water + remotes = ....

Ripper · 25 Feb 2006 at 13:58

I have 6 remote controls on my bedside table (dvd, sky, tv, hifi, 360,old hifi), as well as my phone. Last night I had a pint glass of water on there as I was quite ill and my mouth kept drying up all night. By the time i got to sleep this glass was still 3/4 full, and at around 6.30am i heard the glass drop....

all my remotes were covered. Luckily my phone escaped, and even my laptop was attacked by a few drops, cue some frantic hair dryer action and parents asking what the hell was going on. After about 15mins I gave the tv and DVD remotes a few shakes and you could literally hear the water swishing about inside. As it was so early i just shoved them all on the radiator and went back to sleep. After waking up at around 10am, they all work perfectly! Am i just lucky or is it common for remotes to retain their working status even after being drowned?!

_-J-_ · 25 Feb 2006 at 14:00

I think that aslong as there is not to many impurities in the water it is fine, my mate dropped his phone in a pint of water, this was fine. I dropped mine in a sink with washing up liquid in, not working anymore lol.

basmic · 25 Feb 2006 at 14:01

I find low-voltage items, even USB pendrives, will happily survive being immersed in liquids.

As long as you don't use them/turn them on throughout the drying-out-on-the-radiator process, nothing electrical can/should short.

Melm0 · 25 Feb 2006 at 14:01

= Wet remotes?

Werewolf · 25 Feb 2006 at 14:08

as mentioned, as long as it's water (not juice or anything), and the device isn't turned on when it's wet, it will often survive if dried out properly.

The problem comes when you drop water on an active device, or if the liquid has anything like sugar in it (the sugar/impurities stay on the electronics even when it's dried out potentially causing a short when it's "dry").

I've heard of people sucessfully washing keyboards out with water after spilling juice on them, because copoius amounts of water if applied quickly enough (before the juice has dried, but after power is turned off

) washes the impuritied/sugar etc off. It's not recommended though.

Zip · 25 Feb 2006 at 14:10

My phone fell into a chocolate milkeshake and it works fine

Melm0 · 25 Feb 2006 at 14:13

Zip said:
My phone fell into a chocolate milkeshake and it works fine

Mine fell in slush puppy lol and it still worked, then i left it in the sun with chocolate next to it and all melted choc got in the charger socket thing.

Oh well

mc_bob · 25 Feb 2006 at 14:45

Hmm, a mate dropped his SPV E200 in the fountain in town. Didnt work for a bout 2 days, then just turned on and worked perfectly. It was submerged for about 2 minutes while we tried to find it. Pretty cool

MC_Bob