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Is It Bad To Not Clean Your Mechanical Keyboard

The prevailing wisdom says a console gamer on a controller could never beat an equally skilled gamer on a keyboard. PC gamers live and die (digitally) past the mechanical keyboard, and for expert reason.

HP Mechanical Keyboard for Gaming

When properly maintained, a mechanical keyboard is a versatile digital weapon that allows for a wide range of functions and customizability. For multimedia and business professionals, information technology's an instrument of creation.

Despite how often our dingy fingers brush the keys, almost people tend to neglect giving their keyboard a regular bath - let alone a quick shower. Did yous know you should be wiping and sanitizing your keyboard in one case a week? Most people don't.

If you're suffering from unexplained performance slowdowns, or if your previously white keys have turned gray or blackness, it might be time to clean your keyboard.

Why does a clean keyboard heave gaming operation?

A muddied keyboard volition hinder one of its very important functions: responsiveness. Dust and grime tin accrue nether the keys and brand them stick when you lot press downwardly on them.

You don't desire to bargain with the slowdown of a dirty keyboard. Especially if yous're right in the heart of an intergalactic firefight, or if y'all're trying to maintain a fast workflow on that video editing project yous need done past Friday. A clean keyboard will ensure that yous're gaming and creating at fast speeds.

What is a mechanical keyboard?

The 2 nearly common types of keyboards are mechanical keyboards and membrane keyboards. Mechanical keyboards and membrane keyboards take dissimilar builds, and so they require unlike cleaning methods. This article will primarily focus on the cleaning of mechanical keyboards, only we'll briefly get over the cleaning of a membrane keyboard.

Earlier you become started, let's review the key components of a mechanical keyboard and how they function.

Primal matrix

The key matrix is a large piece of circuitry at the heart of the keyboard. You don't need to worry most cleaning the matrix. You won't be disassembling the keyboard enough to see it, and you should avert messing with it, anyway.

Keycap

All those buttons you lot press - the squarish ones with numbers and letters and symbols - those are the keycaps. The keycaps are what your fingers press confronting when you lot type. Thus, they get far dirtier than other parts of the keyboard. Mechanical keyboards have big keycaps, which brand them popular with gamers.

Switch

Switches are smaller pieces of circuitry that sit down in between the key matrix and the keycaps. Each keycap has a switch underneath. Whenever you press downwards on a keycap, the keycap pushes the switch against the key matrix. The contact completes the primal matrix circuitry and allows for an electric current to flow.

Switches use small-scale springs to "bounce" dorsum into position subsequently y'all press down on them. The hyper-responsiveness of the spring machinery makes mechanical keyboards pop with gamers. You shouldn't disassemble the switches, simply you may need to clean the top of them if you lot have a very dirty keyboard.

Plate

The plate is the outer beat out that encompasses the fundamental matrix and switches, and keeps the keycaps in place.

Keyboard cleaning supplies

Hither are a few of the supplies you lot'll need to clean your mechanical keyboard:

1. Material

3. Small brush with sturdy bristles or a Q-tip

4. Vacuum cleaner

5. Small basin

6. Flat head screwdriver or keycap puller

7. Sterilizer (denture tablets or dish soap will work)

Optional: Ultrasonic cleaner

Calorie-free cleaning a mechanical keyboard

You should requite your keyboard a quick clean once per calendar week. All yous've got to exercise is wipe down the surface of the keyboard a couple of times:

1. Wipe the keyboard with a damp microfiber fabric.

two. Dry the keyboard with a separate, dry cloth.

iii. Wipe the keyboard with a disinfectant wipe.

Doing this simple task just in one case a week will go a long way in preventing buildup of grit, dirt, crud, and germs. If you lot give your keyboard a low-cal, weekly turn, you won't have to deep clean it equally oft.

Deep cleaning a mechanical keyboard

You lot'll have to deep clean your keyboard if the keys are blackened past dirt, or if the keys "stick" when you press them, or if your keyboard is suffering from slow responsiveness.

Deep cleaning requires yous to disassemble parts of your keyboard. If you lot're unsure of where all the parts go, take pictures as you accept it autonomously so you'll call up how to put everything back in place.

