Keyboard in a Dishwasher

umm, no. A place I used to work at cleaned newly assembled circuit boards in the dishwasher, though.

bhankiii, Your answer is incorrect. If you had checked the link provided by Paddy you would see evidence that someone has tried cleaning their keyboard in a dishwasher.

Paddy, why did you ask a question that you obviously already know the answer to?

???

Is it foggy up there in Washington?

The question is : Has anyone tried cleaning their keyboard in a dishwasher?

Presumably "anyone" refers to anyone reading this forum, not anyone in the universe.

The answer is : No, I have not.

I didn't need to click the link - I read the story this morning.

bhankiii,

My interpretation was too literal and my reply hasty. Posters should attempt to choose words that express the intended meaning. I believe that your presumption was correct.

Cheers, Ace

Ace,

So far we have only deduced, for certain, that bhankii has not cleaned a keyboard in a dishwasher. We still don't know about you my friend. In fact we don't even know yet if Paddy has tried it or not.

As for me, I have not. However I have used my Ingersol-Rand compressor to encourage watever creatures residing there to leave.

-John

John,

I have not put my keyboard in a dishwasher. My Keyboard is an integral component of a laptop computer.

Nice signature, I collect salmon.

So that's how I got blown outta there!!!

I did put my cell phone through the wash one time. Cost me a new cell phone.

Did anyone here try to warm their ice-cold cell-phone in the microwave oven during the last winter?

Did anyone here try to cool their coke bottles in the freezer last summer?

Did anyone here try to warm their friezed coke bottle in the microwave?

Did anyone here ever read past posts and threads?

Close to 20 years ago I helped a fellow clean computers in an elementary school. The keyboards were so incredibly gunky that we decided to soak the lot of thirty or so keyboards overnight in a plastic garbage can full of soapy water. The next day several changes of clean water, then compressed air to dry them out. As I recall, a couple of them actually worked immediately. After a week of California summer to dry them, they all worked!

Now that was when keyboards actually had a true switch at each key, and there were holes in each keyswitch that could allow water to get in and out. With today's membrane switches, it is much harder for the water to get out, if it does get in, so I wouldn't recommend it now.

On the other hand, if you just spilled your favorite beverage into the keyboard, you don't have a lot to loose... But I still don't like the heat and pressure of the spray in a dishwasher. I'd try lukewarm low pressure water with a small amount of detergent and a toothbrush, then clear water (ideally distilled), followed by low pressure compressed air. If it's a laptop, remove the keyboard from the computer before trying this!!!

Dick

In my sordid career, I have lost several keyboards to spillage. Whether coffee, cola, or just plain water. Days and weeks after the spill, these boards were erratic and eventually had to be put down.

Other than a damp (not sopping wet) cloth, I wouldn't expose any keyboard to liquids. This may have just been my luck, but why push it.

I think that the shorts are caused by the sugars in the soft drinks, I've had the same problem with a remote control which was ok after a good clean. The moral is to only drink strong beer in which all of the sugar has been converted to alcohol.

I was going to recommend black coffee, but perhaps the laid-back beer drinker is less likely to spill things than the jittery caffeine addict.

Not yet.

It might work unless the keys dislodge. You may end up with a AWDXFQ keyboard.

Will a mouse survive?

That's funny, my keyboard has always been AWDXFQ. Is there a new kind out that I don't know about?

We had a disgruntled ex-employee break into one if our offices and left objectional bodily....stuff... on a keyboard a few years ago. We were going to just throw it away, but someone gave it a good scrub in a sink full of hot soapy water, left it to dry for a day, worked perfectly. Of course, no-one wanted to use it.......

Wouldn't recommend using a dishwasher - the water temperature would be too hot and you need to alter the flow direction to get into crevices.

I used to tell my engineers that they had nothing to lose if a soft drink had been spilled onto the board - wash it under a warm tap for several minutes and then stick it under the hand-dryer in the toilet to get rid of the water. Coke will eat through the copper tracks in 24 hours rendering the board BER. Coffee and tea aren't so bad.

Most keyboards will be full of 'fluff' and congealed food which is a nightmare to get out so plain water will just congeal the mess even further and really annoy the bench technician who has to clean it up. I suppose if you were desperate you could make a good soup by boiling up a couple of keyboards. (They should ban keyboard/ callcentre operators from eating food while talking on the phone - we had one guy who virtually 'pebble-dashed' his monitor with biscuit spatter and the keyboard was so bad that the keys were sticking together).

