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Keycaps Breaking? Anybody had any experience with this?


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Hi,

 

My much-loved K70 RGB's keycaps started dropping like flies about 2 weeks ago, within the space of a couple days over 1/3 of all the keycaps on the board were literally crumbling under my fingers. The surprisingly thin edges of the grey plastic was evidently cracking and subsequently breaking off leading the caps to no longer sit on the switches.

 

After filling out an RMA ticket with Corsair they swiftly sent a full replacement set of keycaps, the overall experience was fantastic and I was incredibly grateful to have my keyboard up and running again very quickly.

 

A week later and to my horror 2 of the brand new replacement keycaps have crumbled in as many minutes. After quickly removing every single keycap from the keyboard to prevent others following, it's clear that many of the grey studs on the caps are indeed beginning to crack again.

 

I have absolutely no idea what the hell could be causing this, clearly it's not the keycaps as if two batches of caps were prone to breaking surely this issue would be more widely discussed, and I can't find anything about it online?

 

Has anybody had any experience with crumbling keycaps before? Assuming the keycaps are not the problem what on earth could be happening leading them to break so consistently? I don't consider myself a remotely heavy typist and play no games that involve 'mashing' or keys to be held down for any length of time.

 

Can anybody please offer any suggestions or insight the problem? Will Corsair possibly replace the board? I'm pretty worried right now as this board was damn expensive and replacing it would suck pretty bad. I'm reluctant to buy replacement keycaps as this will very likely just happen again.

 

Thanks,

 

Wonga

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I haven't found any evidence of this happening to anyone else so my advice to you would be to contact Corsair Tech support and explain in detail the situation to them. Maybe because of your particular typing style/strength the K70 is not a workable solution for you.
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Thanks for the response Robert,

 

I've thought this too but honestly I've been a very fluent touch-typist for about 6 years now and really can't say I think my typing is in any way forceful. Furthermore, the keys that have broken are keys that I've maybe touched 3 times since purchasing the board. Keys such as the INS-HOME-PAGE UP - DEL - END and the majority of the numpad I've rarely used and have still broken.

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Do you remove the keycaps using a key puller? If you don't remove keycaps properly you can end up damaging them. Also, do you do any work with chemicals that may still be on your hands while using your keyboard? I'm thinking either your keyboard is suffering from some sort of chemical reaction. Maybe there is some sort of biological agent eating the plastic? This is very odd and I have not seen keycaps damaged ever amongst my and my friends' keyboards (5 K95s total). I would look at all other plastics surrounding your computer to see if they are also experiencing rapid deterioration
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I've never pulled a cap off without the puller, and always do so with care so I'm pretty sure it's not that.

 

Very interesting you mentioned a chemical of sorts as that's what I started to consider myself. I don't work with any chemicals of any sort that could lead to something being left on the keyboard, but it does almost certainly seem like something is degrading the plastic over time. Should I just clean the board out with soapy water or something, and do you think this would void my warranty?

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I am not sure. I don't think cleaning the key caps in water should remove the warranty, but I am not sure. You'll have to hear from Corsair on that one.

 

Some microbes eat plastic. I'm not sure how to identify if this is the case or not, but if I were you I would try washing the key caps (after making sure it is within your warranty) following this guide. Also maybe try killing microbes by sanitizing the keyboard and keycaps.

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Yeah this sounds pretty strange. I'd guess its something environmental. Or maybe you just got really unlucky with a couple batches of caps that didn't get a good blend of plastic/resin.

 

Do you live somewhere with excessive heat, humidity, or salt in the air (coastal)? Do you smoke? Any ultraviolet lights nearby? ;):

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  • 3 months later...

Sorry to rez this thread, but is your keyboard in direct sunlight at all? Sometimes plastics do not work out well in direct sun for long periods of time (and perhaps the replacements were also stored in the sun before being shipped?). Otherwise, this is sounding like a material failure; but given that you are alone in this, it might be something in your environment that isn't appreciated by your keys!

 

Even things like hand lotion, or other chemical that might somehow get in there (it's a super long-shot, obviously, especially since they are keys seldom used). Anyway, while it's a P.I.T.A. for you, it's a great mystery to solve, nonetheless!

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  • Corsair Employee

This is the first time i have heard of this. I still have the first edition K70 with brushed aluminum back plate and the keys are still good. Can you take a picture of the "crumbling" key caps and attach it here?

 

My Money is with myrkat, as direct sunlight does deteriorate plastic.

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  • 2 months later...
I just had my third keycap break on me today. Very annoying and the odd thing is they're breaking randomly even on keys that almost never get used (like the Pause/Break key or the period key on the numeric pad) so it doesn't seem to be use related. I don't clean the keyboard and I haven't really pulled any of these keycaps off before so I have no idea what is going on.
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Can you please explain what you mean by 'keycap breaking'?

is the HOUSING of the CAP breaking? Or the STEM of the cap (the female + hole) that inserts into the "male" stem of the actual mechanical switch? Because I think everyone here is confused by what you are saying here. Keycaps don't break unless the cap is dropped. Stems do.

