Wet electronics? Camera, flash, cell phone? This MIGHT save you!

MattinSTL

MattinSTL

Sound Modulator
1) Zip-lock freezer bag.

2) UNCOOKED rice... about a cup.

3) Soft cloth... that you can use to make a flat "rice burrito".


Have you ever got a bit of electronic kit wet? Like really wet? To the point that even if you turn it off (best to LEAVE IT OFF until it's dry...) there's still a permanent fog behind the LCD?

Yesterday I was taking pics for a local fire department (for volunteer firefighters)... and at one point I asked a volunteer to move my bag because I was afraid it might get wet where it was... well... the dumb-aaa... er, fine gentleman... decided to NOT put it where I asked him to... but instead put it where HE thought it would be safer... well... unfortunately, he put it directly in the path of the top nozzle spill... yeah, when I got off the top of the truck I come around to find my bag at the receiving end of a waterfall akin to pouring out a 5-gallon bucket!

On the drive home I decided to put my soaked camera flash on the floor of the truck (batteries out, case open) and run the heater on floor setting... thinking I could get the moisture to come out of it... but unfortunately the rear LCD fogged up... and stayed fogged up... I tried to fire the flash, but it was dead (not following my own "wait until FULLY dry" advice... stupid).

So... thinking about rice in salt shakers in some restaurants... I got this idea:

I sealed my flash in a zip-lock freezer bag... along with a "dry rice burrito"... then I went back out to the truck and placed the sealed bag on the floor of my truck... about a foot or so from the heater vent... and ran the heater on high for about 5 minutes as the whole cab began to heat up (I wasn't IN the truck... just let it run.)

After 5 minutes... open the door... truck was hot... turned off the ignition, LEAVING THE BAG IN THERE... and closed up the truck for the night. Next morning... I go out to check the experiment and what do you know... ZERO fog in the LCD... put in batteries... and the flash seems to be working fine!

Who knows what all this could work for... but my best advice if you get something wet... is to NOT try to use it while it's wet... either leave the item off or turn it off... until dry... and if you can dry it quickly... and thoroughly (even on the INSIDE) which will ONLY dry over the course of internally corroding DAYS... or by being placed in an environment where humidity is as quickly sucked out as water found it's way in... well... who knows... this might just save that electronic device.
:beer:
 
Last edited:
MattinSTL said:
1) Zip-lock freezer bag.

2) UNCOOKED rice... about a cup.

3) Soft cloth... that you can use to make a flat "rice burrito".


Have you ever got a bit of electronic kit wet? Like really wet? To the point that even if you turn it off (best to LEAVE IT OFF until it's dry...) there's still a permanent fog behind the LCD?

Yesterday I was taking pics for a local fire department (for volunteer firefighters)... and at one point I asked a volunteer to move my bag because I was afraid it might get wet where it was... well... the dumb-aaa... er, fine gentleman... decided to NOT put it where I asked him to... but instead put it where HE thought it would be safer... well... unfortunately, he put it directly in the path of the top nozzle spill... yeah, when I got off the top of the truck I come around to find my bag at the receiving end of a waterfall akin to pouring out a 5-gallon bucket!

On the drive home I decided to put my soaked camera flash on the floor of the truck (batteries out, case open) and run the heater on floor setting... thinking I could get the moisture to come out of it... but unfortunately the rear LCD fogged up... and stayed fogged up... I tried to fire the flash, but it was dead (not following my own "wait until FULLY dry" advice... stupid).

So... thinking about rice in salt shakers in some restaurants... I got this idea:

I sealed my flash in a zip-lock freezer bag... along with a "dry rice burrito"... then I went back out to the truck and placed the sealed bag on the floor of my truck... about a foot or so from the heater vent... and ran the heater on high for about 5 minutes as the whole cab began to heat up (I wasn't IN the truck... just let it run.)

After 5 minutes... open the door... truck was hot... turned off the ignition, LEAVING THE BAG IN THERE... and closed up the truck for the night. Next morning... I go out to check the experiment and what do you know... ZERO fog in the LCD... put in batteries... and the flash seems to be working fine!

Who knows what all this could work for... but my best advice if you get something wet... is to NOT try to use it while it's wet... either leave the item off or turn it off... until dry... and if you can dry it quickly... and thoroughly (even on the INSIDE) which will ONLY dry over the course of internally corroding DAYS... or by being placed in an environment where humidity is as quickly sucked out as water found it's way in... well... who knows... this might just save that electronic device.
:beer:
Click to expand...
Nice!
Ok, so after all this, was the burrito cooked and ready to go by morning?
 
my bud dumped an entire bottle of water on to the keyboard of his new unibody macbook pro. The rice trick DOES work. He disassembled it as much as possible, stuck the pieces in a bag of rice. 24 hours later, good as new.
 
very cool, Matt.
Gonna start keeping some rice in my production bag. I bet it works with this St Louis humidity when condensation hops on after going out from a cool AC interior. I had to shut her down and wait it out once in the Bahamas. Man, I bet it'll work.
 
When my last cell phone was accidentally thrown in the washer the people at the SPRINT store suggested I take out the battery and leave the phone in a bowl of rice to pull out the moisture. I was pretty amazed at how damp the rice got. Unfortunately, my phone was dead, dead, dead. Something about that spin cycle.

But, its a great tip nonetheless.
 
Here's a shot from that day, previous to "the incident"... This did not get anything wet (believe it or not)...

Hydrant_Blast_SMALL_MG.jpg


I think the best pics happen when you push the envelope a bit... I was dodging drops to get this shot.
 
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