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Comment by avree | Hacker News Reader

I had my keyboard replaced by Apple a month ago, in one of the covered models. They charged full price for an entire bottom shell replacement of my laptop. The keys were better (obviously) for the first day, but after a month of use keys are already having issues (volume key is falling off). I keep my keyboard and laptop extremely clean, so it's not a matter of trapped food particles or dust or whatever.

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The problem is that subtle amounts of dust are enough to stick the key mechanism.

So unless you work in a medical clean room it largely doesn’t matter how clean you keep your laptop. Two top cases later for me and I now use a keyboard cover. No problems since.

Which cover did you choose? Does it make the screen dirty? My wife had a cover on her MacBook many years ago, and the oil from the cover would imprint on the screen, leaving keyboard-shaped marks all over.

Bring a microfiber cloth (like the ones for cleaning glasses) and a spray bottle with an acceptable solvent wherever you go. It doesn't take that much time or effort to clean every few days.

Bring a spray bottle with me wherever I go?

You can pack it together with the dongles :-)

That's overkill, and a silly recommendation. Try these microfiber cloths:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019O1RH4W/

They are thin enough to allow you to close the lid of your laptop while traveling, and stop and direct contact from the oily keys to the screen.

The little 1-oz ones the size of your finger? They slip easily enough into a backpack or laptop bag.

It's not about size — it's about having a bottle of liquid that could crack/spill into my laptop bag.

Using a solvent is actually a very unwise mistake. No solvent is required and you're just eating away the coating. You don't need any solvent at all. Just a cloth and very occasionally, a couple drops of water. That's it. If you are cleaning your screen every few days, you're doing it wrong. Stop touching your screen and dabbing it with slices of pizza or whatever the fuck you're doing to get it dirty "every few days".

I agree that solvent is unwise. My original (GP) question was about keyboard covers, which often end up touching the screen (when the lid is closed) and transfer finger oil onto the screen.

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