I Successfully Ran My Keyboard Through the Dishwasher

October 16th, 2008, No Comments »

Just a quick note to say, well, what the title says: you can successfully put your keyboard through the dishwasher.

My keyboard is, maybe, three years old. I’ve cleaned it before, but not recently. Plus, it had sat in a box for a year while we lived abroad, so the thing was seriously gungy (wow, ‘gunge’ is a legitimate word–who knew?).

I’d read opinions elsewhere both for and against this cleaning strategy. It seemed viable, and the keyboard doesn’t owe me anything, so I figured I’d give it a try.

I stuck it in the upper tray, along with a bunch of dishes. I turned down the heat as far as it would go, and removed the keyboard before the drying cycle.

I scheduled the cleaning just before we went to Palm Springs for five days, so that it had plenty of time to dry completely. Other articles I read recommended removing the keys to help with the drying, or sticking it in the fridge to assist the dehydration. I didn’t do either, but five days later my keyboard was, as you might expect, bone dry.

It didn’t get 100% clean, but it was much cleaner than it had been. And it works just fine. The action of the keys feels a little softer than before. Plus, to Julie’s delight, it’s a bit quieter (I’m a loud typist).

As an addendum, I wrote about my gungy keyboard three years ago.

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Do Not, Under Any Circumstances, Overload the Washing Machine

May 21st, 2007, 5 Comments »

We have a portable washing machine in our villa. Like many parts of Europe, there’s no dryer. We use our galaxy’s local star as our dryer, and it works very well (plus, it’s cheap!).

When they installed the washing machine a few weeks ago, they didn’t secure it to the wall. I don’t know if this is standard practice around these parts, but failing to do so has had one entertaining result.

During the spin cycle, the washer likes to go for a walk.

If left to its own devices, it will actually vibrate out into the middle of the kitchen, extending its hoses and cord straight out from the wall.

We’ve managed this phenomenon with three rubber doorstops, which seemed to really do the trick.

Until I tried to wash our sheets and my jeans in the same load. No stinkin’ doorstop was stopping that mad, vibrating beast. It tossed them aside like a mastodon throws aside irksome human hunters.

The photo shows me holding the washing machine at bay while it’s at full speed in its spin cycle. It actually took considerable effort to prevent it from walking right out the front door and down the lane to Rangers Bar.

Lesson learned: smaller loads in the washing machine. I knew enough not to put North American-sized loads in, but I still need to cut back.

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