Don't use IPC cleaning fluid on the key-caps - they melt!!!!

Sounds like a job for my pressure washer!

May seem kimd of a pain but, why don't you just pop off the keys, vacuum and brush out the "congealed junk", then place the keys into a mesh bag and run them through the dish washer? There are even super whammy-dine cleaners designed specifically for electronics which you can use on the body of the keyboard while the keys dry... Get them at your local radio shack or better yet order them from Newark...

I did that once & was amazed at the amount of congealed crud hidden under the key caps. I guess it's a mixture of spilt food, dead skin & sweat. After I pulled all the caps off I cleaned the keyboard with soap & water and rinsed it under a tap. It worked fine after an overnight dry off.

My keyboard looks failry clean. After reading this I popped off my space bar. It is time for a new keyboard. There's probably a half slice of bread worth of decomposing crumbs in this thing. Ick!

Yeah,

I actually did that once and it took me way longer then (when I was young and poor) than I would have the patience to endure today. I'll just go buy a new one!!

Mike

That's true, with keyboards at £5, why bother?

I just blow the hell of it with compressed air (takes care of the crumbs & dust) and then clean the keys with an isopropyl alcohol soaked cloth which takes care of the bacteria/grime stuff.

I have an old keyboard with issues. I'll try it tonight and report my findings. This sounds like a good project for "Myth Busters."

Been a while since my last comment. My "Dell RT7D50" will never function again I'm afraid to say. I took it out before the Heat/Dry cycle and allowed it to air dry for three days in an air conditioned room, upside down (mostly). Afew keys work. The rest FUBAR!

The keyboards I recondition are shown in the manufacturer's price list at £775 each new, so well worth recovering. They are nothing very complicated - 30 PB switches and a keyswitch in a plastic moulding, but they are unique to one system and still in general use so its a case of off with the button caps and in with the brush and soapy water then a bit of soldering - c****y job - but it keeps industry rolling! My mass produced computer keyboards by comparison are so cheap that they're not worth looking at or wasting a dishwasher tablet on.

My dad used to run PC boards thru the dishwasher after I stuffed em and before potting them in resin. While conductive fluids cause probs w/ energized electronics and high voltages, a keyboard in the dishwasher is neither - it probably doesn't see more that 12V.

For that matter, anyone concerned about nasty detergents may not have worked with solder flux- a nasty detergent if I've ever worked with one. If your dishwasher leaves a glass or an aluminum pan clean with no scale on it from hard water, I'd expect the same for a PCB. If the dishwasher doesn't warp tupperware on the dry cycle, I expect a keyboard will be fine as well.

I'm 2.5 for 4 on immersed & rinsed electronics:

1. Digital watch- Multiple immersions, always happy once dry
2. Digital multimeter- single immersion in basement sump, happy once rinsed & dried w/ hairdryer.
3. Canon A1 SLR - This apex of 1970's camera technology was never happy after being left out in the rain for a while. Happily, with the rush to digital bodies, this was replaced for $59.
4. Nikon 990 digital camera- Orange juice in one of the switches, it worked for a couple months, sporadic operation since then.

I've got an old pentium box. Now I want to wash the mobo and see if it works.

As for manufacturers recommending cleaning in the dishwasher- no of course not. Even if sensible, claiming that you can wash a keyboard in a dishwasher would have to be validated by expensive testing, and no doubt would result in significant liability exposure. Someone will surely hurt themselves or their dishwasher, or the terrier that they were washing at the same time in the process.

I only have one data point - a cable modem and a glass of cognac. I'm 0 for 1.

Spilling Cognac is sacrilege!!

THAT's why you lost your modem...

No doubt. I tried rinsing it out with distilled water and letting it air dry - no good.

The worst part was when the cable guy came to replace it and he says, "Whad'ya do - spill a drink on it?"

Some things are fussy.

But then again, we wash our assembled PCBs under heavy "rain" (in-line washer) and forced -air to wash the water soluble fluxes and they work just fine afterwards. We even wash all the "regular" (no-clean flux) boards before conformal coating to remove the fingerprints and other oils and never had a problem with them functioning.

I was just sad to hear about the wasted Cognac...

Yeah it was good, too - Pierre Ferrand Reserve.

Here is the companys link to vid . I am still puzzled over why they had to tell people not to try this with ordinary keyboards.

