NPR Morning Edition had a story today concerning the cleansing of your computer keyboard. Most manufacturer’s recommendations that I’ve seen have involved wiping the surface down with mild disinfectant and/or using canned air to blow the crumbs/dust/hair out from between the keys (holding upside down and vigourously shaking, as is the practice by yours truly, is discouraged).
However, the NPR story was about washing your keyboard in the dishwasher.
Though an entertaining piece to listen to, I think they’re all insane. Well, wait. Maybe they’re not. Our household has experience a few keyboards awash in drink, with no lasting adverse effect. The only funkiness was when only a few drops of fluid were in the keyboard, causing odd short circuits between keys, resulting in a sdentewcve thwat lookewsd likwe thisa. So, maybe washing (and drying!) a keyboard isn’t such a bad idea.
This topic has apparently made a big dent on google.
I’m adamantly convinced that though this might not kill your keyboard, it has got to shorten its lifespan by a large fraction. And really, the only reason to do this is to have a clean looking keyboard, not necessarily one that is sanitary. So, if you can put up with a keyboard that is a bit grimy (better yet, buy a black one) you’re good to go.
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