Lubed vs unlubed switches: the sound
Updated
Lubed switches sound smoother and usually deeper: lube takes away the scratch of plastic rubbing plastic, the ping of a bare spring and the rattle of a stabiliser wire. An unlubed board keeps all three, which is brighter and noisier, and some people like it that way.
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Pick a pack, then press any key or tap the keys below. These are the same samples the app plays.
What lube removes
| Noise | Where it comes from | What the sources say |
|---|---|---|
| Scratch | The stem’s sliders rubbing the housing’s rails | “Krytox 205g0 on stem rails kills scratch” (Epomaker) |
| Ping | The coil spring ringing after each press | “usually from an unlubed spring … Fix with spring lube” (Epomaker) |
| Rattle | The wire under Space, Shift, Return and Delete knocking in its housing | “Loose, irregular noise from a poorly tuned stabilizer … Cleanup with stab lube” (Epomaker) |
Kinetic Labs, which sells the lube, says 205g0 is mostly used on stabilisers and linear switches, and that “Krytox 205g0 tends to give your switches a deeper or ‘thockier’ sound.” Its method: a thin, even coat on the bottom housing’s rails, the spring, and the stem’s sliders and legs, and the top housing left dry unless the switch is very scratchy. Springs can be “bag-lubed” many at a time in a sealed bag. “It’s always easier to add lube than to remove lube.”
Lube is not free of trade-offs. Epomaker’s “Over-lube kills tactility” is why tactile switches are lubed more sparingly, and some people prefer the crisp sound of a dry board.
Two tactile packs, lubed and not
Teclo has two tactile keyboard packs that differ in lube, which makes them the closest thing in the app to a lubed-versus-unlubed comparison. In Teclo’s sound model, a pack’s spring rings only if it has one, and the model’s own notes say “Lube and a short spring take gain towards zero” and that a stabiliser’s rattle is “near zero for a lubed, tuned stabiliser”:
| Pebble | Knuckle | |
|---|---|---|
| What it imitates | Tactile, lubed, thick caps | Tactile, unlubed, steel plate |
| Spring ring in the model | None | A ring at 4,350 Hz |
| Stabiliser rattle in the model | 0.06 of the landing, one tick | 0.3 of the landing, two ticks |
| Brightness, measured | 2,370 Hz | 3,653 Hz |
| Low/high, measured | -7.8 dB | -14.7 dB |
Press Space a few times on each in the demo above: Knuckle’s wide keys rattle, Pebble’s barely do. Butter, a lubed linear on gaskets and foam, has the same quiet stabiliser and no spring ring. The two tactile packs also differ in keycaps and plate, so the gap you hear is more than lube alone. They are synthesized and imitate the effect; they are not recordings of a lubed and an unlubed switch.
Switch type changes the sound too; see linear, tactile and clicky. For everything else that shapes a board’s sound, see why mechanical keyboards sound different, and for the words people use, thock, clack and creamy.
Questions
Does lubing switches make them quieter?
A little, mostly by removing extra noises rather than the bottom-out itself. Epomaker: "Krytox 205g0 on stem rails kills scratch; spring lube removes ping." Kinetic Labs adds that 205g0 "tends to give your switches a deeper or 'thockier' sound".
Can you over-lube switches?
Yes. Epomaker warns "Over-lube kills tactility", and Kinetic Labs advises against lubing the leaf and front legs of tactile switches with 205g0, so the bump stays.
What is spring ping?
Epomaker's glossary: "An unwanted high-frequency metallic ring, usually from an unlubed spring. Sounds like a tiny bell after each keystroke. Fix with spring lube."
Sources
Other facts on this page come from these pages, read on or before the date above.