Spilled Soda on keyboard for the first time

[retta283]

(not sure if this is the right place, but looking for quick help) I have always been very, very careful about these things. Today I was in a hurry and was setting up my second monitor, and while I was I bumped a can of soda that was left on the desk by my nephew.

A good chunk of it spilled right into my keyboard. Luckily, the machine it is plugged into was off, so there was not power to the keyboard. I quickly attempted to recover it. I tried to shake/bang soda out of the keyboard, getting quite a bit out. I then wiped the keys down with dry paper towels. I am extremely worried about the survival of this keyboard, it's a very very old one I've had since 2003, and it's a personal favorite of mine.

How long should I let it sit for? Any further cleaning I can do short of removing the keycaps? Any tips/suggestions at all are appreciated. This is one of the worst disasters I've had with tech. I am very careful usually.

 

[AZhappyjack]

(not sure if this is the right place, but looking for quick help) I have always been very, very careful about these things. Today I was in a hurry and was setting up my second monitor, and while I was I bumped a can of soda that was left on the desk by my nephew.

A good chunk of it spilled right into my keyboard. Luckily, the machine it is plugged into was off, so there was not power to the keyboard. I quickly attempted to recover it. I tried to shake/bang soda out of the keyboard, getting quite a bit out. I then wiped the keys down with dry paper towels. I am extremely worried about the survival of this keyboard, it's a very very old one I've had since 2003, and it's a personal favorite of mine.

How long should I let it sit for? Any further cleaning I can do short of removing the keycaps? Any tips/suggestions at all are appreciated. This is one of the worst disasters I've had with tech. I am very careful usually.

You probably need to have it professionally cleaned. Soda is sugar, acid and other chemical compounds... and those chemicals will be heavy with residual gunk... in the case of soda, the moisture is the least of your worries... corrosion is not your friend.

 

[velocityg4]

I'd disassemble it. Given the nature of the components. Some may be susceptible to damage from contact cleaner or high proof rubbing alcohol. So you may want to use something weaker such as 70% alcohol.

Really once it is fully disassembled. You could wash it with distilled water and dish soap (not dishwasher detergent). Water doesn't kill electronics by itself. It's when the electronics are energized while wet that water causes a problem. Due to short circuits. It's gentler but takes longer to dry than 70% alcohol.

If this is a desktop keyboard. It can be fully disassembled for proper cleaning. Although some of the screws in the back are covered by stickers. For a laptop. The amount of possible disassembly varies.

 

[retta283]

So my curiosity got the best of me, and I plugged the keyboard back in. Seems to function just fine, I did a test of all the keys and they worked. Only issue is the 0 and 9 on the top number row don't depress normally, the rest do. I will clean that out. Luckily the design of this keyboard leaves the main board almost entirely isolated, so the only thing it can touch are the keycaps/mechanism. For it to seep through it would have to find it's way through the dome, which is unlikely due to the depth and keys being present.

If I clean it and it works, great. It may fail down the road, but I can eat the cost of it. Just another double to have...