WTF?! What’s the longest you’ve held onto an aging microwave? Have you ever wondered what it would be like if a microwave’s buttons were more satisfying to push, but can’t find any that don’t use cheap touch buttons? A Reddit user last week sought out to solve both.
When Redditor gregschlom’s 9-year-old microwave started to have problems with its buttons, he decided to replace them. You can’t just get microwave touchpad buttons off the shelf though, so he went for something better: Kalih box black mechanical keyboard switches.
Gregschlom hardwired the switches to replace the buttons for 30-second cook, one-minute cook, settings, and cancel. When someone shared gregschlom’s photo on Twitter, Kalih even took notice.
What…?? A keyboard switch can be used like this??
Really didn’t expect this?
And you are really so creative and talented for sure! https://t.co/oSTSfo1u2J— KAILH (@KailhSwitch) January 9, 2022
Despite how good pressing the switches feels, gregschlom said his wife wants to replace the microwave, which they’ve had to repair four times over the years. Plus, they estimate the switches will start to go bad in a couple years due to grease from the stove directly below.
Manufacturers obviously won’t use expensive mechanical switches on something as incidental as a microwave (mine uses a dial), but this hack still suggests more possible uses for them beyond keyboards. Last September, Kalih helped Stack Overflow make an April Fools gag real by releasing a USB macropad with specially-branded Stack Overflow keys.
