Last month, after a couple of eggnogs at the office, I drenched my keyboard in a cup of coffee. Kind readers suggested running it through the dishwasher. Of course, putting keyboards in dishwashers is the kind of thing you read on the internet all the time, but never believe it actually works.
So, skeptical that it would work, I tried it myself.I’m happy to report that running a filthy, coffee-stained keyboard through the dishwasher works great. The keyboard is spotless, and it works perfectly.
Feel me: dishwashers make keyboards better than new.
Full procedure after the jump.
As described in a previous post, I drenched a keyboard in a cup of coffee. The coffee eventually dried, and the keyboard still worked OK, but I decided this would be a good time to test the dubious theory that keyboards can survive a trip through the dishwasher.
I’ve previously dismantled Apple keyboards like this after coffee and beer spills, and they’re a pain in the ass. There are tons of screws, and these keyboards are full of fiddly little silicon cups below the keys. I always lose a couple before I put them back together. And then the keyboard still doesn’t work, and I’ve wasted hours titting about.
The dishwasher treatment seemed like a good shortcut. But I was skeptical it would work. Especially this model, which has a couple of USB ports on the back.
I loaded the keyboard into the top rack of the dishwasher, the keys facing down. I read somewhere on the internet that you’re supposed to wrap the USB plug in plastic to protect it. I was too lazy, so I plugged it into one of the two USB ports on the back instead. I thought about protecting the USB ports also, but again, couldn’t be bothered.
Turn the dial to the “Normal Wash” setting. Do not load dishwashing liquid.
The keyboard emerged full of water, so I left it upside down for a couple of days to drain. This was only partially successful: There was still quite a lot of water trapped between the keys. So I put the keyboard next to a window and left it another few days in the hope the water would evaporate out.
Five days later, and totally expecting the keyboard not to work, I plugged it into my MacBook. I was flabbergasted to find it actually worked! I tested all the keys, including the function keys, volume controls, and number pad. Everything works, including the LED under the caps lock and number lock keys.
Look at how offensively white it is — it actually hurts your eyes.
So there you have it: Running a keyboard through the dishwasher actually works.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
