Wet Electronic Gadgets: How To Save Them

[TouristTrapCheryl]

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Wet Electronics

Electronics that get soaked in water, salt or fresh, MIGHT NOT BE RUINED.

If any electronic gadgets gets wet, first: do not panic. Second:
DO NOT TURN WET ELECTRONICS ON
The water will cause an electrical short and that short, not the water specifically, will kill the device.

My emotional reaction is to immediately turn it on to
see if still works. If you also have that reaction,
fight it. Do not turn the gadget on until the gadget
is completely dry.

If it is wet from salt water I soak it in fresh water for several minutes
then I dry wet gadgets in a warm oven. Because of our
high humidity, it takes days and days for wet gadgets to
completely dry and being even a little wet for too long
can also kill the gadget. Because of this fact,
I "bake" wet electronics in my oven.

First I pre-heat the oven on very low temp until oven
is pretty warm but not hot. If I accidentally heat the oven too
high, I crack open the door and let the oven cool down.

I THEN TURN OFF THE OVEN. I then remove all
removable parts: remove all removable media,
plastic, straps, protective cases or skins, easily
unscrewed or popped off exterior casings, etc. I then
put the "gutted" gadget on a room temp cookie
sheet lined with wax paper or any other room temp
cooking vessel lined with wax paper. (I take the
wax paper precaution so that any plastic bit that may
accidentally melt does not ruin the cookie sheet)
Then I leave the gadget in the warmed up-turned off
oven until both the gadget and oven cool back down to
room temp. DO NOT TURN ON GADGET BEFORE IT COOLS
BACK DOWN TO ROOM TEMP. If you think it may
still be wet, re-heat the oven and bake it one more
time.

Often LED screens cannot be saved once they get
too wet. So even if LED screens don't work when you
turn the the gadget on after “baking” it, the gadget still may
not be ruined. If LED screens are still dead when you
turn the room temp gadget back on then take it to an
electronics shop and have them check it out.

Here in STJ we have 3 electronic repair places:
Computer Express
at Connections in Cruz Bay
Will Culver
on the second floor of the Marketplace, right next to La Plancha Del Mar (Innovative is on one side, Will is on the other side)
Jack (Anna's Brother)
his shop is in Coral Bay at Cocoloba Shops (that's where Aqua Bistro is. Jack is back by the bathrooms)

SAFETY FIRST!

Replacing even a super expensive gadget, like a $3000 Mac laptop
is far better than burning down a house.

When I dry my electronic gadgets in a warm oven
I remember these important facts:

• Remove all soft plastic or fabric parts
(protective skins, straps etc.)

• Remove all removable media

• Remove all batteries, protective cases, skins, straps, ear buds, ect

• Always turn off the oven before putting gadget in oven

• Never put the gadget in contact with hot metal
(do not set it directly on oven racks, do not set it
in hot cooking pot, do not set it on hot cookie sheet.

• Always leave item in oven until the oven + gadget have completely cooled off
(gadget will be hot enough to burn you, so leave it
alone until both the gadget and oven have cooled to room temp)[/color]

Next time someone drops a camera, cell phone, or a
a laptop into the ocean, a swimming pool, or
leaves it out in the rain, maybe this info will be
helpful. I once saved my Mac Laptop by "baking" it.
And I'm talking about a laptop that was soaked because
water ran down a USB cable and and straight into
the computer through USB port. I discovered the water
inside this laptop the next day when I picked up the
laptop and a good 8oz of water came
pouring out through the USB slot. Amazingly, that
computer worked for three years after that extreme water damage.
It eventually "died" of natural causes.

.              * * *

DO NOT TURN WET ELECTRONICS ON

I am not guaranteeing this will work, but this is the
best chance of saving an electronic gadget if it does have
an accident involving water.

DO NOT TURN WET ELECTRONICS ON
(I simply cannot reiterate that fact enough.)

I used this same technique to save a
dead duckling once. With nothing to lose I put the dead
duckling in a high sided roasting pan and watched it
every second through the cracked open oven door. That
"dead" little duck sat right up and started quacking
within minutes. It was one of the most amazing things
I have ever seen. For the duckling rescue I took the
additional precaution of covering the oven rack under
the roasting pan and the bottom of oven with towels in
case the duckling hopped out of the pan. I didn't want
it to burn its feet on any hot metal if it did hop
out. I released that duckling at the Francis Bay Pond.
So if ya' see a duck around Francis Bay saying it was
once roasted in an oven, that is not a crazy duck.
That is a duck telling the God's honest truth. -c

[Wakey]

I normally put (usually a phone) on the dashboard of my truck for a few hours and if that isn't enough, put it in a open jar of (raw) rice for a couple days.

[TouristTrapCheryl]

I normally put (usually a phone) on the dashboard of my truck for a few hours and if that isn't enough, put it in a open jar of (raw) rice for a couple days.

That would definitely work down here. Still be careful,
I've seen VHS tapes melt in peoples cars down here. -cheryl

[ToonMann]

When my daughter's cell phone got wet -- I think she dropped it in a toilet (that's why we always flush for number one stateside)-- she submerged the phone in a bowl of rice and let it sit for a day.

The phone now works fine.

TM

[tinajohnson]

With 5 children in the house we have had to use rice numerous times for wet phones. It works well if you can keep them from trying to check their messages while waiting for it to dry out. Teenage girls can be really impatient!

[Lulu76]

The day that I tripped on the beach and the Soggy Dollar bar became the Soggy cell phone, camera and iPod bar, none of it worked. I stuck it all in rice, tried all the other tricks and had to replace all of it. They told me it had something to do with the salt in the water. I'm not sure if that was true after reading these tips, but I know that everyone else seems to have success by soaking them in rice overnight.

[kristen1206]

Friends have had success with taking apart all removeable parts and putting it in a bwol and covering with rice for a few days.