I am quite clumsy and spend most of my day before the computer. So naturally, my keyboard accumulates a lot of dirt and dust – let’s not forget cookie crumbs. Disgusting, I know.
But I clean it regularly. I’ve always used plain cloth and keyboard cleaning solutions to keep my device neat and shiny. But I couldn’t resist trying a hack I found on TikTok which uses glue to get rid of dirt in the gaps between the keys you can’t reach otherwise, or that’s what it claims. But tech experts warned me against it ahead of trying the hack.
I tried cleaning my keyboard using glue
As a kid, I thoroughly enjoyed spreading white glue on my hand and peeling it off once dried. When I saw a TikTok user do the same on their keyboard, I decided to try it too.
All you need to do is squeeze white glue in the gaps between the keys and do it in one go without lifting your hand to ensure the flow is steady and there isn’t any breakage in the lines.
And then, wait for a few hours until the glue dries up completely. It took an entire day for me. Once ready to peel off, lift one end of the dried glue using any sharp object and rip it off slowly.
If the glue breaks, gently stick a safety pin between the keys where the glue ends and continue to peel off the rest.
Did my keyboard look cleaner than before? Yes. Would I recommend others to try it? Probably no. Despite spending a lot of time removing every bit of the glue, I could see some of it at the bottom or in the gaps I couldn’t reach.
There are legitimate reasons to refrain from doing it, especially if there isn’t much gap between the keys in your device and if it’s new or sensitive.
I tried it on a traditional keyboard with removable keys and a plastic tray underneath, that separates them from the wiring inside. If the truth is told the hack isn’t safe to try on any electric device.
Tech experts recommend against it
I spoke to Chris Jones, Lead Engineer at GRV Media, and his teammates before trying the viral hack and they all had a unanimous response – there’s no way I’d do that to a new keyboard watching it.
Chris said his colleague, Robi Buckley, who is also a part of the tech team, finds the hack “scary”, and the rest of the team feels similarly about it.
Speaking of trying the hack on traditional keyboards, Chris said: “If a keyboard was clunky enough to have room to do that you could probably just pull the keys off and then put them back on.”
But he recommends that “a can of compressed air is the usual way to try and clean a keyboard like that without taking it apart.”
When asked if he would try it on his keyboard, Chris said: “I’m on a brand-new Apple keyboard which couldn’t take that treatment, there’s no big gaps to get the glue in and out on nicer keyboards.”
“Plus old keyboards are effectively a plastic tray underneath the keys you could spill a drink in and potentially not break it,” he added.
Chris warns that a sensitive keyboard would have more delicate items under the keys. “So doing that to a laptop keyboard would be insane.”
