General > General Technical Chat

Water and Electronics

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IanB:

--- Quote from: jonovid on July 24, 2020, 11:57:58 am ---I have always believed water & electronics do not mix, so its there something I am missing here?
is there an exception to the rule?  :-//
--- End quote ---

It depends a bit on the circumstances. Water damage is mainly due to corrosion. Corrosion is made worse by contaminants in the water, and by electric currents from energized parts causing galvanic corrosion. Scale matters. A smart phone if it gets wet may be destroyed very quickly due to the tiny traces and small distances, whereas something big like a keyboard may be easily rescued.

The key things are to remove all power sources as quickly as possible, then wash thoroughly with de-ionized water to remove conductive residues, then dry very thoroughly in a warm and well ventilated place before re-applying power.

If it is possible to do so and you know how to do it, disassembly, then washing and drying the parts separately before reassembly would be ideal. That way you can separate out any water sensitive parts like LCD displays for special handling.

VK3DRB:

--- Quote from: rdl on July 25, 2020, 04:59:36 pm ---Be very cautious about putting anything with plastic parts in an oven to dry. Even at the lowest temperature setting some types of plastic can still warp or melt. I ruined the front panel of a computer once by drying it in the oven, since then I prefer to let things air dry.

--- End quote ---

True. If the oven can reach down to  70 deg C they should be fine. Some plastics, eg: some small peizo speaker plastics, can soften around 75 deg C. An alternative it is put them in the Australian sun on a hot, dry day in summer for a few hours. Those in places such as Pommyland don't have much opportunity to use the sun's heat.

jogri:

--- Quote from: VK3DRB on July 26, 2020, 11:17:00 am ---True. If the oven can reach down to  70 deg C they should be fine. Some plastics, eg: some small peizo speaker plastics, can soften around 75 deg C. An alternative it is put them in the Australian sun on a hot, dry day in summer for a few hours. Those in places such as Pommyland don't have much opportunity to use the sun's heat.

--- End quote ---

That is not guaranteed, i killed quite a lot of plastics by putting them inside a 70°C drying oven (even the handles of my swiss army knife)... They might be fine for a short amount of time, but if you let them sit in there for longer than a few hours they will probably degrade.

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