I had some energizer max alkaline batteries in my keyboard and one leaked. When I went to remove it some one the powder got between the keys on my keyboard. How caustic is the potassium hydroxide solution in this stuff? Is it concentrated or pretty diluted? Is it safe when its dry? I cant easily clean between my keys.
It will probably damage the keyboard membrane in the long term and destroy the keyboard.
I personally have had good luck cleaning keyboards in the dishwasher but I’ve heard of it damaging wireless keyboards. If you are brave enough to try it, remove the batteries, put the keyboard upside down on the top rack, do not use soap, and turn off the heat dry cycle at the end (which might be called something like power saver dry that you have to turn ON to make the heat stay OFF, confusingly, so be careful).
For the benefit of anyone else coming into this thread, if you are trying it with a wired keyboard also make sure to wrap up the cable so that it can’t fall down and get tangled in the dishwasher’s moving parts.
Let the keyboard dry out for a couple of days before using it and you should be good to go.
Again, though, I’ve heard of this causing damage to wireless keyboards and keyboards with built-in LCD displays. I’ve never had a problem with plain ordinary wired keyboards though.
The hard way to fix it is to pop off the keys and clean the membrane with alcohol and a Q-tip. I’ve done it before but it’s enough of a pain that I try the dishwasher method first and if that doesn’t work I toss the keyboard and buy a new one.
the battery residue is caustic. wash skin and clothes you get it on. good to wear something over your eyes when cleaning up leaked batteries.
engineer_comp_geek gave good cleaning instructions.
leave the keyboard get warmth and breeze while drying.