Definitive Yay or Nay; Cleaning Keyboard in Dishwasher?

[ChrisA]

I feel a bit stupid posting this, but I'm assured by a techie friend of mine that I can put my Apple USB keyboard in the dishwasher, and that it will come out all spangly, with keys in tact, and fully working.

Is he having a laugh?

This can be done as a "last resort" effort if you get some sticky stuff inside and the keyboard won't work. Like say you spill a can of coke on it. The idea is that the dishwasher trick might just maybe fix it and you have nothing to loose because it's dead anyway. I would never put a funtional keyboard in a dishwasher as there is a better than even chance it will be non-funtional after.

The best way to clean them that I've found is to hold them upside down and a use a vacuum clear brush attachment. After that continue to hold it upside down and use 100% alcohol (the kind you get at the drug store for about a buck a bottle) soaked into a paper towel. It does a good job of desolving the fingerprint oil and dirt but you still do have to rub each key for a while. Do it with the keyboard inverted so that drops fall away from, not into the keys.

The dishwasher trick has about a 20% chance of bringing a dead keyboard back and maybe a 60% chance of destroying a good keyboard.

 

[fowler.]

i washed mine yesterday. keys feel A LOT better. now if they'd only work

seems like it's getting better though. yesterday, no response, today, keys work, but they're applying the wrong letters and too many strokes.

maybe tomorrow.

 

[DougTheImpaler]

heh, I had a feeling this wasn't going to end well.

 

[Koodauw]

Guys, my MPB keyboard and screen are starting to get dirty, It should be safe to toss that in the dishwasher too right? I mean ill take out he battery and all.

 

[Eniregnat]

I wouldn't do it.
If I were to soak a keyboard clean, and I have due to soda or rain damage, I do the following.

DI water(if you can't find deionized water, distilled will work) .
Several washings.

Finally, cleaned with 91% or better (97%-99% is optimal) isopropanol.
Usually, a spraying with a squirt bottle, and then with a final heavy rinse in isopropanol. Anhydrous isopropanol will wick water away and from a complex, thus "locking" up any of the left over water. It will dry your hands out.

The reason I question this is that a dishwasher doesn’t use DI water, thus leaving minerals and soap, heating will stress components, and any of the silicon lubricant that the switches have will be completely removed.

 

[mad jew]

If you've ever been in a dishwasher, you'll know that it's pretty hectic and wet in there. I don't think keyboards belong in dishwashers.

 

[Eniregnat]

Could somebody remember to repost this question on April 1st.

 

[jalagl]

A coworker once spilled liquid yogurt on his keyboard - minutes later it was crawling with ants.

What we did was to hose the keyboard, and then left it laying outside in the Sun for a two days. That was more than 3 years ago, and the keyboard is stil working!

I think the key is to let it dry completely before using it again.

 

[weg]

Post:
Ok this may sound strange, but trust me it works great. You will need a keyboard to borrow for a few days while the other keyboard dries.

Take your keyboard and put it in the dishwasher and run it through a cycle with NO detergent. Just run it throught the whole cycle, then take it out and hang it to dry for a few days. I spilled soda on a keyboard and someone told me to do this and I did, there were no stuck keys and it looked like new.

When I try this with my Powerbook keyboard, do you think I should take it off first, or should I put it into the dishwasher together with the rest of my PB?

EDIT: Oops, sorry, seems like Koodauw had that idea before...

 

[FoxyKaye]

Anecdotal evidence only...

We've had a few folks in the office have "oopsies" with various drinks over their keyboards. The worst was an entire cup of coffee. I thought, "for sure this keyboard's a goner." And, rather then spend time pulling it apart and cleaning the keys, etc. with air, rubbing alcohol and other items (BTW, the pulled off keys in a strainer really does work - I've tossed a handful of them on a paper towl and run them under running water), I thought, "what the heck, there's nothing to lose," and angrily ran the entire keyboard under a running faucet.

After sloshing the water around on the keyboard, running it under water until it ran clear, I turned it upside down and leaned it in a corner of my office. There it sat for a couple months, until one day I needed a spare keyboard and grabbed it to use on an iMac. Worked like a charm, no sticky keys, no input problems.

