Apple keyboard cleaning

Eucalyptus oil might work tangent23 but I hold absolutely no responsibility for missing letters.

I remember reading somewhere that eucalyptus oil was a really effective natural cleaner. It works well on glass from experience, but I have no idea about PowerBooks. It might be worthwhile trying a little bit of it out on the underside of the keyboard so if any damage is done, it won't be noticed.

ha!

it seems to be slowly rubbing off through use so it's all good..

i might try eucalyptus oil with my white keyboard at work, it's looking a bit grimy.. plus it'll smell nice and fresh!

OK...Everyone keeps saying just to put the keyboard in the dishwasher...will this work with my wireless BT keyboard?

tangent23 said:

hi..

was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to remove texta [permanent marker] from a AI powerbook keyboard?

it's not too bad, but it ruins the nice clean look of my GF's PB [which she hasn't seen yet btw]

will methylated spirit mark the keyboard?

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I've used meths on a keyboard to remove permanent marker and its been ok, but I'm not going to guarantee it.
But you could try a metal polish like Brasso or Silvo (UK names) - I think the liquid content of these act as a solvent, so you shouldn't need to rub hard. Failing that try any computer cleaner type product (eg screen wipes) as they all contain a solvent of some sort.

One more endorsement for the full water treatment. I don't have a dishwasher, but I took my wired Apple keyboard into the shower and submerged it in the tub for a bit. Swished it all around.

It's kind of embarassing what happened to it; but I'll tell the story anyways as a warning. I spilled a bit of coke in my keyboard, just around the E/R/D/F area. It was only a few drops really, so I didn't worry about it. The next morning when I was checking my e-mail, I pressed the E key. Next thing I know, about 20 ants come swarming out of the keyboard. I scream like a little girl, grab the cockroach spray and thoroughly douse the keyboard in toxic chemicals. Ants are dead, so that's no problem. But I still have this concoction of coke, bug spray and dead ants stewing around in there. So that's where I just thought I may as well entrust my keyboard to the water gods.

It took about 3 days to fully dry. I just shook all the drops out first then leaned the board against the wall. I couldn't help myself and 'peeked' (plugged it in) on the 2nd day. I thought it was OK, until pressing certain keys would invoke strange combinations. Example; pressing G would make a row of //////////////// appear. So be patient! And trust me, the water thing works.

I'd just get an iSkin and not bother cleaning them. Ever. Tho I would clean the iSkin.

WTF!!! KB+Dishwasher!?

What about all the USB connectors, and chips and all that electro-mumbo-jumbo... And does it work with PC KBs?

wash and wear

Hi, I was an electronics manufacturing engineer for many years, and one of the first jobs I had involved circuit board assembly for an IBM sub-contractor. How did we clean the newly assembled and soldered boards? yep- we put them in a dishwasher (KitchenAid, if you must know).

So, cleaning a keyboard in the dishwasher is perfectly fine, but do give them time to dry, although it's a low power device, so there's no big danger if there's a little moisture.

I wouldn't do this with wireless, though, unless you know for sure that that part of the device is well sealed from moisture.

Alright, I've read enough. My wired apple keyboard is going in the dishwasher this Wednesday night. I'm taking a trip for a few days to Chicago over the weekend so it should give it plenty of time to dry out by the time I return on Sunday. Maybe I'll leave a fan on low and keep it blowing for 3 days towards the keyboard to make sure all the water gets out.

I did the dishwasher to success with two usb keyboards. Anyone want try the BT though?

so I shouldn't put my Apple Bluetooth Keyboard in the dishwasher, right? I think I'll remove all the keys and just clean the keys and the surface area of the keyboard, rather than submerge the whole thing.

thank you all

bbowens said:

Hi, I was an electronics manufacturing engineer for many years, and one of the first jobs I had involved circuit board assembly for an IBM sub-contractor. How did we clean the newly assembled and soldered boards? yep- we put them in a dishwasher (KitchenAid, if you must know).

So, cleaning a keyboard in the dishwasher is perfectly fine, but do give them time to dry, although it's a low power device, so there's no big danger if there's a little moisture.

I wouldn't do this with wireless, though, unless you know for sure that that part of the device is well sealed from moisture.

