Are Keyboards Dishwasher Safe?

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? "

Re:The evils of soap

[Doddman]

so what about something like rubbing alcohol? or hydrogen peroxide? that would kill bacteria AND evaporate pretty quickly

Did it many MANY times.

[really?]

Not the dishwasher route though. I put them in the sink and wash them well; I usually use "Simple Green" as a detergent.

Shake well, or run a shop-vac over them after cleaning, and put them in a warm place with decent air circulation for the weekend. On Monday plug in, turn computer on ... NEVER one problem.

Re:Bad Idea

[coleblak]

I kind of do the same, though it's more pull off the keys, take off the top unit, then clean the top half of the plastic and maybe the bottom half if it needs it by hand. I can put most of the keys back on from memory but occasionally I just look at another keyboard in the house to get the last few I may not remember goes in what place.

Putting it in whole to a dishwasher just seems to scream bad idea. Who knows what hasn't been properly coated and will end up corroding in some way. Even putting in just the plastic makes me leery. I've seen some extremely hot water in units destroy some pretty sturdy plastic items.

Turns out F6 does have a use after all.

[Plug]

Good point about F6. It hasn't even been loved enough to be given a Function function on my Thinkpad T60.

Turns out it moves between focusable frames in Windows, and in Firefox, can be used to focus on the task bar - and hit again to focus on the page! Useful, yet unloved.

Someone needs to start a F6 fanclub. That key will get a complex.

Re:The evils of soap

[yuda]

I once accidentally put a USB pendrive through a washing machine cycle (cold with detergent) and dryer (hot spin). I assumed I would have killed it and lost some pretty important work related stuff. But no, after plugging it in a couple of times it mounted perfectly and is still working a year later.

Re:The evils of soap

[mnmn]

I'd question this.

I washed a few keyboards, most notably my IBM Model M.

Some did not quite work well afterwards and the plastic layers with copper encrusted in it must be cleaned carefully and dried. Rust forms on that layer fast (and so water was the more dangerous element in my case). If it is dried quickly enough there's no reason why it should not work.

Re:At last! A story *made* for slashdot!

[omeomi]

Ten years ago my step-brother was doing it often

I did it once. I dumped most of cup of coffee into my Microsoft Natural Keyboard a few years back. I took the whole keyboard apart...the keys come out in groups, and there's a dimpled plastic thing underneath the keys. Since I had it apart, it didn't take a particularly long time to dry...I waited a few hours, I think. Washing it didn't hurt anything, but the keyboard was never quite the same. Some of the keys were harder to press down for some reason, like there was more friction or something. I tried putting a little bit of Teflon lubricant on those keys, but it didn't really feel quite right after that. Over time it's improved, though.

Can't imagine why I would wash my keyboard often, though. People always get so scared when they find out there's germs around. That's why I have an immune system. My keyboard hasn't hurt me yet, so I'm not too worried about it hurting me in the future. Maybe if I get some sort of keyboard-born illness someday, I'll change my ways...assuming it doesn't kill me, I guess.

Re:Slight complication

[ezHiker]

One time I spilled beer into my laptop. The keys and mouse started behaving strangely, of course. After cursing profusely at myself, I took the laptop and placed it upside down on top of my my air conditioning unit outside with the keyboard facing the fan for about an hour. Worked perfectly after that...

I dropped a water balloon on my Apple ][

[PCM2]

I once dropped a water balloon onto the keyboard of my Apple ][+. That keyboard isn't just powered, it's attached to the computer. Water was all over the motherboard and everything else. And, being a little kid, I was bright enough to switch it on "to see if it still worked." It didn't.

But you know what? It lived. Dried it out as best as I could with a hair dryer and left it overnight, and it worked fine.

Re:At last! A story *made* for slashdot!

[Fordiman]

Every two months I disassemble my keyboard and run the plastic bits through the dishwasher. I hand-clean the little metal chachkis, and dust off the electronics. Then I reassemble. Works pretty well, I think.

Re:Anecdotal evidence

[ReidMaynard]

I just did this last year, but I let mine air dry normally for 4 days or so. Works great and REALLY clean. However, these days I seem to be migrating to Thinkpads. All Thinkpad keyboards seem to be a fairly isolated sub-assembly .. say I just remembered, I have a spare T22 keyboard...(bbiab)

Re:The evils of soap

[antic]

Funny you should mention this - my girlfriend put her iPod Nano through a washing machine cycle just this morning, including the bud-style headphones.

Still seems to work.

I'm not sure if that says more about the strength of the Nano or the weakness of the washing machine. ;)

Re:At last! A story *made* for slashdot!

[Architect_sasyr]

I would question the actual point of the cleaning. Everything that makes it onto my keyboard is either my own skin particles or foodstuffs or dirt/dust out of the air. Sure if you pop the keys off its pretty disgusting in there, but its also fairly cheap to buy a new keyboard every few months (haha until I get a wolf-claw). For me, at least, I know I'm the one person in my house who rarely gets sick... this could just be an immune system thing or it could be my disgustingly grotty keyboard/mouse combination.

My $0.02 AU

Think first!

[mikkelm]

Most keyboards have their leads printed on flexible plastic sheets that are screwed together with a metal backpane. If water gets inbetween these, it *will* lead to shorts and burnt leads, and your keyboard *will not* function.

Ideally, what you want to do is take the front part of the keyboard off, remove the keyboard controller PCB (Usually just three screws and you can pull it and the cord off,) remove the plastic sheet and the metal plate, and then just scrub the thing down with whatever you're comfortable with. Dry it off traditionally with a hairdryer or similar device (being plastic, it doesn't take more than fifteen minutes,) and screw the sheets and the controller back into the keyboard.

Voilá. Clean keyboard in twenty minutes tops.

Bacteria, fungi, and viruses are everywhere.

[Futurepower(R)]

It is sensible to clean keyboards because the dirt sometimes interferes with proper action. Your instructions are excellent for people who haven't cleaned electronic circuit boards before.

However, it is not sensible to worry about bacteria. There are bacteria everywhere, all the time. Whether there are 100,000 bacteria on every key or 1,000,000 makes little difference.

Slashdot editors seem to easily believe science fraud articles. Maybe they played with their Nintendo Game Boys in biology class, physics class, and, judging by the number of spelling and grammar errors, English class.

Re:Bacteria, fungi, and viruses are everywhere.

[BeaverCleaver]

Gah! My pet peeve. OUr ancestors may have had a 30year _life expectancy at birth_ but this is VERY different. Humans don't actually live that much older than our ancestors, but the _average_ life expectancy has increased because we have drastically reduced childhood mortality from things like birth complications and childhood diseases like polio, measles, diarrhoea etc.