Emerald Green Hardware

In addition to routine cleaning, keyboards are often subjected to spilled liquids. If this happens, the very first thing to do is to disconnect your keyboards power. If it plugs into the back of your system, pull that plug immediately. If it’s a wireless keyboard, remove it’s batteries immediately.

Ok, now that you’ve unplugged the keyboard, you can take a moment to consider the problem. Spilled liquids bring two threats to the table as far as keyboard functionality is concerned. First of all, there’s the threat of a short circuit. This threat is the reason you want to immediately cut power to the keyboard. It’s also the reason that whatever other cleaning you do, you’ll want to let the keyboard sit afterward for at least 24 hours (longer on humid days) to ensure its internals are completely dried out.

Your other concern is residue. If the liquid you spilled was just an ordinary glass of water, residue will not be much of a problem. If it’s unsweetened coffee, tea, or diet soda, residue might give you problems, but the danger is not as severe as if there was sugar dissolved in it.

The key to blocking residue is to dissolve it with water. Since your keyboard is only vulnerable to short circuits when its plugged in, putting it in your shower and spraying down the keyboard is a very good precaution against residue. If you have a keyboard that was disabled by a spill, there’s a chance you might be able to clean out the residue using your shower like this.

I’ve even heard that some people has successfully cleaned out a spill disabled keyboard by running it through their dishwasher. I’ve never tried this myself, so I can’t offer any personal input on it. But rationally this would probably work best if whatever was spilled on your keyboard contained a fair bit of fat like ice cream. The most important thing to remember would be to put your keyboard on the top shelf of the dishwasher, since the plastics making it up are vulnerable to melting.

Now whatever method you use to wash the residue out of your keyboard, you’ll need to let it dry out afterward. Be sure that you let it dry at least 24 hours, and be sure to reposition it a few times during that drying period. Repositioning it will help ensure the keyboard doesn’t retain small pools of water inside it that could wet things again when you plug it back in.

And once you’ve waited the recommended 24 hours (if not a little more), you’ll want to plug it into your system and give it a test run.