Are these impossibly hard to open like the strawberries?
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I found them easy to open … if you have a Kailh opener.
I have the KBDFans metal 2-in-1 opener where one half is MX and the other half is Kailh housings. The magnetic one.
It opens these switches fine. You might have to be firm when you press the switch into the opener, and consistent to get it evenly opening on each side.
But I’ve honestly seen ones that were much harder to open, from the AKKO to some really tight Boba housings.
That’s pretty darn affordable. I hardly see tactiles in that price range. I guess I’ll be picking some up in the future
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Still testing them. I can confirm that they have great feel. They’re a great light-tactile in that department.
Going to try leaf-lubing for starters sound-wise, because that’s where they’re deficient.
They should keep trying with this design, trying to get better sound, springs, and factory-lubing.
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Finally got to messing around with these. I have only done one switch, but I lubed it with 3204 and 103 (super lube) oil on the spring.
Lube didn’t really do much for feel.Maybe took the edge off just ever so slightly, pretty much the same sound wise too. I definitely preferred the slight muted, less plastic-y ping of the lubed switch, so I plan on doing the whole bag.
The one thing I didn’t discover is that they switch would not close with my TX film. The films I have are TX, but they are so old they are not labelled. My gut says they are 1.5mm though.
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Good experimentation. Interesting to know about the 1.5mm films. Does this mean you’d have to go to a thinner film like 1.0 mm?
I remembered that I had some left over film “stickers” from the Rara GB I was in. These appear to be a (unmarked 
) thin polycarbonate film on a sticker sheet. I have no idea of their thickness, but they have to be the thinnest film I own.
Anyway, long story short, even they would not allow the switch to completely close. I was only able to get one side to latch. Where do you even purchase 1.0mm films?
Based on all of this, I think they are plenty tight. My thought is films would basically be diminishing returns. 
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I haven’t tried to film a Mallow yet but I do remember the housings being very tight when I opened one up. This is one of those cases where “wing-latch good” is unironically and completely accurate.
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Great discussion here guys.
As a light tactile fan myself, I’ve been looking for some nice budget options since Pewters are great but they cost nearly a dollar a switch without shipping. Also the most recent batch of Pewters are not that great stock, they have a lot of “rattly” noise at the contact point between the stem legs and the leaf. However I used Krytox GPL 105 and everything feels great again.
I’ll be ordering 70 switches from dangkeebs and test these KTT Mallos out.
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KTT Mallos are severely underrated, especially at their introductory price of $2.50/10.
I always said that KTT should just put a light-tactile stem in their linears, and lo and behold, they did.
People say that Pewters are the ‘next-generation Browns.’ Well, I’ve tried every variation of Durock Light Tactile, and it’s just not for me. I don’t like the bump profile.
Don’t get me wrong. The DLT have very good housings. Very tight. The spring weight of 58.5 G is fine. But it just feels sharper and more harsh than an MX Brown, even though the bump may not even be as large. And only the Cotton Candy with its nylon housing is likely to sound decent - the others have either too little or questionable factory lube.
Now the KTT Mallo is something else. It feels really “chill,” really relaxed. It’s a soft-bump for sure. It reminds me of my worn-in MX Browns, but without the scratchiness. Isn’t that what a ‘next-level Brown’ is?
Problem is - the leafs and springs are noisy. The springs are easy to take care of [and a great weight]. The leaf is more of a pain. You have to lube that like you would an Everglide Jade or something. At least the housing doesn’t need filming.
I’ve got some experimental ones here that have lubed springs + leafs. They actually sound decent now, like higher-pitched Browns [like a Durock with the factory-lube done right]. Even with GMK they are okay. But some of the leaves still want to make noise.
So I am going to try and populate a hotswap keyboard with them. They may be perfect for something with a plastic body and steel plate, like MX Browns in a Varmilo or Filco. You can remove ones that are excessively noisy.
Long-story short, these have great tactility and feel even with whatever minimal lube comes from the factory. I haven’t heavily lubed one yet. They have to fix their leaves. Release a version with good leaves and adequate factory-lube. Much rather type on that than Pewters.
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They have to fix their leaves
This seems to be the problem of all light tactiles/tactiles in general. I’ve tried lubing the stem legs and leaf legs with oil (GPL 105) and after typing on them for a bit I think the oil is evenly spread inside the switch and it feels pretty nice: mild bumps (very mild, but I can still feel them while typing at ~100WPM), they make a subtle, rumble sound in every keystroke.
Maybe you should try the method I used for my Pewters: use oil on the leaf and the stem legs. See if it helps.
