Rescued my mobile from the rain

[TheWelly888]

This morning I discovered that I had dropped my mobile phone ( old style Nokia ) on my driveway and it laid there keypad up all night during the wettest night of the year!

I immediately took the back cover, battery and SIMM card out and patted it down with paper towels then shook as much water out as I could. I figured out how to get the front cover off and left the lot in front of a fan heater ( a couple of feet away ) to dry out for a few hours.

Later on I reassembled the mobile and switched it on - it works! I made a test call and received a test call - no problem at all!

I figured that rain water is quite soft unlike tap water or sea water so is less likely to leave a deposit on the boards or circuitry.

Any one else had to rescue something electronic ( not just mobile phones ) from the wet? If one of you is brave enough to own up to dropping yours down the bog - let's hear it!

[McMonster]

(...) old style Nokia (...) Later on I reassembled the mobile and switched it on - it works! I made a test call and received a test call - no problem at all!

No further explanation really needed. Old Nokia phones were almost indestructible, I've seen them surviving nearly anything. Too bad that stupid management is killing the company.

I have a function generator bought as untested. It worked when it arrived, only when it failed later (shorted caps, still waiting for repair because it takes a lot of energy to disassemble/reassemble the whole thing) I discovered that it's full of rust, including corroded IC pins. Probably spent some years on the warehouse floor.

[Chet T16]

I dropped my HTC Desire (same as the one Dave featured in one of the vids about the stupid boot up sound) down the toilet. I took it out, pulled the battery out and left it wrapped in tissue for a few hours. Booted it up and the touchscreen didn't work right, back in the tissue for a few hours and it was fine.

[T4P]

I dropped my HTC Desire (same as the one Dave featured in one of the vids about the stupid boot up sound) down the toilet. I took it out, pulled the battery out and left it wrapped in tissue for a few hours. Booted it up and the touchscreen didn't work right, back in the tissue for a few hours and it was fine.

That's good news . A Motorola Milestone XT720 these days wouldn't survive anything water , then again neither would anything from china .
Buy a dell streak and 1 knock against the wall damages the LCD .
But when it comes to HTC , my mom got over paranoid . They made it out of aluminium for a reason ...

[rsjsouza]

Back in the early days of cell phones, a friend of mine dropped his company's Motorola Microtac in the pool. One day later he was talking on it... I had a Nokia 3320 that was literally a war tank - it could really take a beating.

In a related note, recently my wife dropped Cranberry juice in her old Toshiba notebook and, although I consider it almost "indestructible", it was too much for it. It locked up immediately. Opened it, dried everything I could see and reassembled. Still no joy. Left it alone for a few days to let it dry some more. It works now, but I'll keep an eye on it - the sweetener on the juice may still play some tricks on the boards...

[AntiProtonBoy]

No further explanation really needed. Old Nokia phones were almost indestructible, I've seen them surviving nearly anything. Too bad that stupid management is killing the company.

I think Nokia's struggle in the market is also attributed to the fact that their product line is no longer as "trendy" as it used to be, ever since the iPhone was introduced.

[Rerouter]

had found a slighty modern samsung flip phone in my pool (high levels of chlorine) a few days after a party, had to replace the battery (had a compatible one lying about) , and sandpaper the simm contacts, but the thing still worked after 2 days sitting in my computer in a box of dessicant (computer as a heat source),

solder masks shall never cease to amaze me at times,

[Psi]

It would be a good idea to keep it submerged in a jar of rice every night for a week.
Just to remove all the moisture.
It maybe working now, but if any moisture got inside it may stop working in a month or two.

Ideally it should be in the rice for a few days continuously, but i'm guessing you need to use it during the day.

[Psi]

Too bad that stupid management is killing the company.

hehe Yeah, Nokia shot themselves in the foot. Then they asked Microsoft to come and shoot the other foot, expecting that to fix the problem.  Now they're perplexed as to why they can't walk any more

[G7PSK]

If I get any electronics wet I always flush with alcohol to help remove water.

[Zero999]

Another idea is to waterproof your phone, if you're planning to use it around water (i.e. a boating or fishing trip). You can buy special waterproof bags but I prefer to put the phone in a condom and tie the end.

[TheWelly888]

^^^
Yeah good idea! Just imagine the look on the faces of Tesco's Clubcard admins when they clock just how many bongies I buy per week! 

