Are you dealing with an accidental spill? Perhaps you’ve purchased a second-hand device that needs a little restoration work. Or maybe you just want to keep your favorite mechanical keyboard feeling new forever. Whatever the case, we’re here to help.
We’ll be showing you step-by-step how to clean a mechanical keyboard including optional deep cleaning steps that may be necessary if you’ve experienced a nasty spill.
Important Notice
If you’re dealing with a spill, disconnect your mechanical keyboard immediately. Leaving it connected might damage the keyboard or even your computer.
Pouring a bunch of liquid on the electronics board inside your keyboard has the potential to connect circuits that shouldn’t be connected, and that can wreak some real havoc. Detach everything. Fast.
With everything disconnected, use a towel to soak up any excess liquid. If some of it spilled inside your keyboard, it wouldn’t hurt to flip the board over with the keys down on a towel so it can start draining while you clean the surrounding area.
When the keyboard is relatively dry, you can start the cleaning process.
How to Clean on a Mechanical Keyboard Step-By-Step
Step 1: Take a “Before” Picture
Unless you plan to keep your keycaps organized throughout the entire cleaning process, you should grab your smartphone and take a quick picture of your keyboard’s layout before you begin tearing everything apart. As an added bonus, you’ll also have a picture to remind you of how dirty the keyboard looked before cleaning it.
Step 2: Remove All Keycaps
Source: Ken Suarez on Unsplash
Purchase an inexpensive keycap puller (or make one with paperclips) to safely remove each keycap from your keyboard.
Removing standard size keycaps from mechanical keyboards tends to be easier than larger keys like Shift, Space, and Enter. Larger keys can have a stabilizer underneath them made out of metal wire and a little plastic nub under the keycap. These can break when removing them if you aren’t careful.
In general, you should be able to put a keycap puller under two or more edges of smaller keycaps and then lift them off with little force. Sometimes twisting or prying a tiny bit can help get things going but you shouldn’t be muscling through anything.
If you start by removing all of the smaller keys, you’ll free up enough space to make the larger keys less of a hassle when detaching them from their stabilizers. Gently pull the larger keys with your hands under opposite ends. They should lift off the keyboard switch they’re sitting on but remain attached to stabilizers. You may have to use a small screwdriver or something similar to pry the metal stabilizer bar away from plastic hooks under the keycap.
Don’t go overboard with brute force and you shouldn’t break anything. The main concern is damaging the switch that’s underneath the keycap — the part that actually makes the key work. You’ll have enough trouble on your hands if you’re dealing with a spill. Don’t add a broken keyboard switch and soldering lessons to the list.
Step 3: Clean the Keycaps
You could scrub each keycap individually and nobody’s going to judge you for that, but we suggest letting them soak in a bath of lukewarm water mixed with a few drops of dishwashing soap. This is doubly recommended if they’re coated with a half-dried sugary drink.
Some people also suggest using isopropyl alcohol, but we don’t recommend this unless you are absolutely sure it won’t damage your keyboard. Depending on the material your keycaps are made out of, isopropyl alcohol could make them look like new or could turn them see-through. We suggest just sticking to soap.
After cleaning your keycaps and they’re all wet, wipe them each down with a microfiber cloth and then place them on a towel to air dry. We suggest pointing the bottom of the keycaps up for better air exchange. You can speed the drying process up with a fan, otherwise, they’ll take a few hours to dry.
If you’re dealing with a spill, your full attention should be shifting to cleaning the inside of your keyboard.
Step 4: Clean the Base Plate
With all the keycaps removed from your keyboard, use a damp microfiber cloth to clean up any leftover liquid that made it inside. Careful with using wiping motions because they can cause scratches. Dabbing is better.
Use a mini vacuum to get rid of any large debris like crumbs and dust sitting between the switches. Then, use a damp electronics cleaning brush or cotton swabs to scrub away the more resilient grime. Afterward, pay everything another visit with the vacuum to get any remaining debris you knocked loose.
Step 5: Disassemble the Base Plate (Optional)
If a spill made it into the guts of your keyboard, you’ll probably have to do a little surgery to get everything going again.
Compared to membrane keyboards, mechanical boards are usually made with enthusiast-level users and mind and they’re often easier to take apart. Depending on the model, there are generally four main parts to the body of a mechanical keyboard:
- A front plate
- A back plate
- An electronics board
- The keyboard housing itself
Note: During disassembly, it’s a good idea to take pictures along the way so you can remember how everything is supposed to be connected.
To get inside your keyboard, you’ll generally need to remove all the screws from either your exposed keyboard plate or from its underside. We recommend Googling the model name of your keyboard along with the word “disassembly” for the best instructions on getting everything torn down.
Once you’re inside, use your microfiber cloth or other towels to dry everything inside, including the underside of the keyboard plate and the electronics board. If you spilled something worse than just water, you’ll need to clean that drink out of everywhere it managed to go.
This could involve separating and individually cleaning all four parts listed above. You may very well have to wash them the same way we discussed cleaning the keycaps: lukewarm water with a few drops of dish soap.
After everything is clean and dry, you can put the whole base tray of your keyboard back together the way it came apart. The trickiest part about this whole process is probably re-attaching the cables. They can involve short wires, finicky connectors, and cramped spaces. Not fun, but possible. Hang in there.
Step 6: Put Everything Back Together
After screwing the keyboard body back together, you may want to feel the keyboard switches before putting the keycaps back on to make sure they all move as expected.
If the switches feel weird after putting your keycaps back on, they might need a little lube. Here’s a full guide on that, including details on whether you should go with oil or grease.
We suggest skipping the lube if you can but if you have to use some, go light and maybe look into whether the type you’re going to use is known to damage the materials used in your keyboard.
Ideally, you will be able to put all of your keycaps back on and they’ll feel great.
Step 7: Test Your Keyboard (Optional)
Your keyboard might look and feel brand new but it should also perform like it. Keyboardtester.com can help you confirm this by opening a virtual interface with an on-screen keyboard that shows visuals and makes sounds when a key is pressed.
It should be easy to tell if a key feels off on a mechanical keyboard. A common issue where keys are harder to press than usual is often described as a “crunchy” feeling. You might need to remove and reseat these keys or dig a little deeper for potential obstructions.
It’s a constant battle to keep keyboards free of dirt and grime, but barring any spills or accidents, a quick clean should only take five minutes, especially if you’re staying on top of things.
Now You Know How to Clean a Mechanical Keyboard, What’s Next?
Cleaning a mechanical keyboard isn’t hard, but it can be time-consuming, especially after filling one with Mountain Dew. Running through the steps we outlined above has a high recovery rate, just be careful when disassembling everything.
Assuming you never spill anything on your keyboard, you can postpone having to do a deep clean by making a habit out of doing light maintenance somewhat regularly — a few times a year is probably fine, especially if you don’t eat or drink near your keyboard.
Are you in a total cleaning mood now? Clean your mousepad next.
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