OK lots of anecdotes on cleaning keyboards etc - but what is really the right way (to minimize chances of damage?
- If your electronics gets wet, remove power and batteries ASAP; otherwise components might see harmful voltages (example: a part might be fine at +5 volts, but reverse the leads so that it sees -5 volts and it could get fried. ) In addition, a voltage with the presence of water you can have all sorts of interesting electrochemical reactions occurring such as corrosion, but other nastier things could occur.
- Wash several times with distilled water - if very dirty, wash with tap water, final rinses with distilled. Evian and Polish Spring count as tap water (awww)
- set it to dry, tilt over the course of drying in different direction to allow drainage.
Applying heat, as in a dishwasher which heats water to higher than hot tap water temperature could potentially cause damage. Same with using soaps which can wash away stuff like heat sink compound or oily compounds. Use of tap water alone could leave salts and minerals deposits which could leave conductive paths - a definite problem if the circuit has ceramics components and/or high voltage components, but could also cause problems in low voltage devices - analog circuits especially, but digital could be affected as well.
Cleaning a keyboard surface:
A study was made concerning germs and various surfaces in hotel rooms - door knobs, keys, toilet handles, etc. The dirtiest thing was the remote for the TV (think about it.... eeeeewwwww)
I don't think the study included keyboards, but if you took a good look at your friend's keyboard, you might start thinking twice about using his/her computer. Cleaning the keyboard is pretty easy - first remove power, unplug keyboard. If you don;t mind tedious work, get cotton swabs and clean with distilled water. If you're like me and want to get it over with, get some high quality rubbing alcohol or some high proof vodka (somehow people who use the latter tend to require larger quantities, but I digress), a box of tissues and wipe away with tissues wetting with choice of beverage, eh, alcohol, Some cotton swabs or twisted tissues to wipe excess from between the keys. The alcohol has the advantage of killing germs (and brain cells), being a good solvent for the gunk, plus it dries fast.
To tell you the truth, I don't unplug the keyboard or remove power and never had a problem (unless I'm in Word and I dgggdggdgggggggggggggggghghghghgg) but removing power is the careful way (what can I say Im a risk taker) |
