keyboard in dishwasher?

[mountaineer]

I was told to clean an old, nasty keyboard by placing it in the dishwasher. Has anyone else ever heard of this? Oh yeah, I'm supposed to take it out before the dry cycle.

[Cricket]

I've heard about it, but never tried it.

:) Cricket

[fragmyster]

good idea if you dont want to use it any more the water will get up inside the plastic divders and your keyboard wont work, i know from experance my roof leaked onto my keyboard and my brand new logitech wireless keyboard would not work, even after i dryed it out.

[mountaineer]

Lets call this an experiment. Curiosity is killing me so here we go. I'll report back on what happens. If it doesnt work, its not a loss. I was really nasty anyway, probably wouldnt work without going to extremes.

[Xayd]

It'd be a good idea to take the circuit board and rubber key supports out first, and just put the plastic parts in the dishwasher. Then put it back together afterwards.

[Mac Medic]

Unplug it first :D

Try a CDRW next and report back.

[mountaineer]

Do you think that is why Frag's doesnt work anymore? I cant see any harm if you dry it before applying power.

[mountaineer]

Do you think that is why Frag's doesnt work anymore? I cant see any harm if you dry it before applying power. I may try the whole tower next. What a pain it is to blow it out every so often!

[Renegade]

No, I would not do it. It would most likely have to be opened up to get the water back out. And the drying cycle of the dishwasher will probably melt it.
I barfed in mine once, killed it instantly.

[Fastfly]

there is no problem with getting any electrical thing wet just make sure its completely dry before turning it back on.

[mjkovis]

What about the whole tower next? Hehe. Just Kidding!

[Fastfly]

If its distalled just make sure it isnt to hot and you should be fine with a tower just make sure it is completely dried before hitting the switch.

[jamesrpm]

Here is the directions for running your keyboard through the dishwasher

http://www.moddingzone.com/articles/keyboardwashing/

[dldz]

I have done it before basically like the guys picture and 2 out of 4 keyboards worked again correctly but the other 2 would malfunction after they dried,like when you hit the W it would be ^T it was always the same letters that acted weird W,A,E,Q . So I just bought new ones :D
Don

[Cricket]

"distalled" :confused:

:) Cricket

[Confused]

Never tried the dishwasher trick, but at work we used to take the ones that had coke, coffee, ect. spilled and run them under hot water. Worked very well if we got them before the spill had a chance to dry.

Success rate was low with the ones that had a chance to dry with spills that contained sugar.
Chas

[electrotech]

Originally posted by Fastfly
If its distalled just make sure it isnt to hot and you should be fine with a tower just make sure it is completely dried before hitting the switch.

Remember pure water does not conduct electricity, it's the dissolved solids that make it conduct. So if your using distilled water you can wash your entire computer while surfing the net and not miss an e-mail.

Good thing that all water evaporates in the pure state, otherwise lightning storms would be a real mother!

But in all seriousness in my shop I wash and soak circuit boards and TV chassis' all the time, as said before just let dry 100% before powering up or you'll end up letting all the smoke out. I have to do it because of all you people out there that like to put their sodas or drinks on top of the computer or TV, then knock them over. Taking the keyboard apart is the only way to do it, if kept together it would not dry out completely for weeks and cause strange problems.

[pam123]

At present I have a customer drying a keyboard that had mochachinno dumped over it.
The keyboard was washed with hot water and woolite ( I wanted something that would rinse thoroughly ) and rinsed with more hot water.
We're waiting till we're absolutely sure it's dry before we plug it back in.

And yes it was partly disassembled to avoid trapping water inside.

[mairving]

Why go to the trouble? I usually just replace them with a $10.00 Keytronic (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=E03601) one. It's the best keyboard for the money.

[pam123]

I suspect New England thrift.

[Renegade]

In reality, it does not take a rocket scientist to take the board apart and wash the keypad part of it under the fawcet, drying that and wiping down the plastic conductor part with a slightly wet rag and then drying it. Put it back together and you done. Wow, rough job, takes maybe 10 mins.

[azscary]

Originally posted by dldz
I have done it before basically like the guys picture and 2 out of 4 keyboards worked again correctly but the other 2 would malfunction after they dried,like when you hit the W it would be ^T it was always the same letters that acted weird W,A,E,Q . So I just bought new ones :D
Don

Where do you buy new W's A's E's and Q's? LOL
:D

[dldz]

OK you got me I meant I bought new keyboards LOL :D
Don

[mountaineer]

I know $10 is cheap, but It's all about finding out what is possible.