To deep make clean your mechanical keyboard:

1. Unplug your keyboard

2. Vacuum the keyboard

Use either a handheld vacuum cleaner or your vacuum cleaner'south hose. Slowly vacuum over each of the keys and the spaces betwixt them. This will remove the tiptop layers of grit and loose dirt.

3. Remove the keycaps

Many PC users dread removing the keycaps. Removing them may crave using leverage and forcefulness - which makes users afraid that they'll accidentally break something.

If you don't feel comfortable removing the keycaps, don't. Leave them on and clean them exactly similar y'all would make clean the switches. Remember, though, that mechanical keyboards are designed to take their keycaps removed.

Remove the keycaps with a keycap puller or a flat caput screwdriver. If you're using a flat head screwdriver, just insert it into the space at the edge of the keycap and leverage it out. If a screwdriver is also large for your keyboard, you tin use a bent paper prune.

4. Clean the keycaps

Place the keycaps in a small-scale bowl. Fill the basin with warm water, and then add sterilizer (dish soap or 2 denture tablets). Allow the keycaps soak in the sterilizer for 6 hours.

Rinse the keycaps when they're finished soaking. You should be able to easily remove whatever remaining dirt or grime with a small brush (a toothbrush works perfectly).

If the crud is mucilaginous and tin't be removed with backlog brushing, you may need to wash the keycaps in an ultrasonic cleaner. An ultrasonic cleaner is a small motorcar that vibrates water at loftier frequencies to blast abroad dirt and grime. Most of the time, an ultrasonic cleaner is unnecessary. Yous'll only need it for the dirtiest keyboards.

When you're done rinsing the keycaps, set them out to air dry. Don't use a paper towel to dry the keycaps. Paper towels leave small particle residue and they tin cause scratches.

Pro tip: Keycaps may take a while to air dry. It'southward important that the keycaps are 100% dry earlier you place them back on your keyboard. If they aren't, you risk serious harm to your keyboard.

five. Clean the switches

Clean the switches while the keycaps are soaking.

Vacuum over the switches to get rid of dust and dirt that has sunk past the keycaps. Use a small brush or Q-tip to scrape away grime that's on or effectually the switches.

Use a damp textile or cotton wool swab to wipe the spaces in between switches - endeavor non to become the switches moist.

6. Reassemble your keyboard

When the keycaps are dry and you've finished detailing the switches, put the keycaps dorsum on. They should hands pop back into place. You're done! Y'all now accept a clean, pristine keyboard!

How to clean a membrane keyboard

The departure between a mechanical keyboard and a membrane keyboard is that the keycaps on a membrane keyboard press downwardly upon a condom dome instead of a switch.

In a mechanical keyboard, the keycaps are attached to the switches. Just on a membrane keyboard, the keycaps are not fastened to the rubber domes. They're attached to a split, removable plate.

To remove the keycaps, yous'll have to remove the entire keycap plate first (you'll nearly likely demand to utilize a Phillips screwdriver). Later on y'all've removed the plate, then you can pop out the keycaps for cleaning.

When y'all remove the plate from the keyboard, you might be exposing the key matrix. Exist careful not to mess with the central matrix! Keep the bottom half of the keyboard somewhere where it won't get damaged or muddied.

Mechanical keyboards from HP®

HP® produces a variety of mechanical keyboards that are built specifically for PC gaming.

The HP OMEN 1100 mechanical keyboard is equipped with ultra-responsive mechanical switches, including N-primal rollover for anti-ghosting. The keyboard glows red to continue you from miss-keying, and the Due west-A-S-D keys are painted in a contrasting red color to make your movement buttons easier to notice.

The HP OMEN Sequencer mechanical keyboard uses optical mechanical switches that are 10 times more than responsive than standard mechanical switches. Customize your arsenal with individually backlit keys. Yous can choose from up to 16.8 million RGB colors, all with unique effects. You can apply the colors to segment your keyboard, thus improving the speed with which you find and admission each fundamental.

Now that you know how to maintain a mechanical keyboard, information technology may be fourth dimension to add i to your gaming accessories arsenal.

About the Author

Zach Cabading is a contributing writer for HP® Tech Takes. Zach is a content creation specialist based in Southern California, and creates a variety of content for the tech industry.

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Is It Bad To Not Clean Your Mechanical Keyboard,

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