Hey everyone, I just recently got these fancy new linear stems in so let’s take a look.
While the majority of switch stems out in the market are made from polyoxymethylyne,
aka POM, these stems are made of ultra high molecular weight polyethylyne.
This is usually abbreviated to UHMWPE or just PE. I’ll be saying PE for the rest of the video.
The hype behind PE stems come from the claims that they’re supposed to be smoother and have
less friction than POM as well as having a deeper, thockier sound. These specific PE stems were
manufactured by jzun and sold by 415keys. I would not recommend lubing these stems since it makes
them feel slightly sticky and mushy and they are already so smooth already because of the material.
For this comparison, I’ll be using Silk Yellows (aka recolored JWK linears), stock c3equalz kiwis,
which have the same housing as tangerines since I don’t actually have tangerines,
gateron black inks lubed with krytox 205g0 with deskeys films.
So quick update, it looks like the PE stems are not actually compatible with the silk housings,
which means they will likely not work with any other JWK recolors like Alpacas, Mauves, H1s,
etc. As you can see, the stem gets stuck when you press on the switch and does not return to the
upright position. This means I won’t be able to use silk housings and theyll have to be excluded.
The actual reason the stem is getting stuck is because the support post on the bottom of the
PE stem is slightly thicker than on other stems. The PE stem’s post is 2.1mm thick,
while all the others are exactly 2mm thick.
This extra 1/10mm make enough of a difference to get stuck in the housing’s support post rail,
which has a 2.0mm opening on the silk housing and a 2.1mm opening on the housings on the
kiwis and black inks. Because the tolerances are so tight,
adding thick lube to these stems actually gives them more friction on the kiwis and black inks.
In terms of wobble, these seem to be a touch more wobbly than
kiwi stems and about the same as black ink stems in their respective housings.
So really not much wobble at all and you definitely won’t notice in use.
So now let’s get on to a sound comparison of them in hand next to my microphone, side by side on
my board, and then on my board with a proper typing test. The board I’m going to be using
is a tofu60 with aluminum case and brass plate. Keycaps are GMK Delta, but with a PBT spacebar.
Now that we’ve got all the sound tests out of the way, let’s talk about if these stems are actually
worth the money and the effort. I purchased these in a pack of 110 for about $36 if you
include shipping. In terms of smoothness, they are actually noticeably smoother than stock stems.
These are quite comparable to the smoothness of lubed stems, without the mushiness that
you could get from thick lube. For sound, there is a very slight difference in my
opinion and I probably would not be able to tell the difference based purely on audio.
All in all, I would say if you’re lazy to lube, these could actually be really convenient. If
you’re into the raw feel and want the smoothness of lubed switches with none of the mushiness,
these are for you. If you’re looking for improved acoustics, I don’t think these will make much of
an impact. Nothing beats lubing and filming switches to make them as thockey as possible.
In the end, it all depends on if you’re willing to spend another $36 on just stems
and are willing to go through the work of swapping them out. These aren’t going to make
bad switches magically become good, but they will give decent switches that little something extra.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this review. Please leave a like on this video if you
liked it and consider subscribing to my channel.
It really helps me out. All that being said, have a nice day and I’ll see you in the next video.