Reader Question: Are there water resistant mechanical keyboards?
Q: Can you recommend a water resistant mechanical keyboard? I killed my previous one when I spilled (insert beverage) on my keyboard. I left it dry (X) but it never worked right since.
A: There are two general approaches to solve this problem
1) Fix your drinks via a better container
I personally swear by Contigo AUTOSEAL, and it comes in variety of sizes and shapes. This is the "travel mug", version, available in 16, 20, and 24 oz size and dozens of colors:
There is a spring-loaded seal, you have to hold down to open in order to sip from it. If you let go of the button, the sippy hole snaps shut. Knocking over the mug won't do anything, neither will dropping it while holding the button since as soon as it leaves your hand the opening snaps close. It works great for hot or cold drinks. I personally use the water bottle version, shown below:
This one is great for water, sports drink, juices, and so on. You can also get these with protective sprout covers, with built-in infusers, and so on. At about $20 (or less) it's much cheaper than buying a whole new keyboard.
2) Make your keyboard liquid resistant:
You can buy liquid resistant keyboards, but you give up quite a bit for that bit of peace of mind.
The Tomoko (sold under various names) is mostly liquid resistant by having the floating design, liquid and dust resistant switches, as well as drain holes so liquid cannot slosh inside. Then we have the Corsair which uses a spill barrier approach, an extra waterproof layer protection around the switches so normal spills just flows off. Some Chinese keyboards also use this design. Do keep in mind that spill resistant keyboards are only rated for spills, NOT immersion. It also severely limits your choices of switches and design. Choose wisely.
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