The switch market has grown considerably over the past few years, and with hot-swap becoming de facto standard, we’re seeing more users get their feet wet with keyboard customisation. Switches are more accessible than ever, and Epomaker is one of the brands making that possible. They have a growing inventory of high-quality bang for buck switches, and the Wisteria is one that caught my eye.
Admittedly, it was the colourway that attracted me to this switch. The soft purple housing with the pastel green stem is a design that’s unpretentious yet tasteful and compelling. I’m not a fan of gaudy colourways, so this was right up my alley. Looking at the price, the Wisterias are very affordable at $11.99 per 30-pack, currently on special for $9.99. Going on the normal price, it comes up to only $0.40 per switch. This switch is available as a linear or tactile, and of course I couldn’t resist the linear version.
The Wisteria comes factory lubed, which isn’t something you would expect at this price, so a big bonus. Factory lube means better out of the box performance, and saves you the time of having to to do it yourself. The stem is made of POM and PTFE mixed material, and if you’re familiar with the NK Cream, you’ll remember that POM is a self-lubricating material. That means the longer you use the switch, the smoother it becomes, also known as breaking in the switch. The rest of the housing is fairly typical, with a nylon bottom housing and polycarbonate top housing.
Interestingly, the Wisteria features an extra-long spring of 20.4mm, compared to the more standard length of 14mm or 15mm. This means the spring will have more tension when compressed, resulting in a snappy upstroke. A switch like this is also a bit heavier at the top of the downstroke and has a less steep force graph, which should create a more consistent feeling downstroke. The actuation force is 45g, and if I had to take an educated guess I’d say the bottom out is 62g. It would be nice if Epomaker made this available in a heavier spring weight, maybe something like 65g or 67g. Coming from my 65g Mauves, it did take some time to adjust and I was a bit clumsy initially.
In addition to the longer spring, the Wisteria also features a longer stem pole, something you find on switches like the NK Cream and Boba U4T. This increases the volume and thockiness of the bottom out, and gives the switch a very unique sound. Switches like these usually have a shorter bottom out distance, and the Wisteria bottoms out at 3.6mm. This was quite perceptible when typing as I’m used to the more standard 4mm. Personal preference comes into play here, and for me 3.6mm is ideal for gaming but I prefer 4mm for typing.
As mentioned, the Wisterias come prelubed and we have an application of lube on the slider rails and stem legs. Also two streaks of lube on the front and back side of the stem. The lube isn’t perfect and a little bit inconsistent here and there–the application on the stem legs is quite thick–but overall it gets the job done and significantly improves the out of the box performance. The switches feel exceptionally smooth and there is zero metal ping. I really don’t think it’s necessary to apply your own lube here; if anything, you might just want to even out the factory lube with a brush.
I was even more impressed with the housing tolerance and stem wobble. The housing is very tight and I didn’t pick up any looseness, and the stem wobble is minimal especially on the north-south line. This is comparable to a high-end JWK switch.
Using these switches on my KBD67 Lite with a polycarbonate plate, I was absolutely blown away. They feel silky smooth to type on with a rich and thocky sound profile. They almost feel like broken in NK Creams. The longer stem pole gives you that aggressive and thocky bottom out, but at the same time it sounds rich and creamy. I was really impressed with the typing experience and acoustics of the Wisterias, and remember we’re talking about out of the box performance; I didn’t do any modding here.
One thing to note is that switches with longer stem poles have a very solid bottom out, so you don’t get that cushioned feel of something like a Gateron. Even on a polycarbonate plate it’s noticeable. Personally I like that solid thud at the bottom, and this is one of those personal preference things.
To summarise, the Wisteria is an incredible switch at an even more incredible price. I’m still in disbelief that you can get something like this at $0.40 per switch. I’ll definitely be trying more Epomaker switches soon.
headtr1p 