This product claims to remove the grime that builds up in the recesses of keyboards and other regularly used devices. This grime, as we know, can be difficult to budge with a simple cotton bud or shake. The Cyberclean is a soft, gel-like compound that claims to get into crevices you can't reach. It comes in a plastic bucket or resealable foil packet and can be used a number of times before its effectiveness wears off. This is indicated by a change in colour.
The simple-to-follow instructions show someone pushing the gel into a keyboard and removing it, showing detritus adhering to the gel. You then fold it over and use it again. Once you are done, put it back into its container to prevent drying out. It’s biodegradable and seems simple to use.
The Cyberclean instructions say to roll it between your hands so they adjust to the gel’s pH level. Press the gel into a keyboard so it sinks slowly down into the key components. After ten seconds or so of pressure, lift it off and the product drags a lot of what you expect to find hidden behind the keys out – hair, skin and assorted food particles. Cyberclean claims to kill most bacteria it comes into contact with, however it doesn’t get everywhere - it still leaves some detritus behind, especially if you have a deep keyboard or small spaces it can’t reach.
Cyberclean may not have reached the bottom of our keyboard but did clean between the keys, removing the dust. How long it lasts depends on how much grime you have. By the time we finished cleaning around five well-used keyboards, it had almost changed to the colour for disposal.
CHOICE verdict
The packaging hype of Cyberclean doesn’t claim to remove everything. Which is good, because it doesn’t. However, it does remove a lot of keyboard grime. If you enjoy having a clean and hygienic keyboard, you might want to invest in this product and supplement it with a shake – it’s cheaper than buying a new keyboard and you could argue it’s more sustainable. However if a simple shake and wipe over of the keys is good enough, we don’t recommend this product for you.
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