Document

Tips For Thoroughly Cleaning Your Keyboard

 One of the values my parents instilled in me at a young age was pride in possessions. My mother said, " You will never have good things until you learn how to take care of them. " The post gets me stuck at the point where I'm almost obsessed with keeping it in top shape, so it lasts as long as possible.

 I have been using the Das Keyboard 4 Pro exclusively since 2010 without any problems. Build quality aside, I credit its longevity to regular maintenance cleanings. Every few months or so, I'll do a routine cleaning consisting of running the flat edge of a business card or a craft-style pipe cleaner between the rows of keys to pick up any stray hair before flipping the board upside down and beating the devil out of it to coax out any loose debris.

A few blasts with a can of compressed air will also do the trick, and I've even heard of folks using a shop vacuum to suck out stubborn particles.

The whole process takes less than five minutes and is certainly worth the time and effort, but occasionally, you'll want to go further and perform a thorough deep clean. For this, you'll need a few more tools and a bit more time. But again, it's a worthwhile investment. A keycap remover is paramount for proper keyboard cleaning. I bought the kit that came with the tools and two cleaning brushes from Amazon for $6.99. It's also a good idea to have an all-purpose cleaner (isopropyl alcohol will do) and a microfiber cloth.

With the computer turned off and the keyboard disabled, it's time to get to work. Use the key puller to pull the key off the board. It's cumbersome because you have to go through it one by one, but it's easy once you do it. Simply insert the ends of the wire hooks above and below each key and then lift them up. There's little risk of damage unless you're applying soft power and trying to speed things up. Rinse and repeat until all standard size keys are removed.


Cleaning Your Keyboard

Large keys like spacebar and backspace often use different mounts, including stabilizers. It can be removed, but all the other keys around it have already been removed, so I decided to leave them in place and clean them around. Under the keys, I found a disgusting mixture of hair, food crumbs and other junk. You can only imagine how much worse it would have been if it hadn't been for regular preventive cleaning.

I used the brush included with the key puller to remove most of the clutter, but really any brush should do the job. An auto-detailing brush or an unused makeup brush are great alternatives. How long this step takes is up to you. Those who want it to look new may want to pull out a few tweezers to remove all hairs and built-in fibers, but I was happy with a 95% improvement. Besides, you still have to manage individual keys.


This is where an all-purpose vacuum cleaner comes in handy. I ran my hand over the key puller brush got into every nook and cranny of the underside of each key, then cleaned the outer surface well with a microfiber dipped in cleaner before drying. Having one or two helpers will greatly speed up this process. Because I easily spent hours on this step.

Now that everything is spotless and clean, all that remains is to put each key in its place, give your keyboard a good cleaning, and admire your work.