Great link. Following the Fox bit, it's clear that ordinary designed keyboard wouldn't work coming out the dishwasher, probably because of residual moisture on the PCB, leading to erratic shortening of the key-matrix.

They might even be worried of electrical short circuits, or just so told to say by the gizmo's originator.

If you look around there , you will see the mouse. I think it says that the mouse wheel sort of pops under a hatch for washing.Think how much icky stuff is left on the wheel. You are right about the possible shorting problem for the unwary , but I was thinking they might crack the keyboard whilst trying to bend it into the dishwasher. In fairness , the clip did illustrate that the keyboard must be unplugged.

"...the clip did illustrate that the keyboard must be unplugged..."

בחיאת ראבאק (Hebrew slang for "Seriousely"), You think?

Serious + think ?It does not compute.

Yuval,

Well after much observation my only conclusion is your dog is in dire need of a cigar!!

Then do what I did and teach him (or her) to drive and you have a way to keep your pet happy and you get a chauffeur!!

I can't even train it to stop pretending it's me, let alone teach it to smoke or drive.

No, but I have done this with 100% success on keyboards and other PC B's.

1. Remove loose dust and debris with 1" paint or cleaning brush. Blow with less than 30 lbs compressed air or don't get close with higher pressures.

2. Use Windex or similar cleaner - spray and brush if necessary repeat.

3. Use De-ionized or distilled water to completely rinse.

4. Blow or shake excess water away.

5. Place in warm environment at about 120 to 175 degrees F. A great place is the exhaust of an air conditioning condensing unit! Exercise all keys several times during the drying time. If it is a membrane several hours is needed to completely dry. It must maintain the temperature long enough to evaporate all the water.

Nope, but have taken pressure washers to keyboards and associated components and assemblies after being immersined in "water" from various sources at various times. This ncludes backed up drains, flooded roofs, fires and other "incidents".

As long as whatever got wet was not on at the time or allowed to dry the chance of recovery is in the high 90 percentile.

As long as they are kept damp, rinsed with clean water and final rinse with either distilled or better yet isopropyl alcohol as a water displacer / dryer, then they are recoverable.

It is the various salts, acids or just plain electrolysis of the metals that destroys electronics that normally would have survived.

If you steam your salmon in the dishwasher, don't clean your keyboard at the same time. Also, if it's a wireless KB, please remove the batteries first.

Keyboards in the dishwasher eh?

At the factory where I work, we regularly take off a keyboard every month and replace it with a spare. The pulled out keyboard then gets dismantled and cleaned very meticulously. They're opened up, remove the key-tops and cleaned with compressed air, a toothbrush and cleaning cloths. Cleaning one takes a good part of a day.

Once, someone suggested that we use flat, membrane keyboards. No problem with spills since they can't get inside. Easy to clean, just wipe off with a cloth, damp or dry depending on the condition. Problem was, they were so difficult to type on. One of my technicians quipped,

"Sir, these keyboards were made to be cleaned, not typed on"!

A washable keyboard would be nice.

Don't worry. As we speak, Tupper Ware is coming out with a line of keyboards I just know you'll love. Can I put you down for a hundred?

Oooo! A Tupperware party! My wife would love that! I'll have to make sure that she gets the keyboard first before the food containers.

These gadgets look nice.

My wife sometimes tries to save me doing stuff myself ;

I predict it will not be long before people where surgical gloves around the office. There are plenty of real germ threats , and even more imagined. I suspect many are just waiting for somebody else brave enough to do it first. I suppose it could be argued that increase touch sensitivity is advantageous. It's no wonder that so many people get ill - they don't develop any immunity in childhood nowadays. I've even heard of paranoid celebs taking their own cutlery to restaurants. A 50 cent 'disposable' keyboard would sell like hot cakes. Shame about the environment , but it would happen.

Only if they came on a roll.

OK , so you already put in a patent application for a roll dispense. The boxed price comes in about right. You can where new ones every day now. I need to practice my spelling.

About 5 or 6 years ago, when we had only one computer at home, I could not prevent my kids form playing their games on it. No matter how many times I asked them to wash their hands before touching the keyboard, the consequence was (no need to say) always the same: bread and potato chips crumbs, marmalade and any other unimaginable fluids where all over the keys. "Space key, arrows and Enter" looked the worst. Sometimes keys got stuck because of all this dirt.