[mountaineer]

How exactly do you get distilled water for your dishwasher.

[redbaron_snoopy]

Umm...get the distilled water from the drain of an airconditioner ?
Its free.....

[PardeGT]

Originally posted by mountaineer
How exactly do you get distilled water for your dishwasher.

The average diswasher uses 15 gallons of water per cycle so:

#1 Go to your local supermarket and buy at least 15 jugs (maybe 20 just to be on the safe side :)) of distilled water.

#2 Stop at the local hardware store and find a big enough container to hold your 15-20 gallons of distilled water and a few feet of rubber hose.

#3 Go home and place container by dishwasher and sink. Fill container with distilled water.

#4 Disconnect water inlet line to dishwasher from underneath the sink.

#5 Use rubber hose to slip over the inlet line to the diswasher so it will now reach the container of distilled water.

#6 Place keyboard in dishwasher and run the dishwasher.


Sure sounds like it is worth saving $10 to me! :D

[electrotech]

You don't need distilled water, just clean water and preferably not well water. Even the huge industrial washers that we made for Intel to clean their CPU's used standard filleted water. Just about every circuit board for all electronics are ran through a washer using water as the solvent after the final solder flow.

http://www.stoelting.com/circuitboard.html

Sometimes it's not about the replacement cost of the item, but the satisfaction of repairing it. Our landfills are full with TV's, VCR's and computers that are easily repaired but tossed because Wal-Mart sells junk for cheaper than the repair cost, albeit they barely last their warranty.

[LoveJones]

Btw, distilled water and DeIonized water are two different things. I think everyone here is meaning "deionized," which means that all the ions that occur in most natural water sources are taken out so that it does not conduct electricity or interefere with chemical reactions.

Also, it's a huge waste of time and money to try to use de-ionized water for a dishwasher. Within a few seconds of sloshing around in your dishwasher the water will surely mix with food particles, soap residue and God knows what on your keyboard, and become ionized. So your money and time will be lost, although it's a great idea in theory.

You can use de-ionized water to wipe down circuit boards but don't count on it's efficiency 100% of the time because it can and will become ionized if in contact with foreign materials.

Use rubbing alcohol, it's always worked for me. It evaporates very quickly and leaves no residue like water does.

[mountaineer]

And the verdict is in....Drum roll please.....the keyboard does not work any longer!

[Xanieth]

One of my keyboards was getting really nasty under the keys. I hucked it in the bath and ran it under water for a while. I let it dry for a good few days (a week, I think) before I even thought of plugging it back in. Still worked.

[stump]

Ironically, just yesterday I was reading this very interesting thread, little did I know I would have a contribution to it!

Here’s what happened... I got home from work and heard this steady beep, beep, beep coming from my PC speaker. A stuck key error code I believe. Upon examining my keyboard I noticed the cat had decided to relieve himself on my keyboard. In the five years that we have had cats, this is the first time anything like this has happened by any of the three stupid cats. (I almost cracked all three cats with my keyboard, knowing that I'd get the one that did it, but feared that it may lead to more pissings!)

Anyway back to the issue, I think a dishwasher would be okay, a little overboard, but definitely use no detergent. It can be very harsh. Detergent can strip the paint off of soda cans.

What I did was run it under the kitchen sink, took it apart and rinsed all parts, including the clear plastic pad that the keys contact. This pad at first looked to be one piece, but after drying it I found that it was three layers of clear plastic. Water will get trapped between these layers. All three layers must be absolutely dry.

Success! It works again!

:mad: Damn cats! :mad:

[johnnybatters12]

It won't work anymore. I dropped a cup of coffee (Columbian) in my keys and the thing never worked again. It makes no difference what it is as long as it's liquid it's a goner.

[leonnorris]

if you have put your keyboard in the dishwasher then ignore this but if not then why dont you just use a kitchen cleaner?

[TEEB]

I did it once about 4 or 5 years ago. Took it out before the dry cycle and put it outside to dry for 2 days. Plugged it back in and it worked like a charm!!

[pam123]

The keyboard I washed and rinsed is now plugged in and working.
I'm guessing it's all about drying it thoroughly.

[Q-Frost]

Accually...I Did This Once With Sucess ..It Was One Of Those OLD XT Metal 10 Pound Keyboards Though...And I Did Leave It Out To Dry For At Least 3 Days ...It Worked BETTER Than It Did Before I Washed It.... Apperently It Was FULL Of Stuff...Not Just The Coke I Spilled In It Whilst Playing A Joust Clone :P LOL

Anyway I Don't Know About The New Ones..i Guess It's A Toss Up Though...