Are Keyboards Dishwasher Safe? 534
i_like_spam writes "Computer keyboards are a breeding ground for bacteria. Studies have shown that keyboards often contain more bacteria than toilet seats. Common cleaning methods, such as pressurized-air canisters and damp rags, help remove some of the dirt, but they also leave behind plenty of grime. National Public Radio describes a recent experiment by a reporter who used a dishwasher to clean her keyboard. Following the advice on Plastic Bugs, she placed her keyboard in the top rack, didn't use the heated dry cycle, and air dried the keyboard for a week afterwards. Her keyboard is now squeaky clean and functions perfectly. Has anyone else tried this or any other alternate keyboards cleaning methods? For those not willing to air dry for a week, dishwasher-safe keyboards are now available. Would you ever do this to your peripheral? "
The evils of soap (Score:5, Informative)
So the modified checklist is:
1. Keyboard you can afford to lose.
2. No soap
3. Shake empty of water, then air dry.
Yes. (Score:4, Informative)
I've done this before. You can air dry it for only 24 hours in most climates, and a lot less if you're willing to take it apart after. If you use it before it's fully dry the worst that seems to happen is keys behave weirdly -- if that happens, it's not done drying yet.
At my current job I have access to an ultrasonic alcohol bath cleaner; that was quick and simple, and dried out even faster.
Compressed air nozzles also work well, though that's more for dust and debris and doesn't do much about the grimy stuff.
Re:The evils of soap (Score:2, Informative)
The key step (pun intended) is the air drying. As long as the water no longer bridges contacts, you're fine.
Re:A Week??? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The evils of soap (Score:2, Informative)
At my university (Score:5, Informative)
What IT does to clean the keyboard is much the same but probably less damaging. The have a big plastic box they fill full of water. They just immerse the keyboards for a few hours, lt them dry for 72 hres.
Everything is clean and they don't brake often with this method.
Model M (Score:1, Informative)
I also feel obligated to make a shout out to http://www.clickykeyboards.com/ [clickykeyboards.com] I'm not affiliated with them or anything, but when I emailed to complain about ordering key caps for a couple of keys I'm missing because they require minimum orders they said to just mail them a self addressed envelope.
So if your considering buying what is hands down the best made, most rugged, best and loudest keyboard on the planet please consider them.
Re:The evils of soap (Score:5, Informative)
Every printed circuit board we make gets washed in a sink with tap water then dried with compressed air. In over 20 years, it's never been a problem.
It could be more of an issue in places with harder water, but in that case ordinary distilled water would be a poor choice too. You really want deionized water as the ordinary distilled stuff is ridiculously reactive.
Re:Shower (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Easier Solution... (Score:2, Informative)
This would have no effect at all, nasty keyboards are caused by the food that falls on the keyboard.
Re:The evils of soap (Score:5, Informative)
Keyboards are dishwasher safe in the same way that flash drives or these printed circuit board are dishwasher safe.
If they can physically survive being immersed in water (I.E. they don't contain stuff that will dissolve) then the water won't destroy them.
The problem occurs when the keyboard is powered. The water will short every connection in the board and that will cause a very large problem. Someone will probably mention that you could use distilled water to clean it because distilled water won't conduct electricity. However, one website tried running a computer while it was immersed in distilled water. It worked for about 5 minutes and then the water started to dissociate and it shorted the machine out.
Bottom line, if you want to wash your keyboard then just make sure it's dry before you try to use it.
Re:The evils of soap (Score:3, Informative)
Re:At last! A story *made* for slashdot! (Score:4, Informative)
Anecdotal evidence (Score:5, Informative)
I can personally attest to the validity of dishwashing keyboards - I have seen it done (successfully) first hand.
About 10 years ago, my friend's mom complained that her computer was acting strangely. It would keep typing the same letters over and over again after a single initial keypress. My dad did some investigation and noticed that this happened on every program, not just the DOS prompt where she noticed it.
He pressed her on the subject of her keyboard, asking if anyone had spilled anything on it - to which she fervently replied "No". Being the problem solver he is, my dad had brought along his own keyboard to use in testing and lo and behold, everything worked just fine.
It was about that time (faced with evidence that it was a peripheral problem) that she admitted that there may have been some iced tea spilt on the keyboard a few days prior - but that she didn't think it was any big deal.
Since my dad had a spare keyboard anyway, he gave it to them in exchange for the tacky one. Once home, he did the very experiment described in the article. He ran the keyboard through the dishwasher (bottom rack) on low heat so as not to melt the keys. Then he propped the keyboard up in front of a floor vent to let the dry, air-conditioned air work on it overnight.
The next day, he plugged in the keyboard to discover that it was fixed! Back then keyboards had less gadgetry (no numeric side-pad or soft "media" buttons up top), but hey - a win's a win.
Re:I've washed mobos... (Score:2, Informative)
I have done this a bunch of times except I take the keyboard apart so you can really get the water out. Here is my web page detailing the process I use:
http://dkdk.homelinux.com/keyboard/ [homelinux.com]
Re:At last! A story *made* for slashdot! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:At last! A story *made* for slashdot! (Score:5, Informative)
when we assemble printed circuit boards the last step is to wash them in warm water to strip the flux used in the soldering process.
also when i get a gadget thats been dropped in the toilet (pagers are notorious for this) we tell the customer to pull the battery, put it in a bucket of fresh water.. and bring it over to the shop.
i have a 99% success rate reviving drowned electronics this way.
$0.02 from a electronics tech in the field..
Wash in de-ionized water (Score:3, Informative)
Printed circuit boards are normally washed in something like a dishwasher after soldering. A few components can't tolerate that, mainly some speakers, and they have to go on after the washing step.
