Comments on: #1662 – Bowled (10 Comments)

By: pbarnrob

pbarnrob — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 14:55:12 +0000

Hams occasionally face this problem, letting a handheld radio fall in the drink at a boat-ramp (for instance). The recommended save is:
1. remove the battery (as said) IMMEDIATELY
2. drop the whole thing in a bucket of (fresh, clear – preferably Distilled) water
3. when you get home, take it apart as much as possible, wash out in distilled water (the dissolved salts in lake or river water – or toilet water) are the culprit in conductive deposits
4. scavenge remaining water with 99% isopropyl alcohol (at many drugstores, supermarkets), a short soak
5. wash battery off with the 99% alcohol
6. leave all to dry gently in (as mentioned) a sunny windowsill, perhaps on a dry towel – for a day or two
7. you still may replace things like (paper-coned) speakers, but many are now plastics
8. replace battery after totally dry, and try it (may need a recharge)
9. PayPal me 1% of the cost of a new one (just kidding!)
73 de WA6DZS

By: kingklash

kingklash — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 14:07:56 +0000

Exactly! And, you take out the battery, leave the comparment open, and do all the rest. And do it IMMEDIATELY!

By: charles

charles — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 07:03:05 +0000

What to do with the phone? If the toilet water was clean, bung it into a baggie with uncooked rice; a little heat (sunlight on the windowsill, hand dryer is too much, hot air vent is likely also too much, on top of an old CRT monitor would be fine) is good also. If the toilet hadn’t been flushed yet, throw it away — yeah, it’s $300 or more to replace, but it’s impossible to disinfect.

By: jammit

jammit — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:37:25 +0000

I used to own a TV/VCR (what’s a VCR?) repair shop. I used to repair plenty of submerged camcorders and other hand held devices. If you remove the batteries soon enough, they can easily survive. At a computer repair store, I fixed a computer that had been through a fire. The computer wasn’t directly burned, but there was so much smoke that the smoke “condensed” into a black, sticky, goo. Except for the hard drive, power supply, floppy and CDrom drive, everything was put into a dishwasher. The original hard drive was cloned to a new drive, the power, floppy, and CDrom were replaced with new, and the machine booted fine.

By: ZeoViolet

ZeoViolet — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:00:33 +0000

And PS, I don’t carry a cellphone to begin with. One of the few, the proud, the mobilephoneless.

By: ZeoViolet

ZeoViolet — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:00:07 +0000

I would never as a rule have my phone in the toilet with me in the first place. Yuck!

By: Jackson

Jackson — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 16:49:26 +0000

Once, when I was a kid, I dropped my Atari Lynx in the toilet. My dad suggested we not try to turn it on and just set it out in the sun all day to dry. So we did this, and sure enough, the next day we turned it on and it worked just fine. This strategy probably works best with dark devices that’ll soak up the heat, though it might work with a lighter-colored phone too. You could probably even use a hair dryer on a low setting.

By: g

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 16:47:25 +0000

Put it in a ziploc bag with dry rice. It will pull the moisture out.

By: Anon_omis

Anon_omis — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 16:44:15 +0000

My dad dropped his phone in the engine compartment of our boat, which has collected a mixture if water, anti-freeze, oil, and other engind fluids. Sadly it ended up right in it. I tried to get it bit couldn’t get into the confined space. Finally I took my shoes and socks off and used my feet to get it out. Sadly it was DOA.

By: RoguesAndGhosts

RoguesAndGhosts — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 16:02:40 +0000

I have never dropped a phone in the toilet, but then again, I rarely have my mobile phone with me. And if I actually have the phone with me, I would have to drop my entire backpack in the toilet in order to drop the phone in the toilet. Yes, I keep my phone in my backpack, not in my pocket or anything.