Peripherals spilt water on keyboard - wat do

if you have seen my recent threads i got a filco majestouch the other day, great keyboard, but now i have gone and spilt some water on it. i guess it could be worse it could have been coke or something.

will it cause any damage to it? I gave it a quick blow with the hair dryer as i thought it would aid in the drying process and now i have it just sitting upside down on my bed to let as much of the water drip out as possible

 

If you have the ability to put it in your hot water cupboard / airing cupboard over night. This should evaporate any water still left that hasn't either dripped out or been blown out with a hairdryer.

Failing this putting it on top of a warm (not hot) radiator should also do the trick.

The best method here is slow evaporation rather than quick heat.

 

oh ok. is the water likely to damage it at all?

 

Oh dear! Hopefully it should still work ok

 

Just water is no problem. While it is wet the keyboard will act weird because of the shorts it causes in the contacts matrix, but the keyboard runs on 5V and the chip it uses is pretty basic and resilient, so there won't be any lasting damage.

Just allow it to dry out and it will be fine again.

Drinks containing sugar would or milk be another story: the spill dries up but will leave a residue that is still conductive enough the screw with the matrix. In those cases you'd have to disassemble the keyboard, clean the contact matrix and put it back together. Cherry switch keyboards tend to be more impervious to such spills which is just as good because they are harder to clean.

 

How much did you spill? i.e. did you flood the actual switches? If so, there may or may not be some corrosion on the switch surfaces, but with plain water and quick reaction, I think with proper drying it's going to be just fine.

 

I would recommend opening it up and taking the keys out as well. Its a lot of admin i know but there are a lot of nooks and crannies in keyboards where water can gather and leaving it upside down without proper airflow could leave some water inside. Rather safe than sorry i say

 

stick it in a bag of rice will suck out all the moistures

 

In future I recommend you drink bi-distilled water. You can spill as much as you like of that on the keyboard. You can drink a little and it will be good for you. Drink too much and you will die of mineral depletion. Good luck. Let me know if you find the right balance between health and death.

Back in the 80's I used to take my Amiga 500 out of it's plastic case and wash the dust off under a shower. I then put the motherboard out in the sun to dry. Never had an issue with it.

As other have said, warm air will dry your keyboard out. Infra red lamp, airing cupboard, hair dryer (keep the hair dryer at least 12 inches away from the keyboard.

 

some interesting responses here thanks

 

The one good thing about membrane keyboards over switched keyboards - you can just run them under the tap to clean them out!

 

Wasn't there an article in the mag about washing keyboards in the dishwasher? It should be fine.

 

like i had to do with my logitech g15 keyboard when i spilt coffee on it, 30 screws later, it's still working, although i forgot to put the mute/light silicon pads back in.

 

Cherry MX is a bit different. Water can get trapped inside the switch. I hope you unplugged it immediately... anyway remove all the keycap and use compressed air in each switch while pressing it to make sure there is none inside it. Make sure to let it dry fully before plugging it back in, probably a minimum of 24 hours to be safe.

 

oh. I did unplug it immediately and put it in the airing cupboard. but i only left it for a few hours. it seems to be dry so i have plugged it back in again

hopefully no damage has been done