
Clean the keycaps with denture tablets or dish soap. If you aren’t comfortable with removing and reseating them, it’s best to wipe them clean with a slightly damp microfiber cloth.ģ. Most big keys are stabilized with wires (space, enter, shift, etc.), which makes them more difficult to remove. Use a keycap puller to remove the keycaps from your keyboard. Thankfully, there are tried and true methods that resolve those issues.Ģ. In addition, a layer of finger oils will gradually build up on your keyboard’s keycaps. Some grime is stubborn, binding to the plate in spite of regular vacuum treatments and wipe downs. Vacuum cleaners overcome those issues by pulling room temperature air, and therefore dust, away from the switches. Canned air can also blow dust directly into a keyboard’s switches, resulting in an unpleasant gritty feeling. That can cause condensation to build on scratches or worn metal surfaces, which could lead to corrosion or fused grime. First, canned air is quite cold when it is released. Do not use a paper towel, as paper towels will shed particles on the keyboard and create tiny scratches in its surface.Īvoid canned air at all costs when cleaning keyboards, as two negative side effects are possible. Wipe the entire keyboard down with a slightly damp microfiber cloth.Ĥ. Small handheld vacuums without rotating brushes work well.ģ.

Gently pressing the vacuum’s attachment tube down on the keycaps, ultimately actuating each key on the keyboard, will give the best results. Use a vacuum to remove dust from its plate. That’s both nasty and inconvenient, as the particles must be brushed away once attached.Ģ. Over time, dust and food will partially fuse to the painted metal plate that supports each keyswitch. Preventing grime accumulation is important, and it is even more critical if you eat next to your keyboard. You should clean your keyboard lightly on a regular basis. Without further ado, let’s look at three keyboard cleaning tiers. The keycaps above aren’t from the same keyboard, but they illustrate the difference that this guide can make nonetheless.

Spills are another matter entirely, so they’ll get their own section. Cleaning, the most important keyboard maintenance task, will keep contaminants in check. There is one catch: dust and grime will overtake a keyboard long before its switches or electronics begin to fail.

High quality mechanical keyboards can last for decades, and Das Keyboard products are no exception.
