What is a hot swappable keyboard?

When you’re on the hunt for a new keyboard, it’s easy to get confused by the myriad specs, features, and options. Among the seemingly endless list you’ll occasionally see “Hotswap Compatible” in there, but what is a hot swappable keyboard and why should you care?

Well, we’re here to explain and demystify the needlessly bemusing world of gaming keyboards for you today, so here’s a quick lesson on hot swappable keyboards and hot swappable keyswitches.

Hot swappable keyboards allow you to pull the key switches out and replace them yourself, without the need for specialist tools. Regular mechanical keyboards have the switches soldered directly to the PCB (printed circuit board), which makes it more difficult as you have to de-solder the pins of the switch to remove them. This is doable but takes far longer and it’s not uncommon to break some of the switches and/or damage the circuit board in the process.

It isn't only whether or not the switches are soldered into the PCB though, the PCBs actually differ in design too. Normal PCBs have large holes for the pins of the switch, large enough that the pins are not gripped, which necessitates conductive solder to both connect the pins to the board and to hold the switches in place.

Hot swappable PCBs have the same holes, but nestled inside the hole is a small socket that grips the pins and there is conductive material inside the sockets too, completing the circuit. This makes the PCB more complex and therefore more expensive to manufacture, which is why hot swappable keyboards cost more.

We really like hot swappable keyboards as they allow far easier customization for the end user, meaning that they can try out pretty much any switch they like, just as long as it’s compatible.

Check out our full range of gaming keyboards, hot-swap, and regular, over on our website.