Water and Electronics

Tuesday, June 10, 2003

Krista's Palm took a swim this weekend, while we were climbing around some rocks on the James River in Richmond. It of course didn't work then, but now (a couple days later) it works fine.

• Does water really ruin electronics, or only if it's turned on (and thereby gets fried?)
• We dumped water out of the PDA, so it was waterlogged - how much would have ruined it?

Anyway, it seems to work fine, and now it's a little cleaner.

1 Comment

• Tom: I know for a fact that water does not ruin electronics. I was extremely suprised while working at an engineering company to find that all of their finished circuit boards are run through a standard household dishwasher before being installed into the product case. The washing was necessary to remove solder residue before conformal coating, a process in which a waxy substance is applied to the boards to prevent corrison. However, there is a catch when it comes to water and electronics. If the device has power apply to it, or for that part, batteries installed in it, despite weather it is on or off, damage will likely occur when it becomes wet. This is because the water will make a conductive circuit between components that should not otherwise touch, ie: the equivalent of crossing the positive and negative terminals on a car battery. Therefore, if your electronics are wet and not powered, just let them dry out naturally. Never use a blow dryer because it will ionize the air with static that could damage the electronics with electro-static discharge (ESD). (commented on 8/8/2003 11:55:57 PM)

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