How to Clean a Computer Keyboard
From a simple chassis shakedown to removing all the keycaps and the outer shell and giving certain bits a bath, these tips will help you banish that keyboard grime.
By Gabe Carey
Typing can be such a messy business. Whether you’re a gamer or a hard-working professional, you’re bound to get your hands on something gunky prior to clicking and clacking away at your keyboard. When all that sludge and silt becomes too much, you’ll have to undertake that most thankless of PC tasks: cleaning your keyboard. Nasty!
The good news is that you can do it using tools you’ll find at home. However, since your keyboard can get sticky, in addition to being stuffed with debris, it may be necessary to treat it to a deep clean with a combination of methods. That might mean buying a few cheap supplies.
With that in mind, read on for five handy ways you can clean your keyboard without spending much before you replace it or ditch it. From a simple chassis shakedown to removing all the keycaps and the outer shell and giving certain bits a bath, these tips range from beginner to intermediate-enthusiast level.
Turn It Upside Down, Tap It Out
This first solution may seem obvious, but not everyone knows how best to handle their tech peripherals. Turn the keyboard upside down, thump the underside, and shake out all the yuck you can.
First, start by unplugging the keyboard from your computer. Then hold up the keyboard, flip it so that the keys are facing a surface you don’t mind getting dirty for a moment, and tap the bottom (not too hard), holding it at a variety of different angles. You should be able to get the bulk of the loose stuff out this way. Expect a cascade of crumbs, seeds, and the like.
If you’re using a keyboard with removable keycaps (mechanical keyboards, especially, tend to feature these), take those off and shake out the keyboard without them in the way. Tap the underside of the keyboard to ensure it’s free of anything clinging onto the surface.
The final step is to sweep the dirt and debris from ttthe desk or table with a brush and dustpan…and try not to get too queasy while you reflect on snacks long past. If things still look grungy, keep reading.
Brush Out the Muck
Dirty keyboards are such a plague that specially designed keyboard brushes exist in all shapes and sizes to help you sweep out the crumbs, hair, and other forms of crud you’ll find amid your QWERTY layout. Available in cleaning kits or on their own, nylon cleaning brushes can resemble a small handheld duster, an ink pen, or even the brush on a car-window ice scraper.
If you don’t feel like spending money on a dedicated brush, you can use household replacements, such as a standard toothbrush or a discarded baby-bottle brush — no fancytt tools necessary. Simply run the brush through the space between your keys and — voila — your keyboard is as clean as the day you bought it.
That assumes the gunk isn’t stuck to the sides of the keys themselves, as is often the case. If so, you may need a stiffer brush. (Toothbrushes are pretty good for dislodging that caked-on stuff.)
It’s a Keyboard Blowout
For PC users, canned air is an essential purchase, whether you want to clean out your keyboard or your gunked-up case fans. For keyboards in particular, it can blow much of the dust out of your way without much effort. All you have to do is insert the straw-like plastic hose inside the nostril of the can, and you’re ready to blast away. You just can’t start blowing compressed air across your keyboard willy-nilly, though.
Take some precautions first. Canned air won’t eliminate all the dirt under the keys, but it will blow away everything that’s visible, and the debris will scatter across your desk and floor in a nasty cloud. It’s best to do this outdoors, or perhaps over the bathtub.
Removing the keycaps, if that is possible, will make this more effective, so do that first if it’s an option. Just don’t push the straw right up onto the surface you’re blowing on because canned air tends to create condensation when you do that, leaving pools of moisture or frost behind. Experiment, but keep a little distance.
Another tap-and-shake session is worth doing after your air-blasting. You’ve probably dislodged debris and pushed it into other places within the keyboard body at this point. These pieces may shake out more easily now than before.
Take the Goo Route
Want to be Steve McQueen in The Blob? One icky but effective way to clean your computer keyboard is to invest in some of the gooey, often bright-colored stuff known as cleaning gel or cleaning gum. (Cyberclean is one common brand.)
This gelatinous adhesive picks up dust and dirt by squeezing between the smallest cracks of your keyboard (including between the keys) and suctioning up any crumbly bits or dirt it touches. You can reuse the blob until it turns to a dark gray, or until you can’t bear to look at or touch it anymore, which will probably be sooner than that.
Note a handful of caveats around using a product like this to clean your keyboard. For one, some kinds can leave oily residue behind, a counter-intuitive outcome. You might need to use a pipe cleaner or a cotton bud to soak that up. Also, the gel itself gets dirty, so you have to keep replacing it. Even if it’s still technically usable, the half-used wads of it are, to put it simply, muy gross.
It’s Keycap Bathtime: Disassemble and Wash
If you have a mechanical keyboard with removable keytops, you’re in luck, because these keys are easy to clean. Before you take off any of the keycaps, be sure to take a picture of the keyboard so you know where to replace them all when you’re done.
You can clean your keycaps by filling up a container with water, squirting in some hand or dish soap, and scrubbing your keycaps with a small brush or rag once they’ve had a good soak. After that, set them out to air-dry completely, so you don’t short out your keyboard’s electronics with dripping-wet caps.
Want to go the extra mile? You can disassemble some keyboards to their bare frame and get out every last crumb. You might need nothing more than a small screwdriver. Take some pictures as you go, so you know how to put your ttkeyboard back together.
Wipe down the non-conductive parts with a damp cloth. Make sure not to get any soap or water on the key switches or any circuits.
Originally published at https://www.pcmag.com on Sepember 9, 2019.
