49 comments on “For Science”

  1. I do hope we’ll get to see what kind of Science was done with those keyboards. Probably the mad kind. Can you build a doomsday device only from keyboards?

    1. The Science is to test the hypothesis “Can dishwashers be used clean a keyboard, and not damage either the keyboard or the dishwasher.”

    2. Keyboard doomsday device! I’ll send out the expendables minions out immediately!

  2. I hate when working stuff is being thrown away…
    *has too much rescued computer junk all over the apartment*

    1. So do I. Drives my S.O. up the walls with all the completely functional stuff I bring home that I find on the curb on ‘trash day’. How about a dirty, but fully functional Kirby ‘Continental’ vacuum cleaner……a KRIBY!!! What idiot throws away a functional Kirby??? Cleaned it up, got new belt/bags for it and gave it to my S.O.’s sister…she still has it….15years.

      Yep…..Imma pack-rat. ;-p

  3. Ha! Reminds me of the quick sketch of Mandy opening the freezer and finding a power drill.

    If the keyboard still works after all that water and soap from the dishwasher, it is probably the best keyboard money can buy.

    Second thought, it would probably be more fun to clean the keyboards in the laundry washing machine and/or dryer.

    1. Should be fine, after you open it up and dry out all the components.

      1. Absolutely!!! So MANY people don’t understand that you can actually WASH electronic things in soap and water and they’ll work just fine PROVIDED YOU MAKE SURE ALL WATER IS OUT OF THEM BEFORE POWERING UP.

        IRON ED…..I can thoroughly relate to your MG/AH Sprite newsgroup friends…..care to guess how many times my GoldWing carburetors found themselves in the dishwasher after soaking overnight in ‘Gunk’ carb cleaner? 😉

    2. They’ll be fine. Keyboards don’t have that much in the way of delicate electronics. There’s no reason to throw a (PC) keyboard away “because it’s dirty.”

    3. i think dishwasher would be best a washing machine would spin them harshly and break them

      1. I thought the dishwasher would break them. I think Fox at Katsucon said they actually worked afterwards.

        1. a washing machine spins around at a fast speed but a dish washer only washes

  4. Don’t claim science and leave us with a cliffhanger! Did any survive? Any brands make a good showing?

  6. Hah! I can see someone trying this. I wonder if it actually works, and spits out usable keyboards… 🙂

    Used to be I was on a newsgroup for fans of MG Midgets/AH Sprites. Every once in a while someone admitted to being in trouble for car parts in the dishwasher.

    1. As long as there’s no water in them before you plug them in they’ll still work. If there is water in them though when you do you’ve got a ruined keyboard.

    2. Actually, as long as you use an unheated wash, they come through fine. The only thing about using hot water is that keyboards have a tiny circuit board connected to a plastic membrane (atleast most do) and the hot water that can melt cheap plastic containers will also melt the membrane.. Also, air dry. Open and just let it sit.

      Actually did this with a wireless keyboard after my cat left a hairball on it. works fine, but it does take a few days for all the water to go away (It’s humid here…)

  8. Ed: It does work – The secret is to dishwasher the keyboards and NOT plug them in till they’ve dried out in the sun for a week. And if they still fail, chuck them. They were free.

  10. I have to know, what were the results??? Did they work, did they get clean, will their be a part 2?

    1. Right? I am ashamed to say that I threw away my keyboard because it was dirty, but, I doubt a dish washer could …

      Nevermind, it was nasty and it had to go. Still, need to know!

  11. Reads comic, cannot believe it. Checks tags.

    “Really Happened”

    … I have to meet these people at least ONCE before I die. XD

  12. I’d keep all the black i’s and give them to coworkers… Maybe two to the foreman.

  13. Use them to build a portal….
    A really soapy, washed out portal.

    -Badger-

  14. (Modern) electronic circuits can be washed in soap and water if you :
    A. Remove any batteries on the board
    B. Do the final rinse in distilled water to remove any soap or mineral residue
    C. Let it sit in the sun for a week to thoroughly dry out
    We hope the plastic is dishwasher safe . . .
    I specified (Modern) because old-fashioned equipment may contain coils and paper wrapped capacitors that can’t
    survive water.

