First Aid for soaking wet equipement

[JAZZ D.P.G.]

After reading roanjohn’s situation with the ocean taking her camera, I thought I would offer some tech tips on how to provide First Aid for your personal electronics should they get severely soaked. I am a electronic technologist working in the communications field, both professional and consumer markets.

Mods, if this is not the right forum, feel free to move it.

OK, so the world got your camera. :( It has been soaked by rain, falling, dunking, your idiot brother-in-law pushing you in the pool or you’ve spilt your favorite beverage. (Pro’s, someone spilling their beer on you! {been there: NASCAR, Budweiser}).

Before you beat yourself (or your brother-in-law) up over it…………….

REMOVE THE POWER TAKE OFF THE FLASH AND REMOVE IT’S POWER TAKE OUT ALL BATTERIES

More damage is done by current running through wet circuits than any other water related damage.

After wiping down the camera remove all accessories and wipe them down, too.

Now shake that camera hard to get rid of excess water. Now shake it again. Tilt the camera and shake it again.

If you are not home, use a towel to wipe down everything you can see, careful around the sensors. Use a bulb-blower and brush if you have them. Use lens paper or microfibre cloth on the delicate parts.

Head for the nearest professional service center.

If you cannot get to a service center immediately, use a hairdryer set on lowest heat and highest speed to blow every area you can see, and every area you cannot see. The glass and plexi will fog up, this is evaporation happening. Careful of sensors, again.

Do not power it up. You may think you got all the water, you didn’t. This camera still needs professional help. Water gets in areas you cannot get to. Spending a couple of hundred now, to save the camera investment is the best move.

Head for the nearest shop, as soon as possible. The least amount of time between soaking and a strip repair, the better. Use a shop that will do the repair immediately, not just ship it away. Beg, plead, pay a premium to get immediate service, whatever it takes.

Be prepared for the shop to not warrantee their work. Liquid damage can come back at any time and they will not re-repair for free. In fact, as in roanjohn’s case, they may refuse to service as a policy. Be prepared to offer the non-warrantee possibility yourself.

OK, now you can beat yourself (or your brother-in-law) up. :twisted:

Go out and get that insurance you’ve been thinking about.

Now the situation may be that you cannot get it serviced, or the service shop says it cannot be recovered. This is an opportunity to see how the thing really works by doing it your-self. Service manuals are inexpensive (usually), and it could be a great experience.

Soft cloths, brushes, distilled water, isopropyl alcohol, contact cleaner and time. Clean assemblies as they are, don’t disassemble anything that may be cleaned as a whole. Carefully lay things out to know how they are re-assembled.

In the past I have advised customers with heavy-duty radio equipment, to remove the power source and leave it in fresh water and get it to me immediately. This is NOT good advice for sensors, consumer plastics or LCD. Do not do this with personal electronics, this is good for specific situations only, and any urban legends you have heard otherwise will destroy your equipment.

DISCLAIMER
This advice is given in the spirit of helping in a difficult situation. This should not be your soul source of service advice, check out your local service shops for advice. This is the method I have advised clients in the past, and how I would treat my own camera or equipment.

I hope this helps someone one day.

[RichardtheSane]

I for one see that as great advice.

I can back up what is said about geting it to service ASAP, in fact sooner than that.

I worked in a laptop repair shop and a lot of what I dealt with was liquid damage. So many times I could have saved the notebook with no parts needed had we got it soon enough. But the usual response was 'oh, we wanted to let it dry and then try it' and similar phrases.

Often that was an expensive decision.

[dtrayers]

Thanks for the tips, Jim!

Specifically though, what about salt water? Since the camera was immersed (and especially if it's thoroughly soaked), should one not rinse with fresh (or distilled, available at most grocery stores in the states) water to try to remove the salt? Then do the dry out routine? I would think that corrosion of the electrical circuits would be the issue with salt water?

Thanks again for the insights!

[JAZZ D.P.G.]

Thanks for the response, this was my first post that I started. I wasn't sure that this would be totally appreciated.

As to the salt, I still think that more damage would be done by introducing even more water into the situation. By removing and drying as much as possible, the salt woudl be more restricted, dry salt does no damage.

Introducing more water would possible spread the salt and water even further through the camera.

As the doctors says "Do no harm".

Just dry it as much as possible and get it serviced.

Unfortunately, when your on the road, vacation or business, you don't know who to take it to. Hard call.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Great info! thanks :)

[DeeplyDigital]

I live by the sea AND it rains a lot so your advice is very welcome.

Thanks!

Julia
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