gaps that might lead through to the inside of the keyboard housing if the liquid or coffee or whatnot has gotten through into there you might want to consider a deep cleaning via disassembly but we're not going to be covering that particular method in this video step four is going to be to clean the switches themselves here's where you're probably going to have the most issue with stickiness and switches not working properly so first off just clean the exterior of the switch keep an eye out for LEDs if they are there but again as long as you're not using too much liquid you should be fine check for stickiness or residue on the exterior of the switch here you can use the hot water straw trick so just use your drinking straw get some warm almost hot water get a little bit of water in the tip of the straw and then push it down onto the switch then just span the key a bunch of times to get that water moving around and hopefully clear away any stickiness or residue you can also use a q-tip with just enough water or alcohol solution to get the tip of the q-tip damp you want to depress the switch down and then use just the tip of the q-tip or swab to clean the inside edges because the chances are that's where the stickiness is occurring if the key still sticks or it does not travel properly after you've dried it then you can use a small amount of the oil or spray lubricants that we recommended earlier in the video to free that up and again here if you're using oil or spray lubricant let it dry completely before you plug it in and do testing and then finally here for the switches are the stabilizers for the larger switches again here just clean it carefully with the swab and some water or you can use a 50/50 water alcohol mix if they're really sticky and again just use your best judgement because they're different designs for these make sure you clean them thoroughly but that you're not going to do any damage just be gentle and lastly for cleaning step 5 is dry time and this is very very very important do not attempt to test your keyboard even plug it in until it's completely dry two days is the minimum recommended dry time some people have recommended leaving your keyboard like out in the Sun or near heat source to speed this up I would say just be patient be safe don't leave it in the son because it could discolor your whole keyboard and then once your keyboards dry you can move on to testing so go ahead and replace your key caps and just the same way you remove them be careful don't use force test all the keys to make sure that they register after you've plugged in the keyboard and also that they're traveling properly you don't want to plug the keyboard back in and then find out you have one key that's still not working and have to go through the whole cleaning and drying process over again now if all of this process did not work if you've still got some keys that are sticky or not registering you're not completely out of luck there's some detailed notes on advanced methods of cleaning like fully disassembling the keyboard and removing the interior PCB or submerging it in a solvent bath or cleaning other types of keyboards such as rubber dome switch keyboards you can find those via the link to rip stirs cleaning guide from reddit's that's in this video's description so go ahead and check that out if you want some more information and that's gonna wrap it up for this video guys hopefully you've learned a little bit more about keeping your mechanical keyboard clean and free of sticky gooey goo enos because we know how that likes to work its way in there now if you found this video useful go ahead and click the like button if you'd like to see more of my videos go ahead and subscribe to my youtube channel and we'll see you all next time you you I'm Paul doing no I'm not what am I talking about stay whew hello yeah YouTube temp check hahaha

Channel: Paul's Hardware

Views: 2,899,353

Rating: 4.853044 out of 5

Keywords: how to, clean, keyboard, mechanical, cherry, mx, switch, how, to, mechanical keyboard, reddit, corsair, vengeance, K95, Paul, Paul's Hardware, @paulhardware, tech, Newegg, kyle, @foreverakyle, AwesomeSauceNews, pc, video, review, newegg, gaming

Id: Tw_tpElJbxY

Length: 10min 21sec (621 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 09 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/kaotikb]

I don't know about how you guys clean your keyboards. All i do is fill my bathtub up with water and let is soak for two or three days. Then i throw it in the dryer for 2 hours. Works like a charm every time, and you get that nice smell from the fleecy sheets.

[u/SockMonkey1128]

Water??? I'd never... don't be a cheap ass and buy some 90% rubbing alcohol at rite-aid or what ever for $2...

It's safe to use on like 99% of all electronics.

[u/DzyDzyDino]

Is the three-armed knife monster and knife fanatic key dryer part of his sense of humor?