[SeanB]

If you are using condome make sure to get those without nonoxyl 9 lube in them. it will destroy the plastic. If you do not want to use them then use surgical gloves instead.

[mikeselectricstuff]

After a (clean) water incident, the most important things are to disconnect any & all batteries (inc backup cells etc.) as soon as possible to stop electrolytic corrosion.
 
Then take it as apart as practical, dry off any visible water and then, very important,  leave in a warm dry place for at least a day before reassembling  to make sure any remaining water evaporates (flowing air also helps).
Once closed up, there is no airflow, so water will stay in there indefintely, and run or condense elsewhere, and there may be water in small crevices like FFC connectors, which will start corrosion as soon as power comes back, but may not produce symptoms until days later, by which it may be too late to be repairable.

[AntiProtonBoy]

Speaking of waterproofing, this caught my attention the other day:



Very impressive, if you ask me. I wonder how much does the coating affect the connector contact resistance...

[Gall]

After a (clean) water incident, the most important things are to disconnect any & all batteries (inc backup cells etc.) as soon as possible to stop electrolytic corrosion.
 
Then take it as apart as practical, dry off any visible water and then, very important,  leave in a warm dry place for at least a day before reassembling  to make sure any remaining water evaporates (flowing air also helps).
Once closed up, there is no airflow, so water will stay in there indefintely, and run or condense elsewhere, and there may be water in small crevices like FFC connectors, which will start corrosion as soon as power comes back, but may not produce symptoms until days later, by which it may be too late to be repairable.

I use slightly different method, but the idea is very similar.

After disconnectiong power and removing batteries I wash the affected parts by clean deionized water (using wet paper tissue and small syringe) and dry it off with a paper tissue. This is to remove any salts and dirt.

Then I use 96% ethanol (or isopropanol if the board is not tolerant to ethanol) to remove water. Alcohol dissolves water very quickly. This procedure removes water even from under BGAs almost immediately.

[TheWelly888]

Just to announce that my Nokia mobile which took an overnight shower back in April ( as in the OP ) is still working. I use it occasionally.

Touch wood it continues to work...

[tom66]

I've dropped my 3510i two stories. The back cover fell off and the battery came out. Replaced both, phone works fine. Only damage is a small chip on the plastic case, but even that's replaceable, as the inside phone is still completely fine. Built like a friggin tank!

[Mechatrommer]

No further explanation really needed. Old Nokia phones were almost indestructible, I've seen them surviving nearly anything. Too bad that stupid management is killing the company.

I think Nokia's struggle in the market is also attributed to the fact that their product line is no longer as "trendy" as it used to be, ever since the iPhone was introduced.

they still got at least one customer left, me. the next time my old nokia 7610 broken, i will look out for nokia touchpad (if there is no more old key style phone). the fact that their phones are indestructable is i believe one reason of their demise. i got relative who drop his nokia into the sea, just a little bit of clean and dry up, its still work, no ee knowledge required. my nokia 7610 is already 5+ years with me i believe, i'm not a good contributer to economic circulation complex i'm afraid i like it that way

[SeanB]

I got 10 years out of a Nokia 8110, even had to buy a new battery for it ( NOS stock but the only one left was the extended capacity one, which lasted more than a week between charges) from Nokia as the original one eventually would not last a day. Now using a 3310 Classic, on it's second cover, the first 2 broke from use. Had it since 2008.

[McPete]

My Nokia 3315 was like that- I remember others at school who had them playing AFL with theirs in lieu of a ball.

Strangely though, my dad (a civil engineer) broke it within three days of getting it- he walked into a cabinet at the local post office and smashed the screen.

Then he walked into a salt-water lake with my brother's old phone, one of the early colour screen Nokias.

He's lasted 2 years on my Samsung A411, which I'm actually kinda staggered by.

[Psi]

Many many years ago my parents took my 486 DX4-100 laptop camping and the tent got flooded during the night. They Woke up to 5cm of water over the floor and the laptop was sitting in it.

Dad took the entire laptop to bits (while camping, as he had his tools) dried it and put it back together.

It worked perfectly fine for 1 year after that, then it just died one day and wouldn't turn on.

I took it apart and found some green PCB tracks around the CMOS battery.
I'm still not sure if the battery leaked from old age or the water coupled with the battery volts cause the corrosion.