If you have tried building custom mechanical keyboards, then you may be already been concerned about the rattling sound of the keys, especially the spacebar or the shift keys.
They even wobble a bit or do some rattling sound. Keyboard stabilizers solve these issues of your mechanical keyboard.
In this post, I will discuss what are keyboard stabilizers, their types, sizes, mounting styles, and all you need to know about them.
Let’s get started!
Contents of The Article
- 1 What are Keyboard Stabilizers?
- 2 Types of Keyboard Stabilizers
- 3 Stabilizer Sizes
- 4 Mounting Styles of Stabilizers
- 5 Are stabilizers necessary for Mechanical keyboards?
- 6 How many stabilizers should a keyboard have?
- 7 Does using a stabilizer make a difference?
- 8 Is upgrading stabilizers worth it?
- 9 Conclusion
What are Keyboard Stabilizers?
The basic concept of stabilizers on a keyboard is to give you a comfortable typing experience. They help in controlling the rattling or vibrations of large keys like the Spacebar, Backspace, Enter, Shift, and so on. Found underneath each large key on your keyboard, stabilizers can provide a smoother motion of the keys if you lube them with lubricant.
There are around 8 stabilizers used in a full-sized keyboard and 5 such in TKL keyboards.
These stabilizers come in varieties for your preference. You can choose the best that suits your purpose.
Types of Keyboard Stabilizers
Cherry Style Stabilizers
These stabilizers offer easy modding, multiple color options, and various mounting styles, and moreover are easily available. For such flexible features, Cherry-style stabilizers are common ones to be found on most of keyboards presently.
An identical shape as a Cherry MX switch stem is another feature that makes Cherry stabilizers popular.
These have a plastic stem on top and stabilizers are interconnected via the metallic bars. Easy to mod other than easily swapping the keycaps, these stabilizers are best for custom-built keyboards. They also come with mounting options.
Costar Stabilizers
Coaster stabilizers are still fashionable in traditional keyboards.
However, some new models also do entertain their purpose but they are less popular than Cherry style stabilizers. Costar stabilizer fitting is time-consuming as the keycaps need to be hooked.
It might be an irritation for those who remove keycaps regularly for any purpose like cleaning or replacing them.
Although these provide a better-stabilizing performance and are compatible with users who don’t customize their keyboards more often.
Optical stabilizer
Optical stabilizers also do not come at par with Cherry styled. They fit mainly in Optical mechanical switches although their compatibility is not always fixed. These stabilizers are fixed with the keyboard with clips on them.
These cannot be modified much and are plated under the keyboard. To reduce noise and have smoothness you can apply a little amount of lubricant on them.
Stabilizer Sizes
To suit your keyboard preferences, you can make choices on different sizes of stabilizers.
Basically, there are three different sizes of stabilizers, 7u, 6.25u, and 2u.
If your keyboard has a wider space bar you should pick on 7u for the best results, although 6.25u can serve your purpose. A full-sized layout needs more stabilizers than smaller ones like TKL.
Since these are found underneath every single large key on the keyboard nearly 8 stabilizers are needed along with one should be 6.25u and the rest seven of 2u size.
Smaller layouts need 2u-sized stabilizers and 6.25u/7u is for spacebar keys always.
Mounting Styles of Stabilizers
Plate Mounted Stabilizers
Connected by clipping into metal plates, Cherry-styled stabilizers are commonly found on all pre-built mechanical keyboards. Placed close enough to the metal plate inside these connections is not so reliable and not an efficient mounting style either.
Although innovation can be done using modders for improved aspects.
Screw In Stabilizers
Screwing in stabilizers on keyboards eradicates rattling and vibrations on your keyboard. These are screwed indirectly into the PCB with direct mounting on the PCB.
They are found in all custom-made keyboards. It is a stable and comfortable typing facility that interests DIY creators.
Snap-In Stabilizers
Very close to the features of screw-in stabilizers they are snapped into the PCB instead of being screwed. These are placed into the PCB as well.
Snap-in stabilizers serve better than Plate-mounted ones when it comes to vibrating factors although not smooth and stable like screw-in stabilizers.
Be careful with them as they might pop out while pulling your keycaps, unlike screw-in ones.
Are stabilizers necessary for Mechanical keyboards?
Stabilizers give you a stable and comfortable typing experience. They are an important component of any mechanical keyboard. It is very affecting on bigger keys stopping them from wobbling.
ANSI or an American keyboard mandatorily needs a stabilizer of shift keys, space bar, backspace, and enter keys on the keyboard.
How many stabilizers should a keyboard have?
Most keyboards these days require multiple stabilizers owing to their size specifications. 2u or larger keys need stabilizers. However, a full-sized keyboard generally requires almost 8 stabilizers. It needs one 6.25u-sized and 7 small 2u-sized stabilizers.
Does using a stabilizer make a difference?
Using a stabilizer on your mechanical keyboard is extremely effective. Not only does it help large keys from wobbling but also resists rattling noise and vibration while typing.
Is upgrading stabilizers worth it?
You should definitely work on upgrading your keyboard stabilizer once in a while. It is as important as lubing your switches. It improves your typing quality with a comfortable experience. If your stabilizers are stable and smooth your keyboard synchronizes with the perfect motion of your fingers typing on them.
Conclusion
Let’s conclude the post on Keyboard Stabilizer!
Here is more for you:
Check this article on how to build a custom mechanical keyboard over here.
You can also check our mechanical keyboard articles here.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post!
