Cleaned Keyboard In Bathtub
 

My theory about all things electronic is that if (1) no voltage is applied while wet, (2) allowed to thoroughly dry, and (3) no crappy cardboard internals like some 80's era cheap clock radio, they can usually survive getting wet.

I've had a laptop submerged in muddy water, pulled the battery, removed all the ports and screw-on panels, water poured out, set it under a fan for 48 hours and good as new.

Have saved a couple of cellphones the same way. Although, putting my Blackberry in the oven on "warm" turned out to be a bad idea.

A friend's $900 Sony DSLR was soaked in water and completely dead, she was distraught, I told her "don't worry", removed lens, battery, memory card, dried it out for 24 hours, and also no problem.

Those were all accidental soakings, I finally did it intentionally. The two keyboards for the iMac were unspeakably filthy (kids and their dirty fingers) with sticking keys. One is rather hard to replace here in US, is a French AZERTY keyboard, and anyway a new Apple keyboard is more than $20. So I unplugged, submerged in a sinkful of warm soapy water, scrubbed clean with a kitchen brush, then dried them out for 48 hours. Work like a charm.

Anyone else clean their electronics in the bathtub?

I often clean my hairdrier in the bathtub, but I prefer to leave it plugged in.

I had bottled water spill on my laptop before...I was furious...but I thought...no problem...just let it dry out. After the drying time, my password didn't work. Not problem...I'll get go through the back door...that's when I noticed something funny. Not all the keys were producing keystrokes. Let it set another day...even more keys not producing keystrokes. Next day, got a new laptop.

Let us know if it works. I have a similar theory regarding keyboards and was seriously considering pressure-washing mine to get the crumbs/dust/crud out of it. There's really no electronics in there other than three LEDs anyway, no chips, processors or circuitry other than simple wiring and membrane/wafer switches. Dry 'em out and (in theory) I figure they should be fine.

Did you remember to POR-15 the circuit boards?

I used to work in an IT training center. Our classroom keyboards would get nasty. We would wash them in the top rack of the dishwasher. It works, but modern keyboards are basically just a few layers of crude, thin circuit board layered together. It takes a long time for the water to dry out from between those layers. We used to open them up using a power screw driver and give them a quick wipe out. It only took about a minute.

To be clear, if the device is powered "on" when the liquid hits, that's often a problem.

In my experience.

I did it a couple weeks ago, worked and works fine.

Sweet.

I'm not daring enough to try it plugged in though... :p

Yep. The older the keyboard, the better it works. I still have a 20+ year old IBM keyboard that I love to use due to the perfect weighting/feel it provides. It gets washed about once a year.

Also, a quick spray with some contact cleaner goes a long way to removing/displacing any water, especially if your water has high mineral content.

Don't want to test the GFIs? :D

I'm far from being as smart as you guys when it comes to electronics, but I've heard many times that a distilled water rinse will help.

Maybe try one of these:

http://ergobilities.com/ProductDetail.asp?style=71958&source=yahoo&adgroup =duraflex&adtext=washable

I like the filth. It gives the keyboard character.

I bought a black keyboard & that solved the problem. :D

Ian

If it is hard water or contains salt ions (dissolved solids) it is far more likely not to work even after drying it. I've done it with distilled water and detergent on R/C car electronics and keyboards, and I've never had a problem getting something to work again. I typically wait a week to be safe.

Yeah. If you happen to be near the Mariana Trench and drop your keyboard into the salt water, it's toast. Not that it won't ever work again, but you'll have to dive 36,198 feet (11,033 m) to get it. :)

Sherwood

No problem. I'll dig out some oil with my bare hands when I reach the bottom. :)

It's probably home for one of those cool fish with the little glow-light thing that dangles in front of their gigantic, fang-ringed maw. Those fish are cool.

We had a manager whose keyboard was disgusting. I've seen smokers who had disgusting keyboards, but this one was covered in "mung".

I felt really bad for the coop that inherited that keyboard. I helped him remove the keys, soak and clean them.

To me, it would have been worth it to spend the $20 and buy a new one.

A colleague of mine puts it in the dishwasher and let it dry for a month. On the meanwhile he uses another one that he cycles.

Hell, I can get a Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard for $20. If you want one of the plain jane keyboards, those can be had for $5.

This was 1992...

My current keyboard is programmable and was almost $300. I think I'll pass.

http://www.ergoware.com/blog/wp-cont...o-keyboard.jpg

http://www.ergocanada.com/products/k...ll_696x390.jpg

I worked in a circuit board assy shop for a period of time. Once boards had components assembled and then wave soldered, they went into a industrial dish washer with dish soap and that jet dry stuff...... they came out clean as a whistle once they dried thoroughly.

In my boat yard wrenchng days every so often a customer's depth finder would go kaput due to the intense salt air. VHF's only wore out due to old age. He'd pay for a new finder and I'd take away the junk. I'd open them up and take them apart as much as possible and either wash the boards with tap water and soap or the dish washer and let them air dry for a week or so. I had around a 75% success rate.

A distilled water rinse should leave things sterile, in theory at least. It's used extensively in the circuit board manufacturing process.

My Neice dumped a whole glass of chocolate milk on her Mother's two week old laptop. Killed it dead. I figured what the hell, and tore it down as far as I could, and removed the hard drive, dvd drive, and case. Rinsed everything else out in the tub, dried it out with the air compressor, put it back together. It booted the first time.

To this day I'm still her hero.

Yep, i've had really good luck with letting stuff dry out too.