Coffee spill in/on electronics

[Lakewood90712]

Of course the is a purely HYPOTHETICAL question. If someone spilled coffee over a 4g usb modem, upon opening the case , traces of liquid found. ( device off at the time of incident ).

Just blow it out with compressed air and hail Mary OR try and wash in de-inoized water, then bake in the oven at lowest setting ?

Already did compressed air, haven't tried to power up yet.Still smells like coffee a little.

 

[Walt34]

I'd wash it out, lightly blow with compressed air (say 20 psi) and then let air dry over a few days. Perhaps park it in front of a dehumidifier for that time if you have one or an A/C vent.

 

[Christine]

Bury the gadget in rice. Leave it a couple of days. Rice is very dry and absorbe moist. This has worked for me when I spilled coffee on my phone.

I guess there are alternatives to the rice if you do not have any.

 

[pb4uski]

+1 on rice. Works wonders.

Don't do what DS did... he didn't have any rice handy so he used pastina (small noodles like in star soup).

 

[Lakewood90712]

Kind of leaning to wash with distilled water or alcohol , coffee residue is very corrosive. The rice should work quite well as a homemade descant. Will report back with or outcome.

Oh ya, when someone suggests " Lets go out to the patio, it's so nice right now" , don't try and carry 6 thing at the same time as a cup of coffee.

 

[ERD50]

Kind of leaning to wash with distilled water or alcohol , coffee residue is very corrosive. The rice should work quite well as a homemade descant. Will report back with or outcome.

Are we talking black coffee, or cream and/or sugar?

Black coffee shouldn't be too bad (but it is acidic), but I'd still lean towards a distilled water or alc rinse.

Blow it out real good, then keep a fan on it for a day, then try the rice trick to get the last little droplets out.


My niece spilled soda into her laptop, didn't get it to me for several days (a week?). I took it apart, washed it with soap and lots of water, brushed it real good, (probably did an acl rinse, I don't recall), then did the air drying thing (didn't do the rice). I was pretty surprised when it actually powered up and seemed to work fine. Not sure how long she used it after that.

Oh ya, when someone suggests " Lets go out to the patio, it's so nice right now" , don't try and carry 6 thing at the same time as a cup of coffee.

Hypothetically speaking that is?

-ERD50

 

[Lakewood90712]

Are we talking black coffee, or cream and/or sugar?

Black coffee shouldn't be too bad (but it is acidic), but I'd still lean towards a distilled water or alc rinse.............................


Hypothetically speaking that is?

-ERD50

Just Black coffee, if it had sugar and cream, I would have less confidence. Although it was Starbucks Pikes , my coffee snob brother thinks the stuff is akin to a toxic chemical.

P.S. the thing came apart easily, one screw, razor blade to pry open , 2 microscopic gold plated co-ax connectors for the antenna embedded in the case.

 

[CRLLS]

Coming from an electronics mfg guy, break it down to the PC board level. Wash the PCB to get rid of the coffee residue. Regular sink water with a few drops of Dawn will work just fine. Not too much dish soap. Swish it around a bit to get rid of the coffee. Follow that with a tap water rinse. Follow that with a deionized rinse. Then either a day or two air dry or a low temp bake at, say 175 deg F, for about 10 minutes, assuming no batteries are in it.


I once washed the PCB's of a computer monitor that was in a building fire in the dishwasher to get rid of the smoke residue and smell!

 

[Lakewood90712]

Back up and running , ok so far. Hardest part was re connecting the micro co ax plugs , and I had to heat the plastic back cover to get it snapped on.

If the thing croaks, no problem. Hundreds of them on e-bay $10-$20 used $40-$50 new.