I had a batch of retooled blacks laying around and decided I want to throw them in a build but the stock springs 60g actuation - 80g bottom out are too heavy for extended typing periods for my so I thought I’d do some testing to see where my preferences lie.
I brought some sample sprit spring packs from mechbox in the following weights 55g, 58g, 60g and 62g and I had some extra gateron yellows laying around so I thought I’d do some frankenstein tests too.
These are the results I found through my testing.
55g - These actuate at 45g of force and definitely the lightest springs out of the bunch, I don’t think I’d even feel the springs when typing at speeds above 90 wpm but feel like I’d find myself accidentally actuating them more often than the other weights since they’re so light. Personally a bit too light for me.
58g - These actuate at 48g and feel lighter than 60g but it’s pretty close, with these springs you can feel a bit of resistance from the springs pushing against you but it’s not much. These are the lightest springs I’d use.
60g - These are slow curved like gateron yellow springs starting at 40g, actuating at 50g and bottoming out at 60g. In short these are my favourite springs out the bunch with the force feeling pretty consistent all the way through. If you like gateron yellow springs but want something a bit lighter like me give these a try.
62g - This is where things get interesting these springs according to sprit start at 34g, actuate at 48g and bottom out at 62g. You can definitely feel a difference between 60g and 62g if anything the 62g springs feel closer to 58g and rapidly increase in resistance after actuating them. Overall these feel lighter than 60g, if you’re looking for a light cushiony spring 62g may be what you’re looking for.
Gateron Yellow springs - These reportedly actuate at 55g and bottom out at 65g. You can tell the weight difference between these and the 60g springs with these having more resistance and feeling more cushioned but also having a consistent feeling weight throughout the whole key press. I like these a fair bit and probably on par with 58g for me, if you want a slightly heavier but consistent feeling spring look into these they’re cheap enough and a good all around spring.
Here are some pictures I took, not the greatest quality but the best I could do. https://imgur.com/a/AT0pMkH I also tried mixing springs, stems and housings between the gat yellows and retooled blacks and found some interesting results.
Retooled black stem in gateron yellow housing - stem is too big and travel is reduced interesting, don’t do it.
Gateron yellow stem in retooled black housing - this was the best outcome I reckon, if you look in the pictures you can see there is less of a gap between the housing and stem with the gat yellow stem in a retooled black housing than a retooled black stem and retooled black housing. These actually does reduce the wobble of the switch with and without switch films quite ironically since gat switches are known for wobble. Smoothness is on par with retooled black stem and travel in the same, I’d say if you’re buying gat yellows for springs may as well swap in the stems too since they reduce wobble whilst being just as smooth not like you see the stems anyway.
Retooled black top housing on gateron yellow bottom - Clips don’t fully seat and whilst the gateron yellow housing is the tiniest bit smoother it looks a mess, would not recommend.
Retooled black bottom housing with gateron yellow top housing - Why would you do this? Don’t do this.