I did not try the dishwasher; simply took a screwdriver, disassembled it, washed the keys in the kitchen sink using warm water, detergent and a soft brush. Also did the same with the plastic foils that have the contacts for each key, as well as with the back cover. I left the parts drip excess water, and dried using a hair dryer (not to close to prevent plastic from melting). Once dry, I assembled it again, and connected it to the PC. IT WORKED perfectly well !

All the process took about half an hour, and I still do it every once and then when the keyboards of any PC I use get dirty with lint or dust.

I really recommend this procedure!

Why didn't you just get another keyboard for your pups to use?

Why didn't you just get another keyboard for your pups to use?

I just did it for the environments sake: why throwing something away just cause it is dirty: do you have your car washed...or you get a new one every time it gets dirty?

What about your shirts and uderpants? Are they also single-use?

Should I have applied the same to my pups, I have to had them replaced 3,565 times in the last 10 years! That would had been far to expensive

Check this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-waste

No. Just when they wanted to have at your PC, unplug your keyboard and let them use theirs, marmalade and all.

Just as easy to rinse it under a tap.

do you have your car washed...or you get a new one every time it gets dirty?

Brilliant ! (vermin will probably say he does though)

Let me add something here.

Perhaps this is because I'm an American, but most families own two cars. It's somewhat of a necessity. Anyway, by the time the kids are ready to drive, you don't give them the keys to your BMW (or whatever). The kids get to drive the 10 year-old hatchback POS.

Wouldn't a scrounged up keyboard for your kids have solved a lot of frustration and effort?

Not sure. Somebody has to move the gunked up kids-keyboard around. OK , so wireless is going to help but not totally. What about the power button on the computer , drive eject button , mouse-mat trauma syndrome. The possibilities are endless.

I go for the more benevolent-father 'touch my computer , and I'll *%^***% you ' approach. The other one is , 'use the cheap second hand one I got you ' admonition , rounded off with the 'I've blocked naughty sites' choker often coupled with 'I log where you surf' .

Yeah yeah, tried all that. These are kids er are talking about! Kids + computers! What chance do we stand?

Only allow access when they know the basics.

I saw a documentary a while ago about Chinese children using the abacus in school. They could perform quite complex calculations at speed using it & eventually, they only had to imagine the movements of the beads in the frame so that they could do these calculations without any aid.

It's staggering how fast people can get with an abacus, and also the types of calculation is amazing. There are scores of different types used around the world. As you say, many can adapt well to using mental imagery to use them. Wow.

Suan pan, Roman abacus. The Greek abacus is somewhat different.

The use of electronic calculators in schools leaves a yawning gap in students fundamental understanding of mathematics. A host of other so-called 'peasant techniques' exist.

I have an old, beautiful, fifteen year old original, metal-made chassis, with keys of real action, not the membrane crap, rugged, IBM's PS2 keyboard, with the softest, most positive tactile key action you can imagine, which works beautifully with any of today's PCs.

Yes, you may admire at you leisure.

Peanuts anyone?

Your excellent Avatar just isn't smug enough!

Your avatar do look somewhat shy lately. It does it's effect though.

'No worries mate', as masu would have probably said, I can only presume. Only kidding masu, only kidding.

Like this ?

Or perhaps one of these would suit Sir ?

A stylish two-piece ensemble perchance ?

Where do you get these? I often wondered about your hunting skills. The is some high-end demand for web-searching abilities. No laughing matter.

There's nothing refined in my technique , I never read a book on it in my life. My liking for trivial connections has it's purpose. Maybe I should fully sell myself , as this is just custard glooping off a mountainous treacle pudding. Anybody want to bid for custard ?

No, no. I was surfing Amazon and Yahoo a week ago, and saw this 1650 $ challenge to bid for the best on-line answer to customer's questions. I'll look up for it, to be a reference here. Anyway, I paged through the questions and saw one perfect for me to answer, and tie some useful links to it.

It's not much different from some of the writing we do here, only for good money. The questions were on infinite range from "How do I turn my vinyl LP's to Music CD's using my Desktop PC" to "Is there any sense in re-painting may kitchen laminate, or should I have to install new ones" those kind of questions.

Well, as I thought it's called "Yahoo Answers"

I was here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Amy7R42kzbdWcLypuFx94Lt07hR.

Somewhere around here, to start with:

http://answers.yahoo.com/my/profile_create?from=http%3A%2F%2Fanswers.yahoo.com%2Fmy%2Fmy

Not a bad idea for GlobalSpec to davel with, I mean, "Professional Engineering Advice For a Fee"

Are you with us on this, Mr. Chris Leonard?

