The waxboil method is the most consistent and easiest method currently available to restore Alps (and other) switches. It has been tested on a wide variety of switches at this point, and results have held up in the two years since its discovery. This page is an attempt to create a canonical source of waxboil information in text form.

The method contains two stages:

• Boil stage: plastic parts are boiled in a rolling boil to clean them. This works due to a combination of heat and agitation by a rolling boil, loosening dirt and detritus that would otherwise be very solidly stuck on, especially if a switch was previously factory lubricated.
• Waxboil stage: wax is added to boiled water which melts and creates a film along the surface of the water. Switch parts that require waxing are lowered into and then lifted out of the water in order to create a deposition of wax on them. The closest analog to this process is hydrodipping.

A wide variety - the process was initially discovered on Alps SKCC switches and then transferred over to the SKCM/SKCL series. Later testing has shown that a number of switches can be waxboiled, but not all are safe. There's a spreadsheet of known waxboil safety here. If you're testing a switch that hasn't been tested before, definitely be careful and just try a single switch rather than a batch. We're looking to add this information to Keyswitch Background Information in a future release.