Transformer water damaged!

[Ginny]

Hi all...My transformer tablet has been water damaged. A glass of tea overturned on it! It won't power on at all, nor will it charge. Is there any hope for it at all or is it just dead??!! Please advise! Thanks...

[Frederuco]

Welcome to the forum Ginny!

Your best bet is to NOT power it on for some time. Grab a gallon ziploc bag and throw a handful or two of uncooked rice in there. Then place the transformer on top of it for a few days. This will help dry it out.

If you are OK with taking it apart, taking the bezel and the back off would help. Here is a guide on how to get the bezel off and back on without any damage. Taking the plastic back off is a piece of cake as it has one screw in each corner and then three on top and three on the bottom and it is off. This will help it dry much faster in the bag of rice.

If you do take it apart, be sure to not get rice all inside the components as it may be hard to fish out.

[mija]

The rice trick really works - my Blackberry was out in a rainstorm for two hours and three years later it is still working. The rice trick works best with plain water so I'm a little concerned about the iced tea though, especially if it contained sugar. Also, if you choose not to open the device, you will really need to let it dry for a few days before powering it on. Maybe Frederuco has some additional thoughts on the sugar aspect.

[Frederuco]

If it had sugar, all bets are off. Sugar water conducts electricity depending on the concentration of sugar. If it got on any contacts and shorted it out, it may never work. If it dried before you turned it on, it may or may not have an effect when you power it on.

[flhthemi]

Please let us know how it turns out.....

[Bob_of_QF]

If you cannot get a hold of rice? Or prefer not to use it?

Nice, fresh kitty litter works too-- the clay kind. Again, place litter in a large plastic bag, then a small piece of paper towel (to separate the device from the litter-- dusty) and the device which is wet, and seal the bag with tape.

Let sit for several days-- the bigger the device, the more water there was, the longer it sits.

If you can, you should pre-dry the litter and/or rice in an oven-- spread the rice/litter out into a metal or glass casserole pan, about 1/2 inch deep, and bake at 250 for 10-15 minutes or so, will help to dry it out before use. Let it cool before using. But cover during cooling-- no point it letting it absorb moisture from the air.

You really do not want to cook your electronic device-- LiIOn batteries hate being hot.

There is commercial drying products out there too-- they use actual desiccant chemicals which are water-loving, and are much more effective than rice (which is typically stored in unsealed containers allowing moisture in-- the plastic bags rice is sold in, is not watertight).

The chemicals come in a variety of packages, under a variety of names, such as "Chem Dri", "Drierite" among others. Look for a container billed as a moisture absorbing agent, like for in a dank closet application.

The process is the same: place your wet electronics into an airtight container along with the drying agent of choice. A large plastic storage box will work well, if you use packing or duct tape to seal up any and all holes.

Don't let the drying agent touch your case, as it can discolor it-- a couple of pieces of clean paper towel or newspaper to keep them separate works well.

[MikeS]

All good advice, but the problem with some consumer electronics is that the batteries are not removable, so there will still be power applied to some parts of the cct board even though the device is switched off. The other problem is that generally the On/Off switch is not actually that but a hard interrupt to tell the CPU to boot/stop the user interface software - there is still a lot of stuff in there with power applied, even though you've turned the device off - eg., the clock, the CPU watching for alarm events or turn on signals from the power button.

The only way to completely power down a tablet or cellphone is to physically disconnect the battery - which with some cellphones and (to the best of my knowledge) all tablets is not an option readily available to the user.

[specterdrake]

This was fantastic, I followed your guide and my transformer came apart like a dream. Mine dropped into a pot of water that was in the sink (watching tv through an app). Luckily my wife was right there and grabbed it out quickly. I was able to shut it down, but not before the speakers started to make a jittery buzz sound. Double lucky, not much water infiltrated the case thanks to that rubber around the edge of the glass. I found where to disconnect the battery and dried it as best I could with out taking it further apart. I now have it in pieces, wrapped in paper towel and in a bin of rice, hope it works tomorrow night.
Thanks for the great guide.

[Jeffrey]

The rice should work... Good luck.