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How do I clean keycaps?

david31160
By david31160
in Peripherals
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I have a Logitech G170 which I've used for a while and the key caps are covered in seaweed, mysterious goop, and other strange substances. I want to clean it. If I yank all the keycaps off, can I just wash them with water?

Alnair (Main PC):

CPU: i9-7900X with EK Supremacy RGB and SE 360 radiator

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GPU: GTX 1070 Founder’s Edition

PSU: EVGA 850 G3

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Mistle (NAS):

CPU: Pentium G3258 with stock cooler

RAM: 8GB HyperX Fury DDR3 1600 MHz

MB: MSI H81M-E33

GPU: Intel integrated 

PSU: 500w Cooler Master

HDD: 2 x 2tb WD Red in RAID 1

 

Armakarth (NAS/3D modeling station/my old computer)

CPU: i7-4790K with Hyper 212

RAM: 8GB HyperX Fury DDR3 1600 MHz

MB: MSI Z97-G45

GPU: EVGA GT 740 SC

PSU: 750W Sentey

SSD: Sandisk SSD Plus 240GB

HDD: 2 x 2tb WD Red in RAID 1, 2tb Seagate Barracuda, 1tb WD Blue

 

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2x quad core 2.66 ghz Xeons

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I pull mine off and soak them in water for a few hours then do a fingure rub all over them.

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Pull them all off and wipe them down with a microfibre cloth and some mentholated spirits or isopropyl alcohol.

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Q-tips and rubbing alcohol is my method. Remove them beforehand.

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40 minutes ago, david31160 said:

I have a Logitech G170 which I've used for a while and the key caps are covered in seaweed, mysterious goop, and other strange substances. I want to clean it. If I yank all the keycaps off, can I just wash them with water?

Yeah, soak them in water and wash them off, use a tooth brush to scrub. 

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Wait how do I remove the keycaps? I dont have a keycap puller and I failed miserably at using a paperclip.

Alnair (Main PC):

CPU: i9-7900X with EK Supremacy RGB and SE 360 radiator

RAM: 32 GB Trident Z RGB 3000 MHz

MB: Gigabyte X299 Gaming 7

GPU: GTX 1070 Founder’s Edition

PSU: EVGA 850 G3

SSD: WD Blue M.2 1tb, Sandisk SSD Plus 1tb

 

Mistle (NAS):

CPU: Pentium G3258 with stock cooler

RAM: 8GB HyperX Fury DDR3 1600 MHz

MB: MSI H81M-E33

GPU: Intel integrated 

PSU: 500w Cooler Master

HDD: 2 x 2tb WD Red in RAID 1

 

Armakarth (NAS/3D modeling station/my old computer)

CPU: i7-4790K with Hyper 212

RAM: 8GB HyperX Fury DDR3 1600 MHz

MB: MSI Z97-G45

GPU: EVGA GT 740 SC

PSU: 750W Sentey

SSD: Sandisk SSD Plus 240GB

HDD: 2 x 2tb WD Red in RAID 1, 2tb Seagate Barracuda, 1tb WD Blue

 

The Pizza Cooker (server):

2x quad core 2.66 ghz Xeons

16gb DDR2 FBDIMM

 

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5 minutes ago, david31160 said:

Wait how do I remove the keycaps? I dont have a keycap puller and I failed miserably at using a paperclip.

I use string, just loop it under and pull

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CPU- Intel 6700k OC to 4.69 Ghz GPU- NVidia Geforce GTX 970 (MSI) RAM- 16gb DDR4 2400 SSD-2x500gb samsung 850 EVO(SATA) Raid 0 HDD- 2tb Seagate Case- H440 Red w/ custom lighting Motherboard - MSI Z170 Gaming A OS- Windows 10 Mouse- Razer Naga Epic Chroma, Final Mouse 2016 turney proKeyboard- Corsair k70 Cherry MX brown

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What I do is I pull off all my keycaps, get a bin, put some dish soap in it, luke-warm water, throw the keycaps in it, cheap toothbrush (that I didn't use for my teeth) to clean in the inside, throw all the water out of the bin, fill it with water and clean all the soap off and after that I throw them on a towel to dry off (you really want them to be full dry) and I'm done.

I have not had super dirty keycaps, so never had to use alcohol to clean them.

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mini_cardboard: a 4% keyboard build log and how keyboards work: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1328547-mini_cardboard-a-4-keyboard-build-log-and-how-keyboards-work/

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