this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2025
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Spilled a whole cup of coffee on my keyboard and managed to save it (piefed.alphapuggle.dev)
submitted 3 months ago by nathan@piefed.alphapuggle.dev to c/dull_mens_club@lemmy.world
27 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Just sat down with a fresh cup and knocked it into my keyboard. Turned it off and started pulling keycaps off, then soaked it up best I could to no avail.

Wouldn't turn back on after so I dug out every screw, pulled the back off, soaked up as much coffee as I could on the pcb, and ran some isopropyl alcohol under the other side of the PCB where I couldn't reach.

To my surprise this was enough to get it to turn back on. Keys were registering their neighbors too so I had to scrub it with a toothbrush, but afterwards it's fully functional and saved me $250 for a replacement

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[–] abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 26 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Did you save the coffee too?

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I was expecting to see a cup full of coffee mixed with dust and crumbs in this post tbh.

[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

nothing left since OP sucked it with a straw

[–] nathan@piefed.alphapuggle.dev 2 points 3 months ago

Part of a balanced diet!

[–] nathan@piefed.alphapuggle.dev 2 points 3 months ago

Nope, just some coffee stains on my towel & mouse pad

[–] InvisibleShoe@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

I miss my Logitech K310. Cat hair? Spilt coffee? Throw it in the kitchen sink and give it a wash.

[–] FrederikNJS@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Demineralized water is not conductive. All the dirt from the keyboard might make is slightly conductive again, but every time there has been a spill in a mechanical keyboard, I take it apart, and soak it in demineralized water, then when it has soaked for a while I rinse it in fresh demineralized water, and then let it dry. I have only lost one keyboard, and I have saved the rest of the keyboards numerous times.

[–] nathan@piefed.alphapuggle.dev 1 points 3 months ago

I'll keep this in mind for next time, I've seen a couple of people mention the demineralized water. It was 1am when I managed to pull this off so my options were somewhat limited as for what I had on hand at the time

[–] curiousaur@reddthat.com 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Congrats! I did the same. I think I cooked the Bluetooth chip, but it still works wired.

[–] nathan@piefed.alphapuggle.dev 3 points 3 months ago

There's a separate wireless board underneath where the light speed logo is on the front. It's not held on but much so I could totally see some corrosion causing issues there. Gave it some extra attention just in case. Wired is better than nothing tho

[–] CannonFodder@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago (3 children)

fyi - unless you completely dry it, it will likely die from corrosion in the near future.

[–] Cenotaph@mander.xyz 4 points 3 months ago

I've saved a few keyboards that something like this has happened to. Immediately unplugging followed by methodically drying at all piece by piece and then leaving it overnight to completely dry and it'll be good to go

[–] MalReynolds@piefed.social 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Also, using demineralized water then baking @ 55C helps with avoiding corrosion, if you need it. If you can get away with just isopropyl alcohol, all the better.

[–] nathan@piefed.alphapuggle.dev 2 points 3 months ago

Hoping I'm good with just the isopropyl, but I am aware that it may come back to bite me. It's doing good so far today so fingers crossed. There was already a decent amount of corrosion I could see when I got it apart, so I figure if it was gonna get me today it would've already

[–] Whelks_chance@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Did something similar with a hot chocolate a few years ago. Sticky gunge all over everything. Isopropyl alcohol is the best way to sort it.

[–] safesyrup@feddit.org 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If you ever get electronics wet, do as you did and then put it in the oven to dry. 50-60°C should be enough for about an hour. It will dry off any moisture that could cause electrical shorts.

[–] nathan@piefed.alphapuggle.dev 1 points 3 months ago

Never tried one in the oven before. If I start having issues again I'll run some more isopropyl alcohol through it and cook it medium rare

[–] liquefy4931@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

Nice job! Look up "keyboard in dishwasher" and you will discover that it's a common way to clean many keyboards.

[–] diykeyboards@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Nice work. Bake it in the sun for a few hours. Long term, the danger is corrosion between tiny traces causing shorts. It needs to be bone dry in there.

[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I 100% would have bought another one. Good on ya OP

[–] nathan@piefed.alphapuggle.dev 4 points 3 months ago

I thought I was going to have to, but damned if I wasn't going to try first!

[–] UniversalBasicJustice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Hell yeah dude, I had something similar happen with my 6-week old Das years ago. Had to replace half the switches but managed to save it!

[–] nathan@piefed.alphapuggle.dev 2 points 3 months ago

I'm lucky all the switches seem fine! They're all soldered down through the front case so I couldn't get to the front of the PCB without removing all of them, which didn't sound fun

[–] ODGreen@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If the keycaps are grimy, soak them in a bowl of water with a denture cleaning tablet. Then rinse and leave them out to dry. Works well when keycaps get gross from finger grime too.

[–] nathan@piefed.alphapuggle.dev 1 points 3 months ago

I hit them with the same toothbrush & alcohol combo I was with the PCB and they're looking pretty good, but I'll give that a shot when they start getting grimy in the future!

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 months ago

Huh. Yesterday I cleaned my keyboard because it was dirty. I have a mechanical keyboard and really coarse hair so when it gets trapped it can bind up the keys.

[–] celeste@kbin.earth 2 points 3 months ago

I've been meaning to try turning on the keyboard i cleaned coffee out of a few months ago. I gave it some extra time to dry by picking up a cheap keyboard and then just kept using the cheap keyboard out of laziness.