I was looking at the keyboard cleaning wipes in the electronics section and the general cleaning wipes in the cleaning section. The wipes “designed” for cleaning electronics cost about ten times as much as the generic wipes. The ingredients appear to be pretty much the same (although some of the generic wipes have extra ingredients like aloe). Is there any reason I shouldn’t just go ahead and use cheap generic (non-aloe) wipes to clean my keyboard?
I wouldn’t even use a cleaning wipe. A damp cloth is good enough for most purposes, even with no cleaner.
But I think you’re fine with standard cleaning wipes too. My concern about using cleaners of any type is that they might wipe off the letters. I may be too worried about that, but I’d test any wipe or cleaner on a key you don’t need first.
I was in Target today and there were some Pledge Multi-Surface wipes that said they were good for all surfaces, including electronics. So I bought a pack and used those.
I’d be worried more about what’s in between and under the keys than a light sheen of hand oils on top of them. Every few months I use the old compressed canned air, spray them out real well, and once that’s done just spray some windex onto a paper towel (or use a baby wipe or two) and glaze over the tops of the keys. Sometimes you have to treat the keyboard like you would an acoustic guitar that you dropped the pick into the sound hole…you have to invert the keyboard and shake it to get that large chunk of Dorito outta there…
You can throw a keyboard in a dish washer if you wanted to the water won’t damage it just make sure to dry it out, although the steam might make the letters peel off
There are some tricks to it if you want to use the dishwasher method.
First, place the keyboard upside down on the top tray of the dishwasher.
Second, wrap up the cable so that it can’t get tangled up in any of the dishwasher’s moving parts.
Third, don’t use soap. Many soaps will leave a film behind which can interfere with the keyboard’s functionality.
Fourth, turn off the heat cycle at the end or you can literally bake your keyboard to death. Note that on some dishwashers, you need to turn “Power saver dry” (or something like that) ON to turn the heat OFF. A bit confusing.
Wireless keyboards and keyboards with LCD screens in them can be damaged by the dishwasher. Most other keyboards will come out just fine. I have never had a problem with the letters coming off.
Make sure it thoroughly dries out before using it. Usually just leaving the keyboard alone for a couple of days will be fine for drying it.
This isn’t something I would do every week, but done infrequently (once every year or two) it is fine.
To the OP, I’d recommend using alcohol wipes to clean off surface dirt. Residue from other types of cleaning wipes could get down in between the keys and cause them to malfunction. Canned compressed air as FoieGrasIsEvil mentioned is also good for removing dust and small bits of dirt that get down between the keys.
Maybe I’m not seeing the whole compressed air technique. I’ve used a can of compressed air with the thin pointy nozzle. It’s good for blasting off surface dust but all it appears to do for the dust down between the keys is push it around underneath the keys.