20 Oct
2012
20 Oct
'12
12:54 p.m.
On Sat, 20 Oct 2012, Chris Tofu wrote:
From: Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
I've run keyboard subassemblies through the dishwasher* before (disable
the dry cycle!) but soaking in a bucket of hot water and soap certainly
works too.
[*pre-energy saver models, modern dishwashers that rely on rinse agents
such as JetDry can and /will/ etch and discolor plastics with only a
single wash cycle.]
Indeed. I ngernal, soaking a fully-assembled
unit, or randomly
squirting solvents (or worse lubricants, and even worse Wanton
Destruction 40) into mechanisms is a bad idea.
Well, and I realize that a keyboard is an entirely different beast, but
I have no problem tossing a k/b (w/o foam depression pads, you'd better
check!) in a bath of hot water, soap, and ammonia. Let it soak, rattle
the keys, rinse, let it dry THOROUGHLY, and it works great. There are
solvents good and bad. Large motors I've left out in the elements, heck
left one submerged for
months, dried them out, and they worked fine.
Did you disassemble them and repack the ball bearings with fresh grease?
If not, washing that grease out will certainly cause them to fail before
too long.
Small electronic motors could be an entirely different
thing.
Small stepper motors and such would not like it at all.
But I'm not apprehensive about introducing
solvents into *some*
electronics at least. I'll admit though they range from ok to bad to
worse though.
Like anything else, you need to know what sort of parts can handle
washing. Just as you can wash some PC boards, certain electromechanical
parts such as pushbuttons, relays, and even other parts such as non-sealed
variable resistors and tunable inductors may not be able to handle being
washed and may have been installed on the PC board after the initial
cleaning during manufacture.