So if it looks dry, wait another couple of days. This netted us about 2 to 3 more volts on the collectors. The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. Use pure isopropyl alcohol (not the 66% stuff) which will mix with remaining water and should help you both clean up and kill the mold. We are not responsible for them in any way. After trying so many solutions, I decided to spray the entire room down with 50/50 bleach and water mix. 1. Water is corrosive to the copper in the products you have (besides the electromechanical problems, like bearings in hard drives (old ones), etc), and if left to do it's thing, electrolysis will eat them up. I'll second this. Given the size of the job, you might get a few gallons and dunk your gear. Not really... a 7ft by 7ft room would have about 25ft of linear drywall along the base of the room, once you subtract out the door. Surface molds grow in just about any damp location, such as the grout lines of a ceramic tiled shower. I told her about the battery and corrosion. Wet Cleaning - … Without JavaScript enabled, you might want to turn on Classic Discussion System in your preferences instead. I guess the question is not 'can' it be fixed, but 'should' it be fixed. Rubbing alcohol is your friend. I find it cute when people call their TV and cheapie stereo a home theater. And never were touched. I had a Philips Pronto that I used to control the DirecTV, lights and the switcher, but no in-wall controls, so I guess it doesn't meet your criteria for a "true" home theater. The holes are tiny. I learned the hard way a year or two ago exactly what "flood" means in insurance terms. Similarly, hard drives are almost certainly a lost cause. Quite a few posters have said this is a write-off without even seeing the state of the kit in question. 24 feet of drywall from the base of the room? Truly flooded - water up past the first floor. The next day, I made my destination, and the day after that, I got the screwdriver out. (I live in an area without basements, both because of shrink-swell soil and high water tables.). You are very likely to damage the device with concentrated heat. Also, why waste your time, simply collect on your insurance and buy all new. work for a major manufacturer. http://www.nocorrosion.com/corrosion-control.htm [nocorrosion.com]. Agitate in the wd40. In addition to the above stated solutions, you might speed the drying process with rice. family heirlooms are the on. Rinse thoroughly with first distilled water and then alcohol (90% would be best). Let it dry completely. Simulation of the Mars Science Laboratory Sky Crane. Once it looks *completely* dry, wait one more year. His wife came home and thought, "Hey, I'll make a frozen pizza for dinner! Computer fans and the like will probably be unsalvageable, but the rest should be OK after some cleaning. Simple green or even lysol does well for mold inhibition. This was a catastrophic storm, as I said previous, worst in 135 years. Area rugs should be HEPA vacuumed and cleaned either via hot water extraction or immersion cleaning. Home electronics don't often have a bios battery, but many have "supercaps" - high farad count capacitors that keep your settings alive for a few days if power is removed. Most PCs now have bios batteries. If there's evidence of corrosion on the boards, you can try cleaning/scraping it away, but your odds of a successful recovery start to go down. If you look at a container with water it in, you will see a. I think it's more like they can't _run_ when ambient is at that temperature. with methanol added to make it undrinkable. Remember, nothing oil based like acetone or gasoline. Rinse the area thoroughly with clean water, … And, voila! Electronic equipment, more than anything else, attracts mold. The lens cap that hangs down had a thin line across the top third, indicating how close the water came to ruining it. I'd be more upset that a dog peed on my laptop and I just put dog pee in my oven. 10" of rain turns into 6' of water in a basement when you don't live in a flood plain? They've got a lot more expertise than I do, although I find their stories interesting to read. If they were not plugged in they can be dried out and probably used again. LCD panels wick water into the panel, and there's no easy getting that out without actually disassembling the panel (LCD / polarizers / light spreader / etc) But that's more of a cosmetic thing than functional, so if you don't mind the weird effect it has on the panel, ok for you. This will ensure that you are dislodging any dust or mold that may still be on the inside and capturing it … It still works today - 20 years later. 2. Well, it was the worst rain in 135 years. Now the hard part. It's somewhat like WD-40. So you're saying that if I lived in Florida, I *can* use my clothes drier to get the wet off my electronics? Those bulbs are quite sensitive. It shouldn't really damage tin solder or chip packages but who knows. Unfortunately, my advice for the original poster is, suck it up and replace anything that you can't get going again fairly quickly. Amazingly, my network gear and the UPS that powers it were all at a height of about 6'4". Ditto for some really high power transistors. I let it sit for a day, and plugged it in. I'm also confused about beer not leaving a residue. This you must take into account. Although we have TWO pumps, I intend to add a third, that HAS a backup battery. Damage to electronics due to water is actually due to unexpected circuits forming and burning out components. A little leads to a lot. *eyerolls*. They still work. P.S. Baking soda is quite good at removing odors. In 2012, the other side. The more you can take things