Accidentally dropped USB dongle in water!!! What to do to give best chance of not damaging it?

GervisLooper

Stupid mistake.

I live in my van, and a very small one at that, so everything is on top of itself so I have to move one thing away before getting another out.

I keep my electrical components in the dumbest place really, right above a bowl of water I use for washing, but had not bothered to find a better place for them.

The bowl has a cover which I tell myself to put on before doing something else but I got lazy on that front.

So I was pulling out the drawer rearranging stuff at the back and pulled it too far which caused the whole shelf to crash to the floor and at the same time some of the electrical stuff bounced into the bowl of water; One of which was the 4g dongle!

This is especially troublesome because I had a hard time finding this one as they don't make them any more (yes they have the same model for sale still but not the older firmware before they changed functionality). I had to hunt around to find it and got one off gumtree 2nd hand so it would not be easy to replace.

Here is an image to know what I am talking about: https://www.dlink.com/uk/en/products/dwm-222-4g-lte-usb-adapter

It must have laid about 50% submerged for maybe 5-10 seconds before I noticed it was in there and whipped it out.

The lid was on it iirc, thankfully.

It seems pretty well sealed but I don't really know how much ingress there was without taking it apart. I did have a little go at undoing a screw to see but it was not that obvious how to get it to open up plus I was not sure if opening it would be more detrimental as explained below.

Now I am not sure what the best way is to prevent the water getting into the parts? Should I just leave it without taking it apart or should I try and open it up so the water can air out? I thought taking it apart might actually be worse if it meant water could ingress more into the internals. Conversely I thought that if water is already in there will it just stay in there forever since plastic does not let water out?

I currently just have it stood up lengthways to give it more air. I don't know if any water ingress will eventually work its way out or not though? I know that when water is trapped behind other plastics they are able to stay there indefinitely. Water bottles can keep the water for near to infinity can't they? I remember there was a milk bottle dumped one time where I used to walk a regular route and looked at it for about 2 years and it went brown inside. I thought God help the person who smells that.

MattMattMattUK

Put it somewhere warm, with low humidity and hope, in a bag with dried rice in an airing cupboard is probably your best bet.

GervisLooper said:

This is especially troublesome because I had a hard time finding this one as they don't make them any more (yes they have the same model for sale still but not the older firmware before they changed functionality). I had to hunt around to find it and got one off gumtree 2nd hand so it would not be easy to replace.

Slightly separate but what is the special feature you need?

Eldi_Dos

Get yourself some dessicant packs and place them and device in a dry airtight container ( empty jam jar or similar).Good dessicant packs will have a litmus type paper that will indicate level of dampness in container.

LightFlare

Try and get some of those silicon bags that are shipped with electronic goods and put those+dongle in a sealed container for a few days

Dried rice (for phones anyway) is NOT recommended.  - info from FIL who owns/runs phone repair shops

ThisIsWeird

Shake it dry, away from the usb side, as much as possible. Dab with a tissue. Gently insert a folded tissue edge up the usb, a bit at a time, pulling out and checking, replacing any damp tish with fresh & dry.
Then sit it in the sun in a well ventilated area - you want it nice and warm.
If the case does open, then do so, mopping up any droplets by touching with a tissue corner. Then leave all bits in the sun as before. Place it on a black surface if possible, to add warmth.

GervisLooper

MattMattMattUK said:

... an airing cupboard is probably your best bet.

You missed the part where I said I live in a van?

Have it on the dashboard now and sun is shining so fingers crossed.

MattMattMattUK said:

Slightly separate but what is the special feature you need?

Not really something that is relevant to the general public. Basically after a certain year they did a firmware update to overhaul the functionality of it from what I want to what I don't want. Very niche thing which allows command line access which is removed on the newer versions.

GervisLooper

ThisIsWeird said:

Shake it dry, away from the usb side, as much as possible. Dab with a tissue. Gently insert a folded tissue edge up the usb, a bit at a time, pulling out and checking, replacing any damp tish with fresh & dry.
Then sit it in the sun in a well ventilated area - you want it nice and warm.
If the case does open, then do so, mopping up any droplets with a tissue corner. Then leave all bits in the sun as before. Place it on a black surface if possible, to add warmth.

Well as I mentioned thankfully the cover was on the usb plug so should have kept that bit dry I hope.

I will give it a try after it has been on the dashboard for a while in the sun.

Section62

GervisLooper said:

Now I am not sure what the best way is to prevent the water getting into the parts? Should I just leave it without taking it apart or should I try and open it up so the water can air out? I thought taking it apart might actually be worse if it meant water could ingress more into the internals. Conversely I thought that if water is already in there will it just stay in there forever since plastic does not let water out?

How clean was the water it fell into?  Sometimes the greater risk with immersion isn't from the water itself, but what else the water contains - the damage can be from the corrosive effects of any chemicals, in some cases starting or continuing as the components dry out. Chemical residue can also lead to conductive paths where there shouldn't be. Counterintuitively it is sometimes better to rinse the circuitboard with [preferably distilled] clean water before allowing it to dry - but whether or not that is a good idea in this case I can't comment on, you'll need to make that call yourself.

FreeBear

Section62 said: Counterintuitively it is sometimes better to rinse the circuitboard with [preferably distilled] clean water before allowing it to dry - but whether or not that is a good idea in this case I can't comment on, you'll need to make that call yourself.

Isopropyl alcohol is good for washing electronic devices. Water binds very well to the alcohol molecules, and it also helps to lift off any contaminants.

GervisLooper

Section62 said:

GervisLooper said:

Now I am not sure what the best way is to prevent the water getting into the parts? Should I just leave it without taking it apart or should I try and open it up so the water can air out? I thought taking it apart might actually be worse if it meant water could ingress more into the internals. Conversely I thought that if water is already in there will it just stay in there forever since plastic does not let water out?

How clean was the water it fell into?  Sometimes the greater risk with immersion isn't from the water itself, but what else the water contains - the damage can be from the corrosive effects of any chemicals, in some cases starting or continuing as the components dry out. Chemical residue can also lead to conductive paths where there shouldn't be. Counterintuitively it is sometimes better to rinse the circuitboard with [preferably distilled] clean water before allowing it to dry - but whether or not that is a good idea in this case I can't comment on, you'll need to make that call yourself.

It was soapy water...plain hand soap bar.

GervisLooper

FreeBear said:

Section62 said: Counterintuitively it is sometimes better to rinse the circuitboard with [preferably distilled] clean water before allowing it to dry - but whether or not that is a good idea in this case I can't comment on, you'll need to make that call yourself.

Isopropyl alcohol is good for washing electronic devices. Water binds very well to the alcohol molecules, and it also helps to lift off any contaminants.

I have some bioethanol leftover from when using for cooking, will that do?