Cleaning your keyboard in a dishwasher?

[CorCentral]

They say this can be done but will take days to dry unless you pop all the keys off the keyboard. They also state they would'nt recommend washing wireless keboards.

Has anyone had any experience with this?

 

[Crono]

Sounds like an extreme measure unless your keyboard is horrendously dirty. Even then I would probably be more likely to replace it, seeing as I'm using the cheap Dell keyboard that came with my pc.

 

[toekramp]

was this article supposed to be posted on 4/1/07?

 

[Specop 007]

I wont speak to a dishwasher but I have used a sink.
Get one of the scrubber brushes, a bit of hot soapy water and just start scrubbing. Worked wonders on my keyboard, but I held it upside down to try to keep water out of it. Obviously with a dishwasher its going to get water, and lots of it, everywhere.

So, you can clean keyboards but I'm still not 1000% of using a dishwasher.

 

[xSauronx]

the only time i cleaned a keyboard i used some CRC and a number of q-tips because i wanted to be certain i wasnt going to mess anything up

 

[Bootprint]

I've disassembled my wired keyboard inorder to clean it. After a few years it gets pretty nasty.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

Not used the dishwasher, but once a year, or more often, depending on the amount of spillage, I will remove the innards, hose her down with agent orange, or soylent green, scrub with brush, and rinse with hot water, dry off well, and reassemble.

comma, comma, comma, Oh No! , theres a Boy George song in my head, IT'S IN MY HEAD,
Aiieeeee!!!!

 

[lokiju]

I just assumed that since it's the April edition, that it was a "April Fools" gag.

 

[Tremulant]

I saw that last night (mag arrived yesterday).

I figured that they were serious, but I'd probably only do that to a keyboard that I was getting ready to replace anyways

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

I clean my keyboards in the dishwasher all the time.

You just have to take the clear plastic circuitry sheets under the keys and any circuit boards out or they'll be damaged by the water.

Put it in for a few minutes, pull it out, and blowdry with a hair dryer it. Good as new.

Been doing it for years and I haven't lost any of mine yet.

Wireless keyboards? Rubbish. I've cleaned my Logitech Elite MX keyboard plenty of times.

- JaAG

 

[DrPizza]

I usually wash mine in the sink after taking it apart. I dry it on a cookie sheet in the oven, set to very low heat.

 

[Agentbolt]

I dry it on a cookie sheet in the oven, set to very low heat.

That's the only way this works. Stuff gets wet, stuff gets corroded. Unless you somehow dry it by evaporating the heat/living in an extremely dry place, the water damages the stuff it's in contact with for a long time.

 

[Rapidskies]

I just read that article and I believe they were serious. Dumbest advice ever. It could be done but how do you know when it is dry enough wait until it stops making a sloshing sound when you shake it? Also water and all the solder, metal connections in the keyboard = bad. They are going to have a bunch of readers ruin their keyboards with this one heh.

 

[atomicacid55]

It works. I just don't recommend it unless you take out the circuity. Copper corrodes. Come on. We all know this.

If you've taken any courses on corrosion, you would know that in oxyenated water which is what we are used to seeing, you're going to get corrosion of copper big time. You might as well just scrub the keyboard with the keys out. It's easier that way.

 

[marulee]

I do not see any problem washing the keyboard with the water. However, do not dry it with the hot air. I will distory the chipset.

 

[0roo0roo]

qtip + cleaning fluid/50% isopropl

i don't think its a great idea to immerse it in water, atleast from the ones i took apart there are layered sheets of plastic with printed circuits inside, if water gets inbetween these it will take a long time to dry, and will corrode before it does really. those who make it through the washer probably get lucky and water doesn't get that far into the case i guess. just clean normally and vacumn, or take it apart and clean it that way. just one or two keys no longer working because a contact is corroded ruins a kb i know, i tried it once

 

[BCYL]

It works, plenty of people at work here have done it successfully...

 

[eplebnista]

I generally just turn it upside down and shake/blow some canned air on it.

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

The IT guys at work here have done it before... although they only wash the top part of the keyboard with the keys still attached. Personally... when mine gets dirty, I just buy a new one. a $15 part just isn't worth cleaning for me, especially when it takes well over a year to reach the point where it would need it.

 

[oldman420]

for the amount of time and effort it would take I would just go out and buy a new board.

 

[jmolayal]

I've done this several times with my Microsoft keyboards. Always works wonders. I'm in consulting, so I usually do it right before I am going to be gone for a week or so...

Set it on the kitchen counter and let em dry out while I'm gone. Never lost one yet...

- Jaison

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: lokiju
I just assumed that since it's the April edition, that it was a "April Fools" gag.

That would be an expensive April Fools gag if a bunch of people ruined their keyboards.

Washing your keyboard in a dishwasher is an old, old trick. I've done it before. It doesn't damage the keyboard. It's the easiest way to get one clean.

 

[ShotgunSteven]

I know of people that have washed both keyboards and arcade PCB's in the dishwasher. Just don't use soap, and if you live in a place like I do where the water comes in regular and extra crispy (hard water), don't do it if you have the extra crispy variety.

 

[clamum]

Seems like it would work if you let it dry fully.

I've cleaned mine before by taking the keys of and soaking them in hot soapy water for a bit while I wiped off the main keyboard part. Dried the keys then popped them back on. Doesn't take too long and I didn't have anything better to do at the time.