 

Are you using O-Rings? (please don't lie about this).

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I think I have the same problem as the OP but with an older version of the k70.

 

1 year ago some of my keycaps started to break, i made a ticket to get a replacement... after months of waiting and a lost parcel i got them, but.... other keycaps are also breaking (like 6-7 already, one of them today) and my warranty is over (+2 years).

 

Too bad they are using such a bad plastic material.... I really did nothing special with the keycaps, no o-rings, nothing droped, cleaned them with a bit of water.

 

photo with a broken keycap:

http://imgur.com/SCwTIIt

 

Guess I'll have to buy another keyboard...

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The stems (on the key cap, not the keyboard switch) crack and break, the switch post is fine and the key works but the key cap just falls off with bits and pieces of the stem left behind. And no, I do not use O-rings or anything like that, and the keyboard is not exposed to direct sunlight ever.
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Ah, that is a problem with the OEM that makes the keycaps.

Corsair and Logitech use the same OEM for the keycaps. The stems this OEM uses are thinner than normal, compared to stems used from other keycap makers. I compared the K70 (when I had one) and G710+ keycaps with those from a Ducky keyboard and the stems were noticeably thicker and more durable on the ducky. There were places on the Corsair and Logitech stems where the plastic was extremely thin in an area, which could be prime game for a stress fracture. This makes the stem far less durable to uneven pressing or friction than normal stems and makes them more prone to break. The problem is even worse if you have O rings installed (which is what caused even more Logitech G710+'s to fail with the stem cracking, as they come with O rings). Corsair really needs to change OEM's or have their supplier improve the quality of the stems. Even if not too many people had problems, keycaps stems should never break just from normal use.

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  • Corsair Employee
G710+ had this problem very widespread. What about RGB version? Does it have same keycaps? And if any problem with regional keycaps, will those be replaced as well?

 

We don't have regional keycaps sadly at this time. Those would have to involve an entire keyboard replacement.

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  • 2 years later...

Hey i to have encountered the caps breaking , at first it where the CTRL caps i both sides breaking after 12 months

now the T key aswell ..

 

it looks lige the plastic is getting tired over time

 

Model K70

i now live with a keyboard with no F1-3 :P

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  • 6 months later...

I got 6 keys already broken and replaced via EBAY for around 5$ (+shipping 1-2$) per key. Today 7-th broke.

 

And its 2 years since i got my new K70 RGB from site similar to EBAY (olx, just in my country). I was not provided with any reciept.

 

Since i have no receiept i was not provided replacement keys from corsair and had to buy new ones via ebay.

 

I really like Corsair keyboards. I was even looking for the new ones with internal memory for effects (I use linux, so i can use effect from store save it in Windows and use on Linux). Im aware that there is ckb-next: RGB Driver Linux driver im using it, but its limited.

 

Back to Topic. Im really afraid of getting new one if i will get same quality keys. Its Quite annoying having to replace keys every once in a while. And i already spent 35 dollars getting one by one. Could have just get the set of new keys. But every time im like "Nah, this is the last one it will break. Im not buying the whole set". And i have no guarranty these official replacement wont break too on same key/letter again.

 

And i cant order alternative more robust full set of keys of ebay since most of them are for US mappings, and my is some EU ok UK variant with non default bottom 2 rows or something and enter button.

 

Is it possible they are so fragile or did i get some bad batch.

Edited by DenTer
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  • 1 year later...
  • 2 months later...

I have exactly the same problem. This is very disappointing for such an expensive keyboard. The stem part of my keycaps are breaking (not the switches, the switches are fine). I've had to replace 6 keys with the spare gaming keys so far because of it. It seems like they just become brittle over time. There is nothing extraordinary about how I use the keyboard, I dont type particularly hard, its not exposed to the elements whatsoever like sunlight etc.

 

Here's a sample of a broken keycap: https://imgur.com/a/8DofCtq

 

Here's my keyboard now with all the replacement caps: https://imgur.com/a/1Se7yWc

 

Does Corsair provide replacements for these?

Edited by wonderdog78
typo
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I will join your thread as well, i have k70 LUX RGB that was already on warranty claim due to broken keycaps exactly as yours, so i got a new keyboard but last week after about a year of use i lost 2 in a span of couple of days.

It's freaking terrible, is there an option for replacement? I'm out of warranty time at this point but this keyboard is barely year old!

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  • 2 months later...
my k70 is also derped. Every single keycap is cracked on the stud part. so if I rub my fingers over them sideways they all fall off lol. two have broke and became unusable. this keyboard replaced my k95 wich also died from weird reasons this keyboards also not even year old. I regret buying
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