Mechanical keyboards are considered to be particularly robust and the German keyboard manufacturer Cherry likes to advertise the quality of its keyboards. But how much can a Cherry mechanical keyboard really withstand? We did the involuntary endurance test.
A mechanical keyboard for the workplace in the editorial office
We got a wired Cherry G80-3000N RGB for working in the PC-WELT/Macwelt editorial office in Munich. This is a mechanical gaming keyboard with RGB lighting. We wanted a long-lasting keyboard with a clear pressure point that sometimes withstands slightly stronger keystrokes without damage. Because in the stressful day-to-day work of the editor, you hit the keys a little harder. We were happy to take the optical effect with us, but it was not decisive for the purchase.
First poured a bottle of juice over the keyboard
But especially when you want to finish a text quickly under time pressure, you become careless and make mistakes. Here’s how it happened to us: We grabbed a 0.2 liter bottle of multivitamin juice, uncapped it and were about to drink when a video call came through. So we put the juice aside again. We loosely screwed the cap back onto the bottle.
After a few minutes the call ended and we continued to write our text. At some point it occurred to us: We’re thirsty. And reached for the juice without thinking that the lid was only loosely on the bottle. As befits juice, we turned the bottle upside down for a moment so that the pulp was evenly distributed. We held the bottle directly over the cherry keyboard – and the entire orange juice, including the pulp, was distributed over our keyboard, which was only a few weeks old.
The juice spread over the entire width of the keyboard and ran under the keys everywhere. The individual keys stuck immediately: As soon as you pressed a key, it no longer returned to its original position, but remained in the pressed position. Accordingly, our screen quickly filled up with characters that made little sense in constant repetition. Working properly was out of the question.
Just hold it under the faucet
What to do? Just rinse with water? That might not help much with sticky juice, but we tried it anyway. So we unplugged the keyboard, went to the tea kitchen and held the cherry under the tap for several minutes and let the unbridled jet of water rinse the keyboard as best it could. Result: No success. Almost all keys were still stuck in the depressed position.
Then the soap is added
So soap had to go. You can’t do more than break, we thought. So we poured plenty of liquid soap over the keyboard and made sure that the liquid soap ran down well between the individual keys and was thus distributed under the keys. Then we let the soap act a bit.
We then rinsed the keyboard again under a strong jet of water in the sink. And lo and behold: Most of the keys now move properly again and immediately return to their original position after pressing them as soon as we release the key.
Only a few keys tended to lag or got stuck after pressing. We poured plenty of soap onto the keyboard around these problem children, let the suds work in for a few minutes and then rinsed again. That was about a year ago. Since then, the Cherry G80-3000N RGB has been working properly again without any problems.
