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Spilt a drink on my keyboard - Cherry keyswitches washable?
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floobydust:
I spilt coffee on my keyboard for the umpteenth time :rant: usually it's water or tea lol. It's a Cooler Master Storm with Cherry MX keyswitches.

What I do is unplug the USB, take the keyboard apart and toss it in the bathtub, shower wand hose it down, which also flushes out the dirt, crumbs etc. Swear and cuss profusely.
Then I shake it off and let it air dry for a couple days or bake it overnight. This works fine, no problems after doing this a few times.

But I wondered if the keyswitches are actually washable? Their design is from decades ago. Today, a no-clean process would be used but in the 80's it would've had a CFC-113 solvent wash cycle.
From a random MX datasheet:
Flux:  Fry type GR8 applied by foaming.
5. Cleaning
A.  Fry GR8 is non-hygroscopic flux and does not require cleaning
B.  If cleaning is required on isolated areas such as finger connector, cold cleaning by hand with Alpha 564 is recommended. Care must be taken to avoid solvent entering the keymodule."

There is no Fry GR8 info, never heard of foaming flux application. For large through-hole parts, wash/vent holes I would expect or the keymodule gaps are enough  :-//
Just a curiosity. CherryMX.de is more about marketing to gamers they have no decent datasheets.
SiliconWizard:
Well, distilled water is probably no problem as long as you let it dry properly. But tap water... That's not so good IMO. Depends on were you live, but tap water always contains minerals and will leave a residue when drying. After doing that a few times, ...
ealex:
i've used alcohol to clean mine ... after it got soaked in beer (enough to trigger the USB over-current protection)
i did not use tap water, as it's very hard and highly chlorinated  - just disassembly, flush with denatured ethanol (way cheaper than IPA, but very hygroscopic), flush with clean IPA, then let it dry in a warm place.

distilled water might have been enough, but I did not have any available at that time.

it looks like it was enough to keep it working, as it happened more than a year ago.
bborisov567:
Type of water is not such a problem, it is just a switch, there is not sensitive curcuitry. Just make sure that you leave them to dry enough, at least a week at room temperature.
wraper:

--- Quote from: bborisov567 on December 28, 2021, 09:29:08 pm ---Type of water is not such a problem, it is just a switch, there is not sensitive curcuitry. Just make sure that you leave them to dry enough, at least a week at room temperature.

--- End quote ---
Actually switches are among the things most sensitive to contamination. Contamination on the contact surfaces will result in a bad contact. And nope, non hermetic switches are not washable, since cleaning agent will bring contaminants inside and then it's really hard to completely get them out from enclosed box.
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