Bugs in the system

September 1, 2009 11:36 AM

Mass sterilisation of keyboards, what are my best options?

Have about 50 computers in my care, and in use by the public. Having just seen yet another user sneeze into their hands and then continue typing I am reminded that my keyboards must be beyond gross by now.

While I thank my filthy workplace for my robust immune system, I would still like to be able to sterilise the keyboards about once a month or so. Apart from the boogie-men of msrs and the piggyflu, the Norwalk-like winter puking bugs are a genuine problem where I am.

If worst comes to the worst I guess I will just throw them all in the dishwasher once a year, but I am hoping omone can shed some (UVC?) light on a better solution. Any truth to those magic wands for example? If so, where to get? I only find dodgey looking yahoo-store links

posted by Iteki to technology (24 comments total)

I have noticed that hospitals use Polycide-brand wipes.

I a not recommending that particular supplier (just the first Google hit). I know they're exactly the ones I have seen in hospital-use, though, because how could I forget that brand name? Killer.
posted by rokusan at 11:39 AM on September 1

1. turn computers off

2. fill a spray bottle (like an empty windex bottle, but you can get nice ones with volume markings at a restaurant supply store) with 1 part bleach and 3 parts water.

3. lightly mist each keyboard from a distance of a foot or more

4. wipe with a clean paper towel.
posted by Jon_Evil at 11:42 AM on September 1

Clorox Disinfecting Wipes + Qtips (for crevices and between keys) + 10 minutes unskilled labor = sanitized keyboard. Issue the supplies, and make it a monthly user workplace cleaning responsibility. And try to keep them from eating over the keyboards, and dousing their pinkies with hand moisturizer every 2 minutes.

Lotsa luck with the last bits...
posted by paulsc at 11:45 AM on September 1 [1 favorite]

What I like to do is clean the keyboards at the same time I clean the monitors. I usually mix up 1 part vinegar with 3 parts water. This cleans LCD screens nicely and can also clean off the keyboards. The problem you still face is the gunk under the keys. For that I just get a shop vac, put it on blow, and blow out all the gunk. You probably want to do the blow out first and the wiping second. Really dirty keyboards just get thrown out.
posted by damn dirty ape at 11:56 AM on September 1

Once you get them clean, it'd be worth your while to grab some of those replaceable plastic protective keyboard overlay cover thingies (ask around in your local electronics store). Stick them on, wipe them down every now and then, and replace them whenever you deem necessary.

That way you don't have to be fiddling with all those detached keys stuck in the bottom of the dishwasher.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:01 PM on September 1

Sterilizing is a bit pointless. YOU are the source of germs...as soon as you touch the keyboard again it is contaminated. Just clean it with a damp cloth, and accept that the world doesn't have to be sterile unless you have a severe immunity disorder.
posted by randomstriker at 12:41 PM on September 1

Right, but cleaning them gets the dirt and oils off, which is where germs love to live in. Not to mention the psychological benefit of using a clean looking keyboard.

It may be a better policy to just allow your users to borrow wipes so they can sterilize between uses. Or at least have hand sanitizer handy.
posted by damn dirty ape at 12:59 PM on September 1

Hydrogen peroxide is a very effective disinfectant. It works best in an acidic pH. With a misting bottle of peroxide (3%) and and another misting bottle of vinegar you are ready to decontaminate some surfaces. Bleach (which also works best with the vinegar spray) is also effective (dilue about 10 to 1) but it might be corrosive to the inner workings of the keyboard. You use separate bottles because when mixed the vinegar will react and may diminish the long term effectiveness of the solution (and in the case of bleach it can actually release some chlorine if you were to add it to the undiluted bleach).
posted by caddis at 1:13 PM on September 1

I oversee only 10 keyboards, but in addition to scrubbing the buggers down now and again, I make sure there are hand wipes and sanitizer available, always.

And I have a sign inviting people to use them on hands and keyboards.
posted by cestmoi15 at 1:29 PM on September 1 [1 favorite]

A lot of these are way too time consuming for you to do once a month. Just line up the keyboards and spray them with Lysol. That'll disinfect them very well. It won't clean them of grime but you can just wipe them with a damp cloth for that. But spraying with Lysol is by far the easiest, quickest, and most effective way for a single person to disinfect a large number of keyboards.
posted by Justinian at 1:43 PM on September 1

High-intensity ultraviolet would be a good solution.
posted by alby at 1:43 PM on September 1

Sorry, should have specified: you'd need to buy germicidal lamps - you can't just load them into a sunbed.

And be careful: they don't look bright to the eye because they're not putting out much visible light, but they're bright in the UV spectrum and they'll damage your eyes.
posted by alby at 1:51 PM on September 1

$1 bottle of rubbing alcohol from the dollar store (50% concentration would be fine, doesn't really matter).
$1 pack of baby wipes from the dollar store (nothing fancy, just cheap generic baby wipes).

