The mechanical keyboard hobby has evolved significantly over the past few years.What was once a fairly niche hobby for gamers and typists has become much more mainstream.Even my 10-year-old half-brother has a better keyboard today than I had five years ago when I first started writing about mechanical keyboards.
Pretty much everything has gotten better, but there's one upgrade I regret recommending to everyone: manually lubing switches.Manual lubing was once the easiest keyboard upgrade to recommend Stock switches weren't always this good Close For years, the gold standard of mechanical switches was the Cherry MX switch.It had very little factory lubricant, which made it feel kind of scratchy to type on.
MX Browns in particular were notoriously scratchy — I should know because I used them every day for 5 years.Other brands like Gateron, Kailh, and TTC also made switches that were fairly popular back then, but none of these brands had excellent factory lubing at the time.The quality of the lube and consistency between batches was questionable, which prompted many enthusiasts who wanted ultra-smooth switches to take apart these switches and apply the lube manually.
This lubing process was extremely laborious: you had to take the switch apart, strip off any leftover factory lube, and then use a fine-bristle brush to apply the right amount of lube to key contact points where the plastics rub against each other.The process required some expertise, too: apply too little lube, and the switch remains scratchy, but overdo it, and the switch turns into a mushy mess.Getting the right amount of lube consistently across 100 switches was part of the work.
A single switch that didn't feel like the rest could throw you off when typing if you're sensitive to the feedback, prompting you to take it apart and redo the process on that individual switch.Despite the time and effort involved, manual lubing was the most definitive way to make any keyboard feel substantially smoother.It was a noticeable improvement, too.
Even if you didn't know a thing about mechanical keyboards, you could feel a major difference, which is why some people turned manual switch lubing into a genuine business where they resold these switches at a steep premium for the labor involved.Factory-lubed switches have gotten ridiculously good The difference isn't what it used to be Good mechanical keyboards used to be fairly expensive until a few years ago.The switches found in those cheap $30 mechanical keyboards from China were hot garbage that felt arguably worse than a decent membrane keyboard.
This has all changed in recent times, though.Factory-lubed switches are now surprisingly good and consistent, even among budget switch and keyboard brands.Switch manufacturers have gotten better and more consistent at applying lube at scale, and they've gotten cheaper too.
Budget switches from brands like Akko, Gateron, KTT, and Outemu now cost only $0.20 to $0.50 per switch, so even if there's an occasional under-lubed switch that feels different from the rest, you can just throw it out and use another one from the set.I've tried dozens of mechanical keyboards under $50 over the past couple of years, and most of them felt surprisingly great to type on.One of my daily-driver keyboards is an Ajazz AK820 that costs around $32.
Although I've upgraded the switches to a set from Akko, the factory switches actually feel noticeably smoother than Cherry MXs from the last decade.The established brands I mentioned earlier got better too in the past few years.Cherry made the MX2A with modernized factory lubing, Gateron released the G Pro series, Kailh released increasingly refined Box switches, and TTC came out with the Gold Pinks and Bluish Whites.
The money spent on lubing supplies could've gone toward better switches You're paying to improve a switch you could replace While it's easy to think of switch lubing as a "free" upgrade, it actually isn't at all.One of the things nobody seems to talk about is that it costs a decent chunk of change just to get started.You need the lube ($8–$12 for a small pack of Krytox 205g0), a switch opener ($5–$20), fine-detail brushes ($5–$10 for a set), a stem holder ($5), and, if you want to keep everything organized, a lube station ($13–$35).
Even if you buy the cheapest of everything, it'll set you back around $35–$40 just to get started.Now, compare this to a 45-pack of Akko switches, which only costs around $10–$15.You need two packs for a 75% keyboard, so two packs that set you back around $20–$30 provide you with a set of enjoyable, high-quality switches that you can use to upgrade any keyboard in less than 20 minutes.
The highest cost of lubing switches is the time it takes The labor is the real expense The real price you pay when you go the manual switch lubing route isn't money — it's time.Lubing a single switch is a tedious process that involves taking the switch apart, cleaning off the factory lube, lubing the bottom rails, stem, and springs, and then reassembling the switch.You then have to press it numerous times to work the lube in and compare it against your other switches to make sure it feels consistent.
A single switch can take several minutes to lube.While you get faster with experience, it can still take two to three hours to do a whole keyboard.When you consider the fact that switches are now very well-lubed from the factory, there's simply not much point in doing this whole process manually to maybe get a marginally better result.
The best reason to lube switches is that you genuinely enjoy it For most of us, switch lubing is a boring, tedious procedure.We want to get the keyboard done as fast as possible and do the actual fun stuff, like typing and gaming.That being said, being a fan of mechanical keyboards and switch lubing are actually two distinct hobbies.
For some people, going through the process of taking a keyboard apart, one switch at a time, and lubing them is genuinely enjoyable, and if that's something you genuinely like doing, then that's fantastic.But if you're dreading the prospect of lubing an entire keyboard just to get a smoother feel, don't bother.Just buy proper pre-lubed switches, and you'll get virtually identical results.
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