Didn't someone once say that rage is the mother of invention? Or was that necessity?

 

[Eniregnat]

Regular keyboards (PS2/mini DIN) are a whole lot more robust that the ones in our laptops.

I came up with my DI water and alcohol routine out of necessity. I actuality cleaned an entire PC this way, and it worked. I was on a job site and management had worried that the new POS system might get stolen. They locked it in an old walking cooler. The cooler filled with water, and we found the 286s floating in water. The POS terminals were sealed. So with water, alcohol, and a hair dryer, my partner and I managed to get the restaurant open on time. It also saved the company thousands of dollars. (Insurance was an issue due to time and due to the fact the computers were unpacked.) - I think I was raging at the time.

I use the technique on some control boxes in my recording studio, that routinely get doused with coffee and coke (The Tallent is tallented.)

I have never heard of using a dishwasher.

 

[chaos86]

my keyboard was dirty so i did this. it killed my powerbook!

 

[fowler.]

well, it works fine now. like, 4 or so days after I did it.

now, lets see how long it takes for a nano to come back to life

 

[flyfish29]

well, it works fine now. like, 4 or so days after I did it.

now, lets see how long it takes for a nano to come back to life

This doesn't surprise me. Everytime I have had someone recommend it that has done it has said you have to give it a week or so to dry throughly.

 

[yoyis]

help

hey i dont know what to do
i left a frozen bottle on my desk and at night it unfroze and the water ran down to my keyboard, and at first the keys were wrong but know when i connect it it makes a beeping noise and it wont work at all, what should i do?
should i just let it sit after all it was just water.

 

[flyfish29]

hey i dont know what to do
i left a frozen bottle on my desk and at night it unfroze and the water ran down to my keyboard, and at first the keys were wrong but know when i connect it it makes a beeping noise and it wont work at all, what should i do?
should i just let it sit after all it was just water.

Yes, let it throughly dry- depending on how much water it could take a few days. I would type all the keys a few times a few times a day to work out any water from the nooks and crannies of the keyboard. Never connect something to a computer that may have moisture in it still- not good combination- water and electricity~

 

[shipdestroyer]

I wouldn't wash it with dirty dishes/detergent and would probably disable the drying phase. If left to dry long enough it should be alright.

I'd still take it apart and clean with alcohol though

 

[eyebeaz]

I want to know who the first person was to try this haha the whole idea seems kind of crazy to me.

 

[itsallinurhead]

Just a couple days a go I totally pulled apart my entire Apple BT keyboard and cleaned everything. I put all the keys in a baskets and washed them with soap under hot water. The metal part will all of the buttons on it I kept dry, vacuumed, and wiped with a rag. The clear bottom I washed in the sink...some sticky stuff got in the cracks. And I wiped the bottom white piece. I did all of this and I had a brand-new looking keyboard onto which I put an iSkin. Now it will stay like this and I won't have to pull it apart again. I just have to peel the iSkin off every once in a while and wash that. I only wish I would have bought the iSkin when I first got the keyboard because it has some of those "shiny" spots on the keys from heavy use.

I love the iSkin and I recommend it to EVERYONE to protect their pristine white keys.

I have an iSkin on mine and I find it stupidly hard to press the spacebar.

 

[labmanok]

I was going to toss to Apple keyboards that are both USB. One is the white w/ pop-off keys. The other the aluminum, low profile.

I popped off keys and put in dishwasher and put the keyboard face down. I had poured alcohol over it and scrubbed both well before they went into the dishwasher.

Put in dishwasher and ran cycle quick wash in a kitchen-aid. Ran it through the drying cycle too. Then I poured alcohol and swished everything out.

I have a sauna & tilted it up and left in there for a few days. It was dry and I think the alcohol helped work as a drying agent.

Put keys back on and both work as if new. Every key now works well. I had dysfunctional keys and looked at it as having nothing to lose when I decided to run in the dishwasher.

The low profile aluminum has some tricks to getting keys on & off that is worth the time to watch on you-tube or google. If I did it again, I would try with the keys still in place.

It may die soon, but both work 100% and act as if brand new.
I had nothing to lose because numerous keys and even a space bar were not working. I was ready to buy a new keyboard.