• 0ops@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      7 months ago

      What does damage is short circuiting the electronics, which water can do.

      And corrosion, which water can catalyze, which is why your suggested steps should be done ASAP. Great write up though

    • Bwaz@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      7 months ago

      In particular, salt water (ocean or even pickle brine) will need to be cleaned out. It leaves condictive salt film behind.

  • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    Rice is a terrible desiccant. Yes, it absorbs water when boiled

    If you want to save your electronics after they’ve taken a bath, here’s how to do so.

    1. Turn it off and disconnect from power ASAP. If you can, pull the battery.
    2. Dry as much standing water as possible
    3. Set a fan to blow on it for a day or two.

    Airflow is the solution to drying something out, and rice blocks airflow.

    • cordlesslamp@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      29
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 months ago

      My entire family’s logic:

      _Drop electronic devices in water

      _Pick it up

      _Swing it a few times

      _Immediately and furiously try to turn it on to see if it’s still work.

  • FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    Immediately remove the battery/power, then use a bunch of silica gel packs that have been dried out instead of rice: They’re commonly available and won’t get into things and cause problems down the road. Alternately, just take it apart as much as you can and set it in front of a fan to dry out.

    Keep in mind, it might be too late but it’s worth a try.

    If you really want to try and save it and are tech savvy, try tearing it down and giving it an isopropyl alcohol bath but if you aren’t, it’ll do more harm than good. Keep in mind ISO can damage some parts.

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      7 months ago

      Keep in mind ISO can damage some parts.

      I’ve never had isopropyl damage anything - what kinds of things are sensitive to it (so I know what to lookout for)?

      Now acetone on the other hand…do NOT use it to clean plastic unless you know what you’re doing, lol.

  • Wugmeister@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    7 months ago

    Assuming it is a paper notebook, the determining factor is how soaked the pages are. If it is too wet, they may start to meld together making the notebook unusable.

    The best thing to do is to actually heat up the book. I’ve cooked mine in the oven at very low heat, which allows it to dry out fast. My dad does a variant of the rice method for wet books where he fills a bag with rice and then places it in the sun. However, if the notebook is too wet and the pages are sticking together, doing either of these will instead turn your notebook into a solid block of wood. Instead, your best course of action is to try and fan out the pages by individually peeling them apart, then putting the splayed-open notebook somewhere moderately warm where it can slowly dry out under your careful observation.

  • NegativeLookBehind@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    7 months ago

    Put the laptop in a sealed container along with a container of Damp-rid. Wait about 3 days, and the laptop will be dry*.

    * this does not mean that the laptop will work

  • saltesc@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    7 months ago

    The two things water does are

    1. act as a short circuit, since it’s conductive and spreads over everything rapidly
    2. leave residue/corrode, coincidentally doing the opposite by blocking circuits over time

    You can extract all the water, but unless it’s producing vague bios errors, there’s no way of knowing what has failed. Similarly for corrosion, you would need to thoroughly pull apart and clean off residue.

    There is, however,.a chance everything’s fine like the device wasn’t powered on at the time to have voltage short circuit across components and just needs a clean.

    So, I think your success rate with drying out notebooks would indicate that it’s more effort than it’s worth.

    • Teknikal@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      7 months ago

      It’s when corrosion sets in things get unfixable. If you get to its insides before then some IPA and a decent scrub with something like toothbrush can clean it up.

      The exception to this would probably only really be the battery and yeah that should be disconnected as the first step.

        • Teknikal@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          True I’ve had screens on smaller devices go very distorted for a few days after ipa was used elsewhere. They did actually clear and go back to normal mind you and I’ve never actually went near an actual screen with ipa intentionally.

            • Teknikal@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              7 months ago

              I get it, ipa is good and fixes surprisingly a lot but only ever use it on boards, components and things like buttons and connectors. Keep it away from screens and batteries.

              I’ve always done this honestly maybe I didn’t explain well. It does do a miracle job on water damage if done early enough though.

  • plinky [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    I’ve gotten coke on my nvme drive, after dunking it in distilled water couple of times and drying at 60 it worked 👌 the main thing which might fry anything is the case when voltage controls from battery/wall get bypassed. The chips in production are washed with deionized water on some steps, no problem. The structural damage comes from 7v+ voltages and prolonged exposure. (But something like data integrity can go to shits, that’s just chance. P.s. Obviously, you can’t heat up or wash battery).

  • oyenyaaow@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    7 months ago

    I know of this one time (last year) a window that was purposely kept shut was opened by a visitor and the notebook was rained upon. completely soaked. Kept in rice for about a month (changing the rice on some schedule), it booted up fine for a while. then died completely after a few weeks.

  • BellaDonna@mujico.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    7 months ago

    I usually find that ballpoint pens work poorly if paper has gotten wet, if it dries though you’ll probably be able to keep writing in it, best to throw it out though tbf

  • pelletbucket@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    7 months ago

    rice is only going to absorb water if it’s directly touching the water. if it were good it absorbing humidity, you wouldn’t be able to store it almost indefinitely in burlap as we’ve been doing for centuries.

  • blackbrook@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    7 months ago

    I don’t remember what I did afterward anymore, but I did once have a laptop get wet getting caught in a downpour in backpack that wasnt waterproof. It needed a new power supply.