https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/09/you-should-care-more-about-the-stabilizers-in-your-mechanical-keyboard-heres-why/ Skip to content Ars Technica home Sections Forum Subscribe Search * AI * Biz & IT * Cars * Culture * Gaming * Health * Policy * Science * Security * Space * Tech * Feature * Reviews * AI * Biz & IT * Cars * Culture * Gaming * Health * Policy * Science * Security * Space * Tech Forum Subscribe Story text Size [Standard] Width * [Standard] Links [Standard] * Subscribers only Learn more Pin to story Theme * HyperLight * Day & Night * Dark * System Search dialog... Sign In Sign in dialog... Sign in Click clack You should care more about the stabilizers in your mechanical keyboard--here's why Don't know what a keyboard stabilizer is? You're about to find out. Ryan Whitwam - Sep 26, 2025 4:19 pm | 124 Stabilizer macro This is a stabilizer--some version of this is hiding inside every mechanical keyboard. Credit: Ryan Whitwam This is a stabilizer--some version of this is hiding inside every mechanical keyboard. Credit: Ryan Whitwam Text settings Story text Size [Standard] Width * [Standard] Links [Standard] * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav While most people don't spend a lot of time thinking about the keys they tap all day, mechanical keyboard enthusiasts certainly do. As interest in DIY keyboards expands, there are plenty of things to obsess over, such as keycap sets, layout, knobs, and switches. But you have to get deep into the hobby before you realize there's something more important than all that: the stabilizers. Even if you have the fanciest switches and a monolithic aluminum case, bad stabilizers can make a keyboard feel and sound like garbage. Luckily, there's a growing ecosystem of weirdly fancy stabilizers that can upgrade your typing experience, packing an impressive amount of innovation into a few tiny bits of plastic and metal. What is a stabilizer, and why should you care? Most keys on a keyboard are small enough that they go up and down evenly, no matter where you press. That's not the case for longer keys: Space, Enter, Shift, Backspace, and, depending on the layout, a couple more on the number pad. These keys have wire assemblies underneath called stabilizers, which help them go up and down when the switch does. stabilizer test 1 Three different stabilizers mounted on a test platform. Ryan Whitwam Three different stabilizers mounted on a test platform. Ryan Whitwam [Stabs-11-1024x576] These are 2-unit stabilizers for keys like Enter and Shift. Ryan Whitwam These are 2-unit stabilizers for keys like Enter and Shift. Ryan Whitwam Three different stabilizers mounted on a test platform. Ryan Whitwam These are 2-unit stabilizers for keys like Enter and Shift. Ryan Whitwam A cheap stabilizer will do this, but it won't necessarily do it well. Stabilizers can be loud and move unevenly, or a wire can even pop out and really ruin your day. But what's good? A stabilizer is there to, well, stabilize, and that's all it should do. It facilitates smooth up and down movement of frequently used keys--if stabilizers add noise, friction, or wobble, they're not doing their job and are, therefore, bad. Most keyboards have bad stabilizers. Stabilizers assembled Stabilizer stems poke up through the plate to connect to your keycaps. Credit: Ryan Whitwam Stabilizer stems poke up through the plate to connect to your keycaps. Credit: Ryan Whitwam Like switches, most stabilizers are based on the old-school Cherry Inc. designs, but the specifics have morphed in recent years. Stabilizers have to adhere to certain physical measurements to properly mount on PCBs and connect to standard keycaps. However, designers have come up with a plethora of creative ways to modify and improve stabilizers within that envelope. And yes, premium stabilizers really are better. A world of options The stabilizers in most retail boards aren't anything special--they're just knock-offs of the classic Cherry designs that sound and perform poorly. A modest upgrade might be the venerable GMK screw-in stabilizer. GMK stabilizers are produced from the original Cherry molds, so they're compact and inexpensive, and they fit well in almost all boards. But there is an even higher echelon of luxury available. Some stabilizers make fairly minor changes to mounting and internal geometry to great effect. For example, Zeal V2 Stabilizers look like the classic Cherry variety, but they have clear housings, beefed-up mounting hardware, vintage-style "pre-clipped" sliders, and snazzy gold-anodized hardware (which you will admittedly almost never see). Zeal v2 Partially assembled Zeal V2 stabilizers. Credit: Ryan Whitwam Partially assembled Zeal V2 stabilizers. Credit: Ryan Whitwam Looking for more innovation? Some stabs use multiple materials in pursuit of better performance. Swagkeys Knight stabilizers (top image) use a double-shot mold to offer polycarbonate plastic on the exterior with a softer silicone internal surface where the wires touch. Another designer, Wuque Studio, has versions of its stabilizer with a similar internal silicone surface or one with the silicone layer on the metal wire. And there are keyboard people who believe one approach or the other is clearly superior. There are also some newer takes on key stabilization that eschew the traditional stem shape. Take, for example, the Typeplus x YiKB stabs with their "chiral" housing--instead of having identical left and right housings, the left and right sides are mirror images. The wires end in small hooks that lock them into the sliders. This design prevents wires from popping out and is more friendly to under- or