

Ask HN: Does anybody rent ergo keyboards? - ajford

I&#x27;ve been starting to have RSI pains, and have been looking into ergonomic keyboards. I&#x27;ve been contemplating the Kinesis Advantage and the Truly Ergonomic, and have also considered the Kinesis Freestyle.<p>Given the cost of each of these keyboards, I&#x27;d really like to get a feel for these before I bought one. Would anyone know if there&#x27;s anywhere to rent any one of these?<p>Thanks
======
simplermind
Right there with you on the keyboard shopping; it's an expensive potential
mistake to make.

I'm reading a very helpful book (It's Not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) that is
showing me the root causes of my RSIs, and the keyboard is only part of what
for me is a pretty ugly picture that's developed over several years. If you go
to the author's blog - rsirescue.blogspot.com - and look on that page for "Our
Theory in a Nutshell" you can get a quick overview and see what I mean.

I realize reading a book won't provide an immediate solution for your problem,
but since I've been trying to sort through the keyboard issue myself and only
stumbled across the book (which has so far been extremely helpful) I felt I
should mention it. The book helped me realize a better keyboard will address
some of my symptoms but not all of them and not all of my problem.

If you've just started having RSI symptoms maybe the right keyboard would
provide some quick relief and you can use the "Not Carpal Tunnel" information
to keep it all in check. I have spent too much time and money chasing after
solutions I hoped would be a silver bullet, only to find that they were either
harmful or only partially helpful. RSI relief is turning out to be a puzzle
with many pieces.

All that being said, I stumbled across this page because I searched for the
same thing you were looking for. The authors of the book provided a resource
list that included a link to a site that did rentals. Now it's just a linkfarm
:( I found a couple of other results that led to sites with rental programs,
but they were only local. Would love to find a rental but if that doesn't
happen within the next few days I'll pick one and buy where there's a good
return policy.

------
logn
I was a co-worker with two people who started using the Kinesis. It took them
about a month to get back up to normal typing speed (starting at about 5
WPM!). So make sure you rent for at least a month.

------
buugs
I don't know about renting but perhaps check the return policy on a few
websites (Amazon is usually pretty good) and try one of those after buying it
and if you don't like it return it.

