Everglide V3 ‘Water King’ Switch Review — ThereminGoat’s Switches

Overall, while each of the components of these switches separately feature mold markings that would indicate they have been used before in previous switches, this is the first instance of this combination of molds being used for parts. Even though this really doesn’t seem to be functionally all that different than compared to something like the V1.5 mold set identified first with the Lavender (as well as Opblack) switches, it is at least historically interesting if not interesting from a manufacturing perspective when considering that all of these switches are getting manufactured in the same facility and yet still being sold under various brands such as Durock, 43 Studios, and Everglide.

Push Feel

In case you were left still wondering about the implied cliffhanger from the end of my Background section regarding my true feelings about the Everglide V3 switches, you can rest assured that the sinusoidal trend was in fact firmly broken and I did not just bait you. However, rather than simply appearing ‘great’ or ‘shit’, these switches absolutely impressed me more than I could have possibly expected in terms of switch feel. While I have been quite lucky to have tried many a smooth stock switch in my time, these are among the best lubed linear switches – stock or modded – that I’ve tried to date.

The factory lubing on these switches is simply incredibly well done, consistent, and walks the tightrope line of lube extremely well without falling into the deep overlubed or underlubed voids below. In addition to a consistent push feel across the entirety of the stroke in each of the switches I tried, these Everglide V3s have a muted and cushiony, yet still solid and non-mushy feeling bottom out. As well, the topping out is definitely a bit more solid and firm feeling than recent JWK/Durock releases, though still just a hair on the noticeably thinner than bottoming outside.

Even though these switches, on their own, have absolutely stellar performance in each of the switches that I tried, my one caveat to my praises I sing about them is that they are not the most consistent between switches. However, when I say this many people will immediately jump to Gateron switch levels of inconsistency in which switches could go dry in the bag next to a switch that was seemingly triply lubed. That is not the case whatsoever here. Instead, the variance between the handful of switches I’ve tested is fairly minor, but definitely noticeable to someone who is looking for these kinds of things. While you, the reader, may get along fine with throwing these directly into your favorite hotswap board and likely wouldn’t notice, I would likely notice these ever so slight inconsistencies between them.

Sound

I’m completely well aware that I’ve beaten to death the trend in recent reviews that “the sound often matches the push feel of a switch”. Keeping that in mind, this is one of those switches that really does me dirty by making me walk back on that trend, but only a slight bit so that I can keep my ego intact. While the bottoming out of the switch perfectly matches the push feel with a soft, muted, and almost unnoticeable sounding collision, the topping out is ever so slightly higher pitched sounding than it feels. (No, this is not meant to be a subtle callout to the synesthesiacs in the community.) This phenomena, as well, picks up in terms of magnitude of sound at higher activation speeds when in hand, but this sound is fairly well equalized across typing speeds with keycaps on the switch.

Wobble

Again, further adding to the blowing away of my expectations of these switches is the wobble on the stems and top housing, or rather lack thereof. While previously iterations of Everglide switches, and particularly those in the ‘V2 Era’, suffered from both noticeable stem wobble as well as a slight budge in the top housings, the Water Kings are about as good as you can get from factory tolerances. Without even getting to the comparisons section just yet, I immediately lumped these in my head with Gazzew’s recent Boba switches in terms of sheer near perfection of tolerancing with about as close to zero stem wobble as you can get.

Comparison Notes to Other Notable Linear Switches

Note – These are not aimed at being comprehensive comparisons between all factors of these switches as this would simply be too long for this writeup. These are little notes of interest I generated when comparing these pieces to the Everglide V3 Water Kings side by side.