Disha Washa

Yup, keyboards are dishwasher safe. It's all clean now and the keys aren't so stiff - but this keyboard pretty much sucked when it was brand new. People need to learn to not buy into this sort of gimmick.

By the way, I did not put the entire keyboard in the dishwasher, just the top 1/2 of the shell with all the keys in there. I removed all the electronics and the rubber membrane with all the rubber nipples on it¹. But I did run the dishwasher at the high temp on the "pots and pans" setting with heated dry. And it didn't melt any of the plastic components. And all the keys stayed in place. I was half expecting to be digging melted keys from under the rack.

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1. Never seen this membrane? Well, what are you waiting for? Take your keyboard apart right now. No, seriously¹. All you need is a screwdriver with a Philip's Head #1² for the tiny screws inside. You'll also probably have to remove a metal plate inside to get to the membrane. If you're really unlucky then it will not be a membrane, but a bunch of little rubber nipples that are a real pain to get back in because there are like 105 of them and they don't like to stay in place when you re-assemble the keyboard.

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1. I do not recommend that you attempt to disassemble a laptop keyboard. Please stick to external keyboards only - also avoid external laptop-like keyboards like they small gyration wireless keyboard. The only way to access the membranes on the laptop keyboard is to take all the keys off one-by-one. It's a real pain to put back together. I've done it several times as you can see on my colemak post in which I rearrange the keys. But you are more likely to break something if you attempt to remove the keys improperly. A laptop keyboard is just a stamped metal plate with 4 tabs sticking up for each key. 3 stacked sheets of plastic contain the circuitry and "switches" and the rubber membrane provides the interface between the keys and the switches. The keys are held on with two little plastic 'U's which interlock with each other, the key, and the 4 tabs on the sheet which protrude through holes in the plastic and rubber. The rubber also serves to keep the keys up. You can type on just the membrane having removed all the hard plastic keys, but the nipples tend to move sideways as easily as down, so you "miss" a lot. Every laptop keyboard I've ever seen is made this way. Most other keyboards aren't much better, they just have a plastic shell that keeps all the keys in place somehow - I've seen a few different ways - instead of having the keys attached to the metal plate.

2. Every keyboard I've ever seen (except laptop keyboards of course) is held together with philips head screws, never those annoying triangular head screws you find on chinese made toys from fast food restaurants¹, or the slightly less annoying tiny star head screws you find on hard drives that are too small for the smallest bit in a normal set of star head bits.

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1. Why do they bother using those triangle head screws? Are they afraid that someone's going to take one apart to discover the top-secret internals of the cheap chinese toy? Are they afraid that a toddler is going to get hold of a screw driver, take the toy apart, and choke on the components? Are they afraid that someone might fix the thing if it breaks?

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Disclaimer: I do not endorse disassembling your keyboard or putting it in the dishwasher. I am not responsible if you injure yourself or damage your keyboard.