Cleaning a Messy Keyboard: How to Tackle Q,Z & X Keys

[hypatia]

Its almost 1am here, I have just turned on a halogen light above my keyboard and OMG it is so dirty! Some, most used keys I would expect to be dirty, but the Q,Z and X? Now hopefully some one can tell me the best way to clean this mess?

 

[Phrak]

This could be a tough one. For mouse balls I've recommended drinking orange juice, and popping to ball in your mouth to give it a good cleaning and proper rolling stiction. I don't think this will work with a keyboard.

Disassemble the shells and pop it in the dishwasher.

 

[B. Elliott]

I've always used rubbing alcohol and Q-tips.

 

[hypatia]

Lol, thanks. Maybe I'll just turn the light off.

 

[Topher925]

Just take it outside and spray it down with the hose. It works for my car.

 

[Moonbear]

Lol, thanks. Maybe I'll just turn the light off.

That's certainly the easiest method. Otherwise, I go with B. Elliot's approach. Or get a keyboard with black keys so you can't see the dirt.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Buy a new one?

 

[zcd]

You'd expect z, y, x, c, and v to be extra used for the ctrl+ commands, but q?

 

[Phrak]

Actually you can clean them in the dishwasher. How do you think the fabricators cleaned them in the first place, in a ecologically friendly way? It will take a least a day to dry on its own thoug.

You could pop the keycaps and run them through a cycle in some netting, but most people will fail to get the spacebar and long keys reinstalled.

 

[B. Elliott]

Or get a keyboard with black keys so you can't see the dirt.

The primary reason I like black keyboards and mice!

 

[BobG]

You'd expect z, y, x, c, and v to be extra used for the ctrl+ commands, but q?

Actually you can clean them in the dishwasher. How do you think the fabricators cleaned them in the first place, in a ecologically friendly way? It will take a least a day to dry on its own thoug.

You could pop the keycaps and run them through a cycle in some netting, but most people will fail to get the spacebar and long keys reinstalled.

It works better if you take your keyboard apart and only put the plastic top with the actual keys in the dishwasher.

Lol, thanks. Maybe I'll just turn the light off.

I like that solution, too. Kind of like pasting a smiley face over the check engine light so you don't have to see that darn thing every day.

 

[BobG]

Its almost 1am here, I have just turned on a halogen light above my keyboard and OMG it is so dirty! Some, most used keys I would expect to be dirty, but the Q,Z and X? Now hopefully some one can tell me the best way to clean this mess?

I think it's similar to the carpet under the furniture accumulating more dirt than the areas that you actually walk through.

Body oils from your fingers attract accumulation of dirt, but some of the keys are routinely cleaned by transferring the dirt from the keys to your fingers.

Similar to depositing more dirt on the heavily trafficked areas of the carpet, but routinely picking the dirt back up on your socks, feet, clothes, hair, etc.

Eating while on the computer is a bad idea for more than one reason.

 

[hypatia]

I started doing the q-tip method, slow but its working. I didn't trust myself to disassemble it all. Thanks for the tips.

 

[turbo]

If you have the time to wait for drying, you can wash a standard keyboard in warm soapy water, rinse it with your kitchen sprayer, and let it dry. I have successfully rehabilitated keyboards inflicted with sweet coffee and soft drink spills that way.

 

[tyroman]

Last time I cleaned mine I disconnected it and turned it upside down over the kitchen sink and vacuumed it with the small brush attachment. Then, while it was still upside down, used a damp soapy wash cloth - getting into as many of the spaces between keys as possible, then used a non-soapy damp wash cloth to remove the dirty soap - then (while the keyboard is still upside down) used the vacuum and a hair dryer to dry it off as much as possible. This got "most" of the grime off - the rest I Q-Tipped.

Never have tried the kitchen sprayer - maybe next time...

 

[GeorginaS]

Similarly to tyroman, I unplugged my keyboard, turned it upside down over the sink and shook it. Then I vacuumed it. Finally, to get the gunk off of the keys, I used a miracle cloth that was dampened on one corner with warm water to wash and the other side of the cloth to dry. Those things work like mad.

 

[Monique]

At the office there is a general computer and that keyboard has a thick layer of grime on on it, do people that work on it really have such dirty hands? The keys were cleaned with ethanol about 6 months ago. Not to mention the display, which has sneeze-droplets all over it. I'm glad I have my own computer to work with, it's saliva and grease-free.

 

[Moonbear]

I think it's the people who are eating greasy food while using the computer that make those shared computers so nasty. I've never noticed them get quite so dirty in computer labs that prohibit food and beverages, just when they are in shared offices without such restrictions.

 

[MATLABdude]

When dishwashering your keyboard, make sure to turn off the heat dry cycle! (May also be a bad idea to put the keyboard on the lower rack next to the heating element).

\Owner of some deformed plastic that was once an original MS Natural Keyboard

 

[Borek]

Hm, I though it will be a kinky thread. Never mind.