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I got to say this is the post that convinced me
I cleaned my dirty-from-2years mac "white" keyboard last week with the more conservative technique of popping all the keys and washing them in a bowl with some soap, then q-tip the "body", let dry, etc etc - so I did, took me forever, but worked very well.
Then, yesterday, one week later, beer got spilled on it!! all over it!! so I decide to go for the dishwasher after I read this, I didnt have the patience to do the whole q-tip thing again. i put it in there after popping the keys where beer was spilled, left the others on the keyboard; wrapped lightly the cable around kb. light wash, no dry cycle, kb vey warm at the end tho, loose keys too but fine. I shook it and gave it a quick low dry from a hairdryer at a distance (I've done that before with wet electronics, like a sony vaio spilled with water - turned off, unplugged and no battery of course!). But I thought Id rather wait than risk frying it. So, I'm going on day 2 of drying, and so far almost all the keys work, I'd say, 70% work perfectly. I'll let you know the progress. I saw a video where a guy had his keyboard dried with a fan, gonna try that overnight, looks like its gonna be working tomorrow (fingers crossed);

It works!! Perfectly! every key
space bar is a bit "touched", but Im guessing this is from popping it and putting it back again so many times... the important thing here is that I can tell you, dishwasher is safe for a mac keyboard (haven't tried the new slim macbook-like model though!)

Nice! But I probably shouldn't do this for my Wireless Keyboard (M9270LL/A). I bought it recently from a friend to use with the Mac Mini 1.83ghz C2D that I purchased back in January off of Craigslist

i want to clean the surface of my wireless BT keyboard, what product could i use that wont remove the key lettering ?

m.fuller said:

i want to clean the surface of my wireless BT keyboard, what product could i use that wont remove the key lettering ?

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I'd like to know this too (btw, on a unrelated note, my batteries are low already on my keyboard - should I be manually turning this off when not in use?)

Question:Can.I.do.anything.myself.to.fix.this.problem

I.spilled.milk.into.my.keyboard..the.spacebar.doesn`t.work.now...

Is.it.doomed?..notice.I.use.the.period.(.)instead...but.it`s.a.pain!!

TexasSue said:

I.spilled.milk.into.my.keyboard..the.spacebar.doesn`t.work.now...

Is.it.doomed?..notice.I.use.the.period.(.)instead...but.it`s.a.pain!!

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Apple doesn't cover water damage. Buy another keyboard or seal it in a huge bag of instant rice for three days.

Sticky Keys

I have had beer spilled on to my keyboard and now a few of the keys are very sticky and sometimes stay stuck down. I have a macbook and feel a bit uncomfortable taking it apart—unless of course this is the only option.
1. Does any one know of any mac certified specialists that could clean it for me in the Guelph Ontario area?
2. If not, is it safe to take my macbook apart in order to clean the keyboard?
3. What is the best way to clean it if I do take it apart (I've seen people talk about dish washers but I don't have one)?

Removing Permanent Marker

tangent23, the best way to remove perm. marker is to write over the perm. marker with a dry erase marker and then wipe clean. You may have to do this several times, but it works great.

cgratti said:

Take your keyboard and put it in the dishwasher and run it through a cycle with NO detergent.

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Nermal said:

And make sure it's not a hot wash

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Gonna revive this thread to say that I actually just did the opposite of both of those pieces of advice with my wired keyboard. That is, I ran it through a normal hot cycle (about 115 minutes) with detergent. The keyboard was actually too hot to handle when the cycle was done. But, to be clear, it was hot from the temperature of the water, not from any heating cycle. My dishwasher doesn't have a heating element in it.

I used the detergent because of the sticky bits and random gunk that was caked up and splattered on the keyboard and underneath the keys. The U key in particular was stuck and the volume up key had a glob of Mrs. Butterworths on it. Good stuff, that Mrs. Butterworths.

I wanted to be sure to get all that crap off, so I used detergent. I washed it on a Sunday and it was completely dry by Thursday. I'm typing on it right now. Looks as good as new. This is the keyboard for the iMac. The one for the Mac Pro gets washed this weekend.

asif786 said:

hehe, i know - it's disgusting when you can see crumbs and things like that right under the keyboard..eugh.

now i just change my wireless keyboard every three months. it's not cheap but it saves the time of opening and cleaning. obviously not the best solution, but great if you're lazy!

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And got money to burn!

I just cleaned mine, and it took me less than 5 minutes.

I unplugged the keyboard (it's a corded with numeric keypad), wet a cloth with an eyeglass cleaner (I am sure any general purpose cleaner will do, eg. Windex), and rub the keyboard with it. Then I rinse the cloth and wring and wipe the keyboard. You could dry it with a dry cloth after this step, or leave it alone for a few minutes to air dry.

It's pretty easy.

I use a silicone cover that I got from amazon with black keys

From Kb covers