How to Remove Oil From a Laptop Keyboard

Your laptop’s keyboard is one of its most essential pieces of hardware.

You will more than likely interact with the keys more than anything else on your laptop.

Because of that, you need to take care of them.

Otherwise, they won’t last long, and you’ll have to replace them sooner rather than later. This can be difficult with a laptop.

Fortunately, removing oil from a laptop keyboard is a simple task. All you need is a little bit of patience and a few household items. Let’s check out how you can get it done.

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What Is Oil Buildup on a Laptop Keyboard?

You might be asking yourself, what even is oil buildup on my laptop keyboard in the first place?

This is an excellent question because sometimes it can almost seem that oil builds up on our keyboards without us even noticing or doing anything to cause it.

Although it may seem this way, this is never the truth.

Everything has a Cause.

You see, our fingertips and skin produce natural oils. Your fingers rest on the keyboard; these oils transfer from the tips of your fingers to your keyboard.

In this simple transfer over time, most of us don’t even realize that oil begins to build up on our laptop keyboard.

Once this oil dries on our keyboard, it can create a film or nasty-looking texture that isn’t the most pleasant.

We’re going to look at how to get rid of oil buildup on a laptop keyboard.

Ways to Remove Oil From a Laptop Keyboard

From traditional household items to pre-made products, there are plenty of ways for you to remove oil from a laptop keyboard.

This isn’t going to be difficult and should only take a few moments of your time.

You shouldn’t have to do it too often, but I would recommend doing it consistently to ensure that the buildup never gets to a point where it requires a significant clean in the first place!

Use a Laptop Wipe

First, on our list, we have laptop wipes.

Laptop wipes or technology wipes are wipes that are specifically built to be safe and effective in using on your laptop or other electronic devices.

When cleaning your laptop or computer, you have to consider that not all chemicals are safe to use. They might not be safe for your health but also not for your computer.

Certain chemicals can get into your keyboard and harm your computer’s internal structure, which we do not want.

I recommend using MiracleWipes. You can get them here on Amazon.

They’re a fantastic safe product for your laptop and will remove the oil from your laptop keyboard.

All you have to do is first power down your computer. We do this so we’re not inputting random characters into our laptop, causing it to do random functions.

Once you have it powered down, all you need to do is wipe down your keyboard with a slightly firm press. This will be different for everybody, but the general procedure should be the same. You may have to go back and forth on your keyboard a few times or focus on specific areas more than others where you usually rest your hands.

Use a Damp Cotton Ball

Although we highly recommend using MiracleWipes, let’s say you want to do this right now.

If you have cotton balls in your house, you have enough material to effectively remove the oil from your keyboard.

You have to take a cotton ball and lightly wet it, so it’s damp.

Once you’ve done that, you can use the same technique I recommended with the laptop wipe but replace the instructions with a cotton ball!

This means you will first power down your laptop and then wipe back and forth until the oils are completely removed from your laptop keyboard.

Once it looks good, you will want to let it dry before your subsequent use.

Use a Damp Paper Towel

Not to beat a dead horse here, but we will explain one more method to use to remove oil from your laptop keyboard.

This final method is using a damp paper towel.

Again you’ll want to make sure your computer is powered off before continuing. Dampen the paper towel, wipe down your keyboard, and let it dry once you’ve done so.

Let It Dry

We’ve mentioned the letting it dry step and all three examples above.

You might be asking why it’s essential to let it dry.

The reason for this is when you wipe your keyboard, there may be moisture left on top of your keycaps. We want to make sure that water is evaporated and has no risk of getting into the internal portion of your laptop or keyboard. It would help if you did not press the humidity into the keyboard by powering it back up and typing on it too soon.

Trust me, let it dry.