Are newer Kailh BOXs cap killers, too?

[Muirium]

Why the question then? If there’s already info on the infallible wiki and from the even less fallible Chyros that match your assertion?

I don’t think the “mx box slider” concept is a fundamentally good idea, either, and own none of them. But people haven’t complained about these destroying caps now for five years; all while the switch design has very firmly ensconced itself in the MX clone world. Everyone who bought them is an idiot besides you?

[hellothere]

...BOX Whites still stretch and crack keycaps, I wonder: Do Glazed Greens, White Owls or White V2s do that, too?

The original design came out around 2018 and they were redesigned last year, per this wall of text

I have a TKL with all box jade, except for the space bar, which has a box navy. I bought the switches about 1.5 years ago or so. I've used at least three different cap sets. No problems.

I did some extremely brief Googling to see if I could come up with any reports of the Glazed Green switches having problems with cap fit. I didn't see anything. However, I encourage you to do more Googling.

IIRC -- and I again encourage you to check yourself -- that Chyros' video noted the cracking/"expansion" problem when he used a specific kind of caps. I'm going to say that those were SA Dasher. I could be wrong. In any case, I've tried an SDA set on my keyboard and that worked fine. I currently have one of the new, less scooped, SDA clones on that keyboard (I don't remember the profile name) and no problems.

[Maledicted]

Nobody said the board itself would affect the caps' stems either, just the fact that nobody knows anything at all about that board or the caps that shipped on it. I found one post on Reddit that mentioned they were lasered and that's it.

One extremely vague sentence in the wiki with no dates, potentially referencing old batches of switches sold after the change for all we know, and Chyros having a problem with one set of caps 5 years ago. Has he made any videos about them at all in the last 5 years besides a typing test?

How is anything so old even relevant?

[yaun]

Here is something new:

I have put caps on five White Owls and on five BOX Red V2 and let them lying around for a day. I didn’t install them on a keyboard and I didn’t type on them. Each set of five caps comprised these:

• one Tai-Hao Smoky Quartz, doubleshot ABS
• two transparent Nonames from a Kailh Box switch tester (!), rather thick, propably ABS
• two replacement caps (blue WASD caps) from that ominous LK20, thin ABS

Of course I checked that the caps were not damaged before I put them on the swtiches.

The White Owls managed to damage all caps except one of the blue Lioncast caps.

The Red V2 switches damaged the Taihao cap and the two transparent caps, but not the blue Lioncast caps.

My conclusion of this:

1. The BOX switches and the likes still damage caps.
2. The caps from that supposedly unknown Lioncast keyboard are the most robust in this test, especially more robust than the Tai-Hao caps, which obviously are considered higher quality just because of the popular name.

Both the White Owls and the V2-Reds have that nib on the stem that other switches don’t have.

I didn’t bother to take pictures. If you don’t believe me, fine. I am not lying. I am not hallucinating. I have no hidden agenda to harm Kaihua.

[daemonspudguy]

Where did you buy the Box Reds? That matters, because they may not actually be Kailh Box switches. And, before you even act as if I also have some secret pro-Kaihua agenda, please note that my Keychron C2 is fitted with Gateron G Pro Blues.

[yaun]

I bought them from Candykeys.

[CaesarAZealad]

According to the wiki article and to one of Chyros’ videos there are/were still problems.

Both not very great sources. Haven't really kept up with Chyros' stuff but last I recall he talked about them stretching caps only relatively close to when it was discovered. Never had issues with them myself or in any of the boards I've seen at meets, but like all things in this hobby your mileage may vary.

[Maledicted]

There was nothing ominous about the LK20, it is just a totally unknown entity. Nobody knows that Tai-Hao caps are "higher quality" than the LK20's caps because nobody knows anything about the LK20's caps. No one cap set is exactly the same if they're not coming out of the same molds. That's not even necessarily good or bad, they're just not all going to have the exact same tolerances.

You do you. Myself, and everybody else that has happily used old batches of box switches for years will continue to do so without any issues.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They're just about the only good modern clicky option if you don't want to shell out for Clickiez (or feel they're too tactile) or don't want to sacrifice MX compatibility for Matias.

Personally, I rate them like this: (various vintage switches) > Clickiez > Matias > (more vintage switches) > box click bar switches > (more vintage switches) > other modern clickies. Kaihua has made some real mediocre, and even questionable, switches. Their click bar switches aren't among them.

[zrrion]

novelkey's clicky creams are a good alternative to clickiez but they're basically linear which might put some folks off. I'm loving them honestly though.