Swapping out my first keyswitches manually - Gateron Jupiter Bananas to DUROCK Shrimp

I've used mechanical keyboards for the past 8 years but it wasn't til the last 3 or so that I started getting into customizing it in search of the perfect feel / sound.

I just did my first full manual swap from one set of keyswitchs to another so wanted to log my findings here for future reference.

My Keyboard

My current keyboard is a Keychron Q1 Max. It's a 65% keyboard with a volume knob.

I've used larger keyboards in the past but have slowly downscaled to 65% which I find offers a nice balance between lowering my hand-mouse travel while still providing all the buttons / layouts I'm used to.

I got it with slick all black keys with side-printed shine through keycaps and have loved it ever since.

My Keyswitches

I started out with browns and reds as those came built in to a lot of my keyboards. But I stumbled upon some videos discussing "thock" and had to have it - that deep, resonant sound of hitting a key that just feels great.

So I bought a couple switch samplers and played around with them and eventually decided that maybe yellows were good for me. So when I found the Keychron Q1 Max in the all black colorway pre-slotted with Gateron Jupiter Bananas I went for it.

They worked great for me. They're the best feeling keyswitches I've ever used and the thock was almost perfect.

But they're quite loud. When I'm typing in my office, people can hear it throughout the house. People hear it on the phone and some have to ask me to stop typing (this has happened to me during interviews!). If I type during videos, it confuses my silence removing tools and shows up as sound to keep.

So I love the feel of the Jupiter Bananas but it just seemed silly to keep running into these same issues over and over.

New Keyswitches

So I went in search of some keyswitches that felt similar but were much quieter. This search led me to two frontrunners:

• Gateron Silent Yellows
• Gateron Black Ink V2

They silent yellows would've been the most similar but I saw a lot of bad reviews on them feeling mushy and not being consistent which I knew would frustrate me.

So I opted for the more expensive Black Inks. And on initial playing with them I was amazed they really were quiet!

So I swapped my keyswitches over. Then I tried typing on them with my keycaps. And I hated them. They were just so hollow and there was no tactility at the top (resistance) so I was never sure if I clicked the button or not and aw my typing accuracy take a hit. Plus my satisfaction in actually typing plummeted.

So I did another search and eventually landed on DUROCK Silent Shrimp as a frontrunner that provided both tactility and quiet.

So I tried them and I like them so far. Enough that I felt ready to wrap this journey up with a post.

How I swapped keyswitches

This section is mostly a runbook so I can remember what I did last time / learn from my mistakes.

Things you need / want when changing out keyswitches:

• New keyswitches to swap to (~110 for my 65% keyboard)
• A keycap / switch puller - I got a cheap one on Amazon
• Compressed air to blow dust / gunk out (there's more than you expect) - I got a little fan machine to do this
• Isopropyl alcohol to clean the keyboard tray without risking damage to it
• A glass of water with dish soap in it to soak your keycaps - They are much dirtier than you think and the dish soap avoids damage to most keycap materials
• A small box or two to put the pulled keyswitches and caps in so they don't get lost

How to pull a keycap / switch:

• Use the wire side of the keycap puller to loop under the key and pull up to pot it off
• Use the tweezer side to position it on top / botton of the switch and pinch - there's a little release button on the top and bottom that you have to hit. It will feel a bit snug to get out but shouldn't feel like you're breaking the board.

How to push a keyswitch / cap:

• Keyswitch goes in first w pins at top - snaps in
• Keycap just pushes directly on top of that

Then the full process I would suggest:

• Pull all the keycaps and put them in one of the boxes you brought
• Put them all in the water with the dishwasher soap and let them soak for 2-3 hours to get gunk off
• Use the compressed air to blow all the dust out of the keyboard
• Pull all the keyswitches
• Use a microfiber cloth with the isopopyl alohol to wipe down the tray
• Use air again in some of the holes if they have dust in them - but be careful you don't accidentally blow new dust in there!
• Wait - Everything needs to be absolutely dry before you put in anything or else you risk permanent damage to the keyboard
  • ~1h for the tray before you put switches in
  • Will be many hours for the keycaps - I had to take my keycaps out, let them dry overnight with the bottoms down so could drip out, then do a few rounds of picking each cap up and banging it on the table to get excess water out of the bottom. So dry overnight then 2x wait 1-2h and bang to get water out.
• Put the keyswitches in once the keyboard tray is dry - these typically just click in. Make sure the little metal pins are aligned with the keyboard's holes (usually on top). These are easily bendable but you can bend them back to straight and they're usually fine.
• Wait and check that the keycaps are dry.
• Pull up a picture of your desired keyboard layout and press them back on - kinda like a puzzle!

Next

So that's my journey to replacing my keyboard switches for the first time.

I learned that I like quieter keys but keep the tactility.

Next time I may get another sampler before trying out new switches but at some point it's hard to tell the difference between switches and I found it hard to internalize how a certain switch would feel if I was actually typing on it.

If you're looking for mechanical keyboards I would highly recommend Keychron and the Keychron Q1 Max especially as a solid middle ground keyboard. I've had a couple versions of Keycrhons over the years and thye've awlays been solid. I never really needed the hot swap capabilities but now that I've started customizing them, I'm really glad it has it.

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