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Thanks for the discussion here. I just ordered 100 Mallos to give a try and see if I like them.
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I find oil/light lube in between where the 2 contact leaves hit eliminates some noise, can of a bad description tho. If it helps look for the small rectangle between the two leaf/leg contact areas.
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Thanks! I ordered some 3203 with the switches do you think that is light enough? Or would you use something like Krytos 105, which I also have?
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3204 works, some people fine you can loose tactility lubing legs, but that method doesnt touch the legs so u should he all good. Sometimes if my tactilies make too much leaf noise Ill lube the legs lightly but thats just my preference, dont be scared to experiment tho.
It’s okay to use even heavier lube on the leaf, I think, if the leaf is all you are lubing.
You wouldn’t want to use 205g0 on the rest of the switch, but some dabs of it on the offending leaf areas could lead to improvement.
I just put 87 in a TKL. They are spring-lubed, and leaf-area lubed with 3204. They feel almost like stock, but are less pingy. Perfectly usable.
I may have exaggerated in saying that Mallos are ‘severely underrated.’ They are underrated, but aside from pingyness, I have to say that they are very soft. As per their namesake, Mallos. They are softer than MX Brown, Durock Light Tactile, SP Star Meteor Orange, they have to be the softest Browns I’ve tried so far.
That will be good for some people, although it’s not to everyone’s taste.
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Thanks for the lubing tips, I will give it a try when they arrive.
I heard some sound tests for Meteor Oranges and am interested in giving them a try if I don’t like the Mallos.
I have a plateless keyboard coming in a month or two, and I don’t want to use heavy tactiles on it, but I also don’t know if I can be happy with a linear switch. I am hoping a light tactile can provide the happy medium.
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Cherry MX Browns used to be mounted on plateless, back in the the day.
[Along with all other Cherry switches].
I have a plateless NCR-80 with Ergo Clears. It’s a good combination. Cherry housings have good sound, the board is tape-modded, and you can remove the top housings to change springs by using a special tool.
So plateless and light tactiles, especially Cherry, can be a good combination. Interestingly, I almost went with Meteor Orange, but I am saving them for another build. Cherry seems to be a better fit for plateless.
[People also use silent tactiles on plateless NCR-80. So if you want to try OUTEMU Silent Lemon or Silent Sky [in Cherry housings], that could work].
Meteor Orange can be a great light tactile. I think it does slightly better, sound-wise, in polycarb than metal plates. It seems to be in a zone between JWK and Cherry.
I’ve posted here in the Meteor Orange thread about improving the sound. You definitely want to lube springs. I found a moderate amount of 3204 to be a good lube for the switch. You’ll want to preserve as much factory lube as possible, since I think it’s fine, but add lube to wherever the factory missed. Compensate for the limited factory lube.
A big difference, for me, came from the replacement of the top-housings with Cherry tops. So basically, the best Meteor Orange for me is spring-lubed, carefully lubed with 3204, and using Cherry-tops.
You can use replacement springs, but they aren’t necessary.
I have an old 2015 Filco with Cherry MX Browns in it that I plan on desoldering at some point to give them a try. I need to solder a board first,so far I have just been using hotswap so I can try a bunch of switches easily.
Interesting to hear about the Meteor Orange switches. I haven’t tried mixing different switch parts (other than spring swapping) so far, but that sounds interesting and fun to give a try.
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I have a Filco of the same vintage … in fact I’m typing on it right now.
Worn-in MX Browns from that period are actually quite decent, once you put DCS on them. The best mod I’ve seen for the MX Brown Majestouch is simply putting DCS WYSE on it, lube the stabs, and magenta LEDs. That’s all you really need to do.
As for modding with Meteor Orange, it’s interesting that you bring that up. SP Star Meteor Orange seems to have been produced for Leopold to use in OEM keyboards. So that you could pick up an FC900R PD with Meteor Orange. Honestly, that would be a great keyboard. Just need to lube the stabs, play around with dampening, and maybe use ABS keycaps, and that would be one of the best 100% keyboards you could get.
So it makes sense to put it in a Filco. Although, as I said, I think ~2015 Browns are fine in a Majestouch.
To improve the sound of Meteor Orange, I’ve found that they benefit from spring lube, switch lube (3204), films, and Cherry tops, as indicated above. I forgot to mention the films.
I guess I prefer a Cherry sound, so I’ve been bringing the sound close to a low-pitched Cherry or Greetech tactile. But if you like the somewhat more high-pitched, poppy, and maybe insectile sound of SP Star, then you probably don’t need to do as many of these mods. Certainly not the Cherry tops.
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