over-lubrication. They're also made from a stronger polyketone thermoplastic, whereas most stabilizers are ABS or polycarbonate. Typeforce Typeforce stabilizers have hooked wires that connect to their unique sliders. Credit: Ryan Whitwam Typeforce stabilizers have hooked wires that connect to their unique sliders. Credit: Ryan Whitwam The Typeplus kit is also an example of all the fiddly little accessories that come with fancy stabilizers (and some of the best packaging I've ever seen for a product that costs under $20). There are washers for the screws, shims for thinner PCBs, and Teflon landing pads for the sliders. It's common to see a whole range of mounting hardware accessories included with fancy stabilizers, allowing for intricate customization. Typeforce packaging These $20 stabilizers have better packaging than any phone of the past five years. Credit: Ryan Whitwam These $20 stabilizers have better packaging than any phone of the past five years. Credit: Ryan Whitwam This is just scratching the surface--stabilizers come in more shapes, colors, and styles than we could reasonably cover here. And they're all superior to the cheap parts used in the average retail mechanical keyboard. More art than science Buying a cleverly designed set of stabilizers for a keyboard is a good start, but you then have to install them correctly. Stabilizers are the "inner-most" component, sandwiched between the PCB and the switch plate. If the keyboard doesn't exist yet because you're building a custom board from a kit, great--install the stabilizers first. Forgetting the stabilizers is a mistake you only make once. Stabs mounted Swagkeys stabilizers mounted to a PCB. Credit: Ryan Whitwam Swagkeys stabilizers mounted to a PCB. Credit: Ryan Whitwam Everyone has their own way of tuning stabilizers, some of which may be little more than superstition. Maybe you want to use foam landing pads or wire guides, check every wire for warping in just the right way, or apply a preferred industrial lubricant to the wires. Some people even use different kinds of lubricant for plastic-plastic versus plastic-metal junctions. However arduous the plan, it's worth the time if you get good results that save you from an annoying rattle. Replacing stabilizers (or going back to install them because you forgot) means completely disassembling the board, and that's particularly annoying if the switches are soldered in. In that case, you'll have to spend a few grueling hours with a desoldering iron to get to the stabilizers, which we do not recommend. Modern mechanical keyboards with hotswap switches make this much easier. The stabilized keys sound just like the unstabilized keys, which is what you want. The stabilized keys sound just like the unstabilized keys, which is what you want. Like many hobbyists, keyboard fans have been hit hard by new US tariffs. Most custom keyboards and components are manufactured overseas and imported, and the import charge for a full kit can run into hundreds of dollars. Stabilizers aren't immune to that--GMK stabilizers come from Germany, Zeal is in Canada, and almost everything else is shipping straight from China. Stab accessories Fancy stabilizers often come with numerous fiddly little mounting accessories. Credit: Ryan Whitwam Fancy stabilizers often come with numerous fiddly little mounting accessories. Credit: Ryan Whitwam Still, a good-quality set of stabilizers, properly installed and lubricated, is probably the best upgrade you can make to a mechanical keyboard in spite of tariffs. The duty paid on a $20-30 item won't break the bank, and it really will make your keyboard better. Photo of Ryan Whitwam Ryan Whitwam Senior Technology Reporter Ryan Whitwam Senior Technology Reporter Ryan Whitwam is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering the ways Google, AI, and mobile technology continue to change the world. Over his 20-year career, he's written for Android Police, ExtremeTech, Wirecutter, NY Times, and more. He has reviewed more phones than most people will ever own. You can follow him on Bluesky, where you will see photos of his dozens of mechanical keyboards. 124 Comments Staff Picks Wheels Of Confusion Wheels Of Confusion That board has Gateron Quinn switches. It's a forged carbon fiber Hibiki with Typeplus stabs and GMK Dracula V2 caps. I can see why the stabilizers need upgrading. Say you're shunting plasma through the conduits but get a polarity inversion caused by a tetryon anomaly. Without the inertial dampers, one good fused self-sealing stembolt in the defelector array could lead to a resonance cascade, causing total chroniton collapse! Honestly it's amazing they let these keyboards leave spacedock in such a state. September 26, 2025 at 9:15 pm Comments Forum view Loading Loading comments... Prev story Next story Most Read 1. Listing image for first story in Most Read: Fortnite disables Peacemaker emote that might resemble a swastika 1. Fortnite disables Peacemaker emote that might resemble a swastika 2. 2. Woman hospitalized with pain and vomiting--diet soda cured her 3. 3. 30 years later, I'm still obliterating planets in Master of Orion II--and you can, too 4. 4. Taiwan pressured to move 50% of chip production to US or lose protection 5. 5. ZR1, GTD, and America's new Nurburgring war Customize Ars Technica has been separating the signal from the noise for over 25 years. With our unique combination of technical savvy and wide-ranging interest in the technological arts and sciences, Ars is the trusted source in a sea of information. After all, you don't need to know everything, only what's important. 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