Is there such a service already running on Globalspec?

Are you trying to get rid of me ? Anyway I didn't see the magic words -.

You could always post something in the commercial section , a sort of 'Ask Yuval' type thing. You can do the pimping and give me a commission for giving punters 'assistance'. Personally I'd like to operate 'Insultinator' , a pay per slap sort of place. Trouble is , it may not be regarded as being in the spirit of CR4 to charge people (or insult , even if they ask for it ). We may have to set up our own site I think. Also I just enjoy dishing out odd bits of useful info *, not to mention tickling peoples toes.

* I did this once somewhere , I'm sure I did.

See, there you go un-pimping me again. My suggestion was not for CR4, but for GlobalSpec the CR4 Big-Daddy. If they gave birth to Something like CR4, they cannot be all bad now can they?

As to your suggested fee folks, first, stand in line and take numbers, to divide the game that hasn't been bagged yet

Geeeez

Somebody's a sourpuss. Did I pee in your milk dish ?

If you want a fee higher than stated, you need to go through the proper channels: Pink triplicate for reasoning, my cut in advance, slipped in a plain brown envelope, and an advanced agreement fee for the guy in the official hat.

My cut should never be Herring, only Mackerel. De-boned properly. What am I, one of your average ruffians?

You know I'm like this during this (pay) time of the month.

The links provided, assuming your member registration to yahoo.

I didn't take that into account when providing them.

For a hardware solution to computers , try here . For the less energetic ,this solution is offered.

OK, so there does seem to be good proof that if one takes care, a keyboard can be cleaned and washed. However, that's a little off-topic... What about the keyboard in the 185° degree water with the caustic dishwashing powder?

Paddy's question does leave room for interpretation beyond yes or no answers. Any particular reason for 185⁰ ?

It's supposed to "quasi" sterilize your dishes.

You must have nice clean plates and stuff , this says that restaurants may go to 180 for H&S reasons . Still it would clean the keyboard better than a washing machine , even if it doesn't have fast spin.

I wash mine at 190C SO WHAT?

I take it you like the free-form type of keyboard... Hey didn't I see your keyboard hanging over the limb of a tree in a painting by Dali?!

Dammit ! I thought you meant Kelvin . Now I've got frostbite , and all it did was slow the bugs down. And my keyboard cracks up all the time. It just isn't funny you know.

Hey! Wasn't "Keyboard in a Dishwasher" a song by the Police?! I can almost hear Sting now!

You're thinking of "Massage in Bootle"

Potato - Patato

i think they other one to- 'giant shleps are what you get..' (i cant reember rest ).

And you really think he will reply to that...

The enter key on my keyboard (main set) had a funny feel and did not work. but I got used to use the enter next to the num-keypad.

I eventually opened the key and found a dead bug underneath it. I debugged all the keys and sprayed it with doom. it worked fine.

Type of bug? - must be of the MS species.

How did he or she got there? - Installed or evolved?

I have washed all kinds of elestronic devices in water/ dishwasher. The key here is that in the temporary presence of liquid you can have a short circuit, but if you displace/ dry the moisture before introducing current, you will be ok. When I was a cell phone tech i used to wash really filthy construction workers phones in the sink with simple green and hot water (disassembled, minus lcd display), drench in alcohol, and blow dry and style. I have actually cleaned a dell keyboard that got a mtn dew spilled in it with Mr Clean and hot water, still works perfect after 2 years

OK, Forget cleaning your keyboard, what are you going to do about this one?

Hot Keyboard

That was cool! For a while I thought it was a sculpture or something. Looked like a collection of colored stones arranged in keyboard fashion.

I was wondering how they got the printing so nice looking when I saw a piece of metal sticking out.

I think I'll get me an old keyboard and put it in the oven for a few miinutes and create a nice conversation piece!

Has anyone brought up the fact that all the letters needed to spell typewriter are in the top row of letter keys? Supposedly, this was done so that typewriter salesmen could type "typewriter" without pecking around.

Yes, I thought it was a work of art at first! Apparently it was in a timber mill or similar that was set alight by arsonists. I think it would be very difficult to get the temp etc exactly right to get this effect again. In fact, any one got any idea's about replicating it?

This would be the easiest keyboard to keep clean.

You just know that's going thru the washing machine in your jeans pocket...