But you have to use water with low dissolved solids, since, when the water evaporates, it's going to leave solids behind. Leaving streaks of iron behind is definitely a Bad Thing. So use distilled or de-ionized water.
Re:At last! A story *made* for slashdot! (Score:4, Informative)
The fancier way, apparently, is to wash it in hot water, THEN in almost pure alcohol (to absorb the water), THEN shake it *really* hard, to get rid of (now less pure) alcohol droplets. When late one night our (very experienced) electronics guy got to the last part I (more of a software kind) had to try to look the other way, you know, with the sickening feeling that this beautiful half-gold-plated thing will crack right there and then -- but it did survive just fine.
Paul B.
How to clean a keyboard without a dishwasher (Score:5, Informative)
Re:At last! A story *made* for slashdot! (Score:5, Informative)
I've washed keyboards before in the shower by hand (usually in response to spilling beer on them). this is preferable in my opinion. But some keyboard designs do not tolerate washing very well. For example my fairly pricey Sun keyboard was damaged with water because the watered corroded all the contacts (there were wide black streaks, making many of the keys unreliable). it took a good two hours with a pencil eraser to rub the corrosion off the contacts. although the stress or rubbing the corrosion off cracked one of the traces on the very fragile design, forcing me to buy a $15 conductive pen to repair it.
if you are going to washer it i would also recommend rinsing it with distilled water before letting it dry, a jug of that stuff is like a dollar. and possibly accelerate the drying process with a hair dryer on cold. not hot, unless you want to melt your keys, hair dryers usually get too hot too quickly.
Re:So cheap (Score:2, Informative)
electronics - water - alcohol OK but for plastic (Score:4, Informative)
The only issue you may have is, in general you'll have *non-electronics* parts around your board, e. g. an LCD display whose nifty plastic surface may well crack when in contact with alcohol: this is the main issue to take care of.
Alcool is technically said to "reveal constraints" in ordinary plastics, so beware about this...
Re:The evils of soap (Score:3, Informative)
Not at all true. In order to operate it without problems while it was immersed in water you would have to do all that. Once the water is gone, it doesn't matter any more. And the circuitry is simple enough it's unlikely to be damaged by operation while it's wet -- it just won't function properly.
I've washed my current keyboard three times now, twice in the dishwasher and once in an ultrasonic alcohol bath. The only ill effects are that the sticker on the back is fading and the plastic on one of the screw holes has partially stripped (thread-cutting screws in plastic aren't particularly reusable). All three times I've tried to use it before it was fully dry, and all that happened was a few of the keys misbehaved.
Saitek Gaming Keyboard (Score:2, Informative)
Do not try with white Apple keyboard (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Would I do this to my peripheral?? (Score:4, Informative)
my brother does it. as long as you rinse it properly to get rid of the soap,
and then give it some time to dry, it'll be fine.
some keyboards are based on several layers of transperent sheets for connecting the keys.
if that's the case, it's an advantage to seperate the layers slightly, to get more air through.
This doesn't only apply to keyboards, but to all electronics,
you can wash them if you remember to rinse them, and give them time to dry.
Also, never do it with a battery still attached, it's the electricity AND the stuff OTHER than water that kills the electronics.
Re:Would I do this to my peripheral?? (Score:5, Informative)
This is largely true. I'm a retired US Navy Electronic Technician and we used to have a dishwasher in the shop solely for washing electronic circuit boards taken from electronic test equipment. Most equipment is not harmed by exposure to water IF there's no electricity applied. That being said, take care and use common sense, especially if you're dealing with an entire piece of gear and not just a circuit board that's been removed from the equipment. In addition to batteries (and that includes small one's like computer CMOS batteries, which are sometimes soldered to the circuit board), be aware of speakers and other components which can be damaged by water. Some equipment may contain ferrous materials, which will rust or corrode. If you're comfortable with disassembling the equipment, it'll sometimes help both the cleaning and the drying. Even if you don't want to disassemble it completely, it might be advantageous to take the outer casing or shell off the gear after washing to aide in drying. (Be careful not to partially disassemble before washing if there are small or loosely installed parts that can be dislodged by the spraying water.) A heat lamp or bright sunshine will also speed drying, as will a fan. You can even place some boards in an oven at low temperatures. Again, use common sense! A strong heat lamp placed too close to the item or a hot oven can melt or deform some plastics. A couple of hours in the sun doesn't guarantee that all the water is evaporated from all the little nooks and crannies.
Re:Would I do this to my peripheral?? (Score:4, Informative)
My neighbor, who's a retired US Navy communications guy and possibly an ex-spook, convinced me not to either put it into an autoclave or throw the (rather nice) phone away.
So, a couple days later, he gives the phone back to me and it's working perfectly. Same battery, everything. He told me later that he'd simply disassembled the phone, hit it with his wife's blowdryer and a sun lamp and voila! He started telling me stories of electronics that had been rescued from much worse than just a dunking in a loo.
Even though there was nothing but water in the toilet when the phone fell in, I had a slight hesitation putting it to my ear for a week or so, but it worked just fine.
Re:Bacteria, fungi, and viruses are everywhere. (Score:3, Informative)
Fully agree. Additionally, the "more bacteria on your keyboard then on a toilet" is particularly inane. A toilet is a smooth surface that's regularly doused with bleach or other bacteria killing compounds. A keyboard is full of nooks and crannies that get packed with Doritos crumbs and little bits of Taco Bell meat and sprayed with drops of Mountain Dew. Which one do you think is going to have more bacteria?
In at least one school, there are more germs on a water fountain [foxnews.com] than on a toilet.