Glug some alcohol into a baby wipe. Not so much that it's drippy. Wipe the keyboards, hard, with the baby wipe (the alcohol will dissolve the grime & kill germs, and the texture of the wipe will get a surprisingly satisfying amoung of the crud out of the plastic). Two bucks total expenditure, plus, 30 seconds per keyboard, and you're done.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 2:12 PM on September 1 [2 favorites]

Don't forget to turn it over a piece of paper and give it a good bang.
Prepare to be grossed out...
posted by aquafortis at 2:13 PM on September 1

I wonder if you could attack this problem from the other direction, by making sure that your patrons have easy access to tissues and hand sanitizer. I, for one, would be less prone to the ol' sneeze-and-type if there were a box of kleenex within reach.
posted by aparrish at 2:23 PM on September 1

Lots of good stuff so far, keep it coming please. Couple of clarifications meanwhile.


- Providing cleaning materials isn't going to happen, as unfortunately, tidying anything at all up after selves is not a priority of my users. If they are leaving snotrags, they will leave wetwipes.

- Re. me being the source of the germs, no, snotface who used it before me is the source of the germs ;)

Relevant to both of the above points is that I got me about 300 (adult) people rolling through per day, so that is some huge amount of a) cleaning materials and b) snot.


Leading the bunch at the moment (after germicidal lights, tell me more please alby?) is turning off the electricity, misting them with something toxic and giving them the weekend to dry out.
posted by Iteki at 3:02 PM on September 1

Probably not so good for mass sterilisation, but Cyber Clean makes cleaning your keyboard great fun, and apparently kills a lot of germs.
posted by hnnrs at 3:24 PM on September 1

"... - Providing cleaning materials isn't going to happen, as unfortunately, tidying anything at all up after selves is not a priority of my users. If they are leaving snotrags, they will leave wetwipes. ..."

Well, if you can't get your piggies users to clean their own workstations with provided supplies, then I recommend, for you, a horsehair shoe shine brush, and a spray bottle full of 91% rubbing alcohol. Spray the keyboard lightly with alcohol mist, brush it a bit, flip upside down to shake out crumbs, and leave to air dry.

If your keyboards still look dirty after being disinfected, it will be hard to convince people that they have been disinfected, so the shoe shine brush does the best job, I've found, of agitating away dirt discoloration, with alcohol solvent, in the shortest time. You will probably need to clean the brush in a little alcohol bath of its own about every 50 keyboards, and blow it dry, or dry it in paper towels a bit. Working with a near dry brush seems to work best for me.
posted by paulsc at 3:48 PM on September 1

I would go with a bleach-free clorox type disinfectant wipe. Or the lysol spray route.
posted by gjc at 4:27 PM on September 1

If you use alcohol, use 40% - it does a better job of killing things than 100% alcohol.

Germicidal lights is not your best option since a keyboard is going to be chock full of shady places.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 5:55 PM on September 1

+1 on leaving hand sanitizer out for people. I've seen some places where they have a large commercial dispenser on a stand. Sanitizing keyboards sounds like a great thing to do, but after just one day they will be "infected" again. Better to make it easy to clean up after using the infected keyboards.

If someone uses a public keyboard and then doesn't bother to use some hand sanitizer afterward, well then they are on their own. I think when the next flu season starts people are going to be pretty proactive about sanitizing.
posted by kenliu at 6:14 PM on September 1 [1 favorite]

If you use alcohol, use 40% - it does a better job of killing things than 100% alcohol.

Cite please. This sort of defies common sense.

When an alcohol/water solution evaporates it becomes continuously more dilute as alcohol has a higher vapor pressure than water. A hydrogen peroxide solution is the opposite as the peroxide has a much lower vapor pressure than water. With alcohol the alcohol evaporates faster leaving a weaker solution over time, and thus a less effective solution over time. With peroxide the opposite is true with the solution becoming more concentrated and effective as it evaporates. Because of this even a relatively dilute 3% peroxide solution provides a pretty effective disinfection when left on a surface to dry. Done properly you might even achieve sterilization.
posted by caddis at 7:39 PM on September 1

Cite please. This sort of defies common sense.

Wilson and Gisvold's textbook of organic medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry (11 ed.). pp. 220.

The linked reference indicates that the kill rate is not significantly different for alcohol w.w. concentrations from 60% to 95%. That's not exactly the same as what Kid Charlemagne claimed (i.e. that lower concentrations are more antiseptic), but defies your common sense nonetheless. Not unlike many scientific facts.
posted by randomstriker at 11:31 PM on September 1

Ok thanks for the suggestions guys and girls. I am going to continue trying to find a UV-C lamp to purchase, and will in the interim mist them with bleach.
posted by Iteki at 1:17 PM on September 3