    1. What can happen is soap and other gunk getting between the switch contacts.

  15. Hey, I’ve washed a keyboard in a kitchen sink after taking all of the electronics out. Once it was dry, I reassembled it. It worked perfectly! The individual keys and rubber “suction-cup” springs were kind of annoying to get back into place though.
    My go-to cleaning tool for keyboards is a clean 3-inch paint brush, usually. First I brush the loose crumbs and bits out of the keyboard while holding it keys-side-down, then I wash the brush in water and shake all of the water out of it that’ll go, and then use the still-damp brush to scrub the remaining gunk off of the keys. Repeat if needed…

  16. If they were mechanical keyboards, I would be all over that. o.o

    1. I love my mechanical keyboard. Model M “clicky keys” beast, that I’ve had since the DOS era. When PS/2 was the latest thing from IBM, not Sony. I’ve heard about them going through a dishwasher, but never tried it with my own. But this thing could probably go through the SIDE of a dishwasher, and keep typing.

      1. Heh.. Reminds me; I still have a couple of never-installed copies of OS/2 around here somewhere… 🙂

  17. Even if you just want a bunch of keyboards for an art project…

    -Remove the keys, add magnets to the back, have grownup fridge letters.
    -Make a Game Of Thrones-style keyboard throne (It’s been done, but hey, still awesome)

    Also this: http://xkcd.com/1737/

  18. First thought about the number 50 was “50 shades of keyboard”~ where’s the brainbleach…..

    Another games with keyboard caps might be Scrabble, or Crosswords.

  20. “Dirty” can also mean that so much dirt has gotten down in between the keys that they no longer operate well, if at all.
    …or that they’re almost to that point.

  21. I’ve done it. Just make sure to open the keyboard up and dry it out THOROUGHLY. Keyboard is still going strong years later.

  22. I can tell you now, knowing Fox, he let them dry completely out and dollars to doughnuts they still work perfectly. My old boss bless his heart, knows less about computers than my cats. Once sprayed his Microsoft© keyboard down with WD-40 because some of the keys were ‘sticking’ and wouldn’t work. He’d spilled coffee on it weeks ago. *Facepalm*

    He gave it to me and was astounded/pissed off when I brought it back in a couple of days working good as new. Took a pix of the key layout for reference, pulled it completely apart, washed it all in Dawn dish soap, dried it with a blow dryer reassembled and checked it out on my own compy. Worked perfectly.

    He was PO’d because he’d just spent another $40-50 on a new keyboard….now he has a spare. 8-p

    1. That’s the kind of thing you like to do to bosses you do -not- like! Totally ‘innocent’ too. 😉

  23. Reminds me of Chrispy “Let’s Do Science To It!” from precocious.com. Lovely work Fox!

  24. There are actually a surprisingly high number of keyboards that are explicitly listed as being dishwasher safe by the manufacturer. So, this seems fine to me.

  25. For those of you with dirty keyboards: you’d be amazed how much you can get off with a quarter-inch camel hair brush on a little of the gelled alcohol hand sanitized (be sure the hand sanitizer is COMPLETELY dry before use). NOTE: I have has one keyboard made of a plastic which has a bad reaction to gelled alcohol, test a corner first.

    1. One of my favorite comments for this page. 🙂 Thanks, Katnik!

  27. Since somebody already made an xkcd reference, I’ll add my own: imagine keyboard were leopard. That is even more worthy of “For Science!”

  29. I had a friend that had a LAN room in back of his shop many a year ago. He had 20 some loaner keyboards that he’d just chunk in the dishwasher at the end of the week. Worked fine for him.

  30. ROFLMAO. Typical husband. Right? After all, gotta keep the little woman on her toes. LOL.

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