apart and get to the nooks and crannies the better. Make sure your electronics is completely dried out, then power it up outside your house on Halloween night. restoration and cleaning services in South Bend, How to Effectively Leak Proof your Home to Prevent Water Damage, 5 Steps to Recover from Basement Flooding, How to Remove Cigarette Odors from Furniture Upholstery, The Benefits of Air Duct Cleaning: Saves Money on Maintenance and Energy Bills. An oven at the "keep warm" setting (no more than 170 degrees) shouldn't damage the plastics, but not while it's still evaporating alcohol fumes. You should have done this immediately: too much corrosion may already have occured. We dug it up, took it home, hosed it out, threw it in the pool, etc.. I /suppose/ you could save some of the passives, like RCA and speaker cables, if you soak their ends in contact cleaner. It will take time, warmth, and air movement. Then use bleach to clean the rest of the internals, but not the electrical parts (CPU, GPU, RAM, etc.) Rubbing alcohol contains a lot of water so it's not best either. Copyright © 2020 SlashdotMedia. Flux wash is the answer for washing the PCBs. Good luck. If using a higher percentage alcohol, dilute it to five parts water. Here's what you can try if you are feeling brave. If you have access to it, thoroughly blow it dry with dried compressed air (air from an ordinary shop compressor will contain water and/or oil.). In that vein, stop at the drugstore and get a bottle of rubbing alcohol. And it has a comical courtship behavior, where it jitters its heat sinks in a rhythmic fashion and lets its capacitors glow red to impress a possible mate. It's the exact same way that a tree sucks water up through the root system. I cleaned with pure rubbing alcohol. I have been through a mold contamination myself, and having made some bad choices, let me assure you. But I usually just go out, clear the sewer with a rake and that's the end of it. I just left it to sit in the sun for the rest of the day and it worked fine after that. It might still work, I'm not sure what ever happened to it. It forms a hydrophobic barrier between the electronics and the elements and may help. Watch carefully. Remember that basement theaters are cool, but not when there's a potential for flooding, which can happen anywhere. Bleach (chlorine) is a very bad idea. You don't need to kill the mold, just get most of it off. I've used it many many times. Moving air inside the bag would probably speed the process. You can find it in most boating stores. Maybe. I'd try powering them up, but if they've been underwater then the water likely got in through the pressure equalization holes. Actually, you want to do a little more than "completely". The keyboards and mice were usually from coffee or soda, and the CD player I think was excessive dust. I know you were trying to be funny, but some dryers do have a removable shoe rack that doesn't rotate. Works a treat. Well, I've been upgrading parts here and there over the years. Properly clean the surface. The easiest way to do this is baking. If rust has set in, ain't much that's gonna fix that.P.P.S. And no smoking around the alcohol, of course! One trick we used in making REALLY high power CB radio amplifiers was to bake the transistors for about 2 hours. to be a write-off. yah but, chances are the mold can't really feed off anything in the electronics. Maybe give it a wash with isopropyl afterwards, but use the 50-70% cheap stuff. What would it cost (in terms of dollars or hours, whatever is more valuable to you) to: - subject the individual components to any of the treatments prescribed here, - reassemble everything (except for those extra pieces, intentionally removed for efficiency's sake! There is plenty of mold in the air anyway. I've read a lot of people with great advice on removing water and even sea water. 3. I've had a lot of luck cleaning mold and other contaminants from electronics by disassembling the item as completely as possible, cleaning each peace with a gentle liquid cleanser of some kind (i.e. We tried a variety of things to clean the bathroom. Finally, if you can't take things apart and expose the PCBs and a good portion of the components, then your chances of success are very low. It will provide an absolute zero moisture environment. The bad news is that it may have been powered when the water hit it. SERVPRO Franchise Professionals specialize in restoring contents damaged by fire, water, or mold. So I definitely recommend the mild bleach solution. Trademarks property of their respective owners. Run a dehumidifier or two non-stop until the air humidity is under 40%. Once you get a little, it's really hard to get rid of it all, and any mold infestation will have serious health implications in the short and long term. That lurking moisture is why pure alcohol is so important. It got up to about 6' which was close to (like within 3-4 inches) the bulk of my networking equipment (router, one of my UPSes, Apple Airport and the cable modem) but just missed. pumps just aren't sized for that kind of freak event. The keyboards still live, and one has been cleaned 3 or 4 times now. The surface tension should keep it out.The gap is tiny. 1) Get you some high-grade isopropyl alcohol (not the wussy 70% stuff -- the 97% stuff they use in cleanrooms)2) Put it in a tub3) Rinse your electronics in it -- vigorously, but briefly4) Let dry for a couple of days (to play it safe). Left no residue and dried quickly. After talking to engineers, we found that even a LITTLE bit of moisture in there, will turn to steam after the devices reach their internal operating temp. 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