Laptop power leads got wet, still useable?

aliasojo

Full cup of coffee got spilt over the power leads for 2 laptops. The 'black box' parts of the leads got soaked and the mains electric tripped. Thank heavens for a sensitive consumer unit.

Since they were soaked anyway I figured it couldn't make anything worse if I rinsed them under the tap (held so that the cable entry points were not under the water flow). The leads are now in the warm airing cupboard drying off.

Chances of them working again?

steve1980

Possibly. Will take at least 3 days though. Ensure that when you plug it back in you connect through a surge protector.

penrhyn

May seem a silly question, but did the coffee have sugar in it?
It may be difficult to get rid of moisture that may have got inside the mains adapter.
Some people recommend covering the item with dry rice to draw the moisture out.

kwikbreaks

You should have made a poll of it.

My vote would be for there being no problem although I wouldn't have put them under the tap. These things are usually well sealed (try taking one of them apart to fix if they fail) and I'm guessing the bricks have plug in power cords and it will have been coffee getting into the mains lead connector part that caused the trip.

Time will tell.

Fifer

Can I be pedantic and suggest that what got soaked wasn't a 'lead', but the PSU for the laptop? A lead is just cable with connectors. The PSU is an electronic device. Sorry, lecture over.

If, as kwikbreaks suggests, the trip was caused by coffee in the connector, then you should probably be ok after the units spend a couple of days in the airing cupboard drying off properly. If coffee got inside the PSU housing however, you need to get that dried out (and if there was sugar in the coffee, rinsed off and dried out).

Did coffee get on the connectors? Did any coffee drip out of the PSU? (Hopefully not - as above, they do tend to be reasonably well sealed).

aliasojo

No sugar in the coffee, just milk.

It was one of those large mugs, so a fair bit of liquid involved. The whole area was soaking and the cables were dripping, where from exactly I couldn't say. The PSU (sorry Fifer, I knew it wasn't just a lead but couldn't think of the correct term when I posted ) was soaking on the outside but I have no idea whether any of the cofffee made it's way inside or whether it was just round the connector.

Perhaps the tap thing wasn't a good idea but it was only a gentle fast drip rather than a full flow blast and I did try to avoid the connection point so hopefully I haven't made things worse.

Time will tell I guess. I'll wait for a few days before I order replacements then.

Fifer

Can you open the casing? There are probably screws which myy be hidden under rubber feet and/or labels. It'll be not only easier to dry, but easier to check if the insides are dry with the covers opened up.

birkee

My guess is the power supply may well be resistant to a casual spill of coffee. They are designed for a working environment. Just need to be sure they are well dried.
You can plug the lead into the AC supply, without connecting it to the computer, to see if the lead trips the breaker. If the AC side is OK, the the DC output is likely to be OK as well. Any way to check the output? Meter? Bulb?

As an ex electronics engineer, I would say that the leads will be a right as ninepence, but can't GUARANTEE it.

aliasojo

Just thought I'd update......tried the leads out this evening and they are still working. Happy days.

Thank you all. :beer: