Shared on another post. I thought I would add this here as well.
Ultimately, I think after reading the comments about the Penguins and possibly the Dragon Fruits, I would have been better off buying one of these switches rather than continue to find some use for my old Outemus.
Interesting! Sky Penguins were up for testing next [Silent Sky Penguins, actually, but now I want to try Sky Penguins.]
In my recent experience, putting OUTEMU Sky stems in Cherry MX Clear housings is not the best experience. They cope well with lower spring weights, and can be smooth, but yes, they do wobble, and IIRC the bump is kinda drawn-out.
I would expect similar results in Penguins.
As I am typing, I am thinking I will definitely turn these into HPs, but I will wait a month or so to do that. The BSUN housings I got were super tight. I actually ripped my fingers up a bit cracking into them.
HPs are still great. I have 50 Halo stems lying around, putting them in the Boba housings led to excellent results with 68 P springs.
I don’t want to do a HP/Holy Boba build, but it’s so tempting.
SAME! I got some from Bolsa, and I was afraid I was going to destroy my hotswap board mounting them on a brass plate.
Figured I would add this here since we have a little thread going on.
I’ve been testing Penguins live in hotswap, connected to a laptop.
I find I am liking the MX Clear Penguins more than the stock Penguins.
Even more, though, I seem to prefer the lone 60 G MX Brown Penguin I made. It’s relatively smooth compared to stock Cherry MX Brown, sounds deeper and less chittery.
Give MX Brown Penguin a chance if you can. It’s like a smoother, deeper-sounding Brown.
I imagine they have to be lubed well to avoid return problems at 60g.
I like them a lot. Very pleasant and tunable switch.
Note that Cherry labels their spring weight on actuation, not bottom out. I think.
I wonder how Penguins would do with a 63.5 Progressive spring, such as those sold by Spirit.
I had some 63.5 P Ergo Clears, and they actuated very light, maybe lighter than MX Brown. But they may have been a little heavier than Browns on the upstroke, making the Ergo Clears function properly.
They were very soft, maybe too soft, but I wonder if well-lubed Penguins could pull this off.
Got some today and am lubing now with 3204… they have a very pleasant, medium, and mellow tactility.
@Deadeye I put a Boba silent tactile stem in an unlubed Penguin 67g and it feels really nice 
Hey, you’re right!
I put 2 U4 stems in the Penguin housing using default 63.5 G spring. It felt a little mushy and sluggish, since the 63.5 G spring is bare-minimum for a less-tactile stem, but it was U4-feel.
I’ll have to find springs and try it at a higher weight. The Penguin could be an interesting housing for U4.
The Penguin housing is a very nice housing, that’s for sure. It sounds great lubed. I really like the 67g weight. I haven’t tried a U4 stem, only its predecessor, but I’m tempted to try that at some point as well. The Penguin housing could prove to be a nice playground for franken-switches.
I didn’t notice that! I read too quickly on your earlier post and thought you meant U4 Boba stems.
Interestingly, they might be a candidate for Penguin stems. A little weak at 63.5 as I said, but at higher weights they could be okay.
I just tried 2 Silent Tactile [the “Silent Forest”] stems in the Penguin housing with 65 G Spirit springs. It was … okay. My lubing job was bad. But it shows you are right, at the higher-end of medium weights, Silent Tactile should work well in Penguin. Probably min. 67 G.
In this regard, the Penguin may resemble the Boba housing somewhat, in that it is a higher-tactility housing that requires higher weights than stock Cherry or OUTEMU Sky housings. So use 65+ with those OUTEMU silent stems.
The 60 G TX Brown Stem in Penguin housing still strikes me as a particularly smooth and deep-sounding Brown.
I also tried 57 G TX with MX Brown stem in the Penguin housing, and it seems to be okay as well, close to stock MX Brown weight.
So I would take the idea of “Brown Penguins” seriously.
Goofy question to you guys, are penguins worth it as a switch? Or if I want an ergo clear experience, should I just get some cheap Cherry Clears and spring swap?
The Penguins seem nice in the fact that I don’t have to get extra springs… but Cherries are cheaper. Housing wise, I don’t seem that much difference, other than color. However I am a little out of the loop on Cherry switches, are films suggested with them?
Penguins are just blue Ergo Clears. Moreover, they’re designed for Ergo Clear weights and Clear tactility. The tactile leaf is reasonably tactile, so 63.5 G is the minimum lubed weight for its stem.
[You can go lower with real MX Clear stems in the Penguin housing, maybe 60 G]
So it’s actually a little less flexible and versatile than the MX Clear stem, so far. There seems to be a narrower range of weights it will tolerate.
It does have advantages. The Penguin housing produces a deep sound. For people who value that, the Penguin housing is superior to the MX Clear housing. It is also smooth. You can put MX Brown stems in it, and create something smoother than an MX Brown. At low weights.
However, if you just want to make straight up Ergo Clears, yes, Cherry MX Clears are much cheaper and more readily available. The only reasons to use Penguins are:
-if it must be blue
-if you need a deeper sound
-if you using MX Brown stems
Penguins are actually a neat switch for modding, can use several stems, but Cherry MX Clears are the easiest and still most reasonably-priced method of making Ergo Clears.
I have some Ergo Clears that are filmed. That’s definitely something you can do, and it does address wobble somewhat. It may affect sound, so be careful. But yes, stock Cherry switches tend to have a problem with wobble unless filmed.
Cool, thanks HungerMechanic!
Yeah ultimately I was just trying to figure out the advantages and dis-advantages. I really don’t care about color. Sound would be nice, but I am not a stickler for that. I think I will just get some Clears and some more springs and do it that way.
Has anyone confirmed if the Penguin and the Dragon Fruit switches use the same stem (or similar leaf for that matter)? I have only tried the Dragon Fruits myself and they do in fact feel like a Zealios V1 clone.