cautionary tale

[baytree]

I flew too low over a river bank and crashed my Mavic Mini into the side, and it got wet.
Took it home, dried it out with a hair dryer. It turned on OK but gave me a "power system hardware error".
After waiting a couple of days there was no improvement so I sent it off to a repair place. They quoted me £500+ to replace the motherboard, or offered me £10 for "recycling". Since I can get a new one for less than £500, and dead ones can go for >£100 on ebay, this was obviously a no brainer, so I paid £8 postage to get it back.
I put the battery in, turned it on and it worked perfectly. At least it seems to. I guess it just needed more time to dry out.
I am suspicious of the £10 "recycling". Where do all the dead drones on Ebay come from?

 

[THE CYBORG]

Hi baytree Welcome to Mavic Pilots.

The £10 covers the repair shop’s listing & postage fee’s
Glad to see it’s working, hope it stays that way.

 

[TreeHugger]

I flew too low over a river bank and crashed my Mavic Mini into the side, and it got wet.
Took it home, dried it out with a hair dryer. It turned on OK but gave me a "power system hardware error".
After waiting a couple of days there was no improvement so I sent it off to a repair place. They quoted me £500+ to replace the motherboard, or offered me £10 for "recycling". Since I can get a new one for less than £500, and dead ones can go for >£100 on ebay, this was obviously a no brainer, so I paid £8 postage to get it back.
I put the battery in, turned it on and it worked perfectly. At least it seems to. I guess it just needed more time to dry out.
I am suspicious of the £10 "recycling". Where do all the dead drones on Ebay come from?

Welcome to the forum!
Hard to say where they come from but looking at the sellers might be a clue.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Don't you just love "not working, can't test any further" ads, especially from business seller's?

 

[Malcx]

1. Get an airtight box,
2. Half fill with uncooked rice,
3. Put a paper towel over it.
4. Place mavic (or other electrical item) on it
5. Close the box
6. Wait 5 days or more

That'll dry out your electronics much better than using a hairdryer - the dry rice absorbs all the moisture where as a hairdryer will temporarily warm the whole device but not really draw the moisture out.

 

[lannes]

If you can be bothered, open up the the MM and spray iso propyl alcohol (99% proof recommend as it leaves less oil residue as it dries) onto the circuit boards and connectors and scrub away any visbile signs of corrosion softly with a toothbrush then dry for a long time as recommended by others.

The alcohol removes the micro contaminants in the fresh water e.g. the suspended solids etc.

I don't believe rice works

https://www.ifixit.com/Wiki/Don%27t_Put_Your_Device_in_Rice._Here%27s_Why

...

 

[Malcx]

I don't believe rice works

https://www.ifixit.com/Wiki/Don%27t_Put_Your_Device_in_Rice._Here%27s_Why

...

Huh, interesting - I had a phone that was totally submerged and after 5 or 6 weeks of sitting near a warm radiator still didn't turn on, so did the rice trick and 5 days later everything was fine. Yes of course be careful with dust (hence step 3).
I've also done the same with a watch where the seal had failed and was left with a "foggy" screen - again this didn't resolve itself until I used the rice approach for a few days.

FWIW the guy quoted in that article saying rice doesn't work runs a company specialising in people taking electronics to them to be dried out - there might be a COI there

But yeah disassembling and drying with alcohol will be a more effective method.

 

[Malcx]

Also Intel seem to think it's a valid approach to advise people on.

Newsroom Home

Intel Newsroom home page

newsroom.intel.com

 

[lannes]

Also Intel seem to think it's a valid approach to advise people on.

Newsroom Home

Intel Newsroom home page

newsroom.intel.com

I'd guess you would need to try any and all approaches to dry the drone out, for me the important thing would be to get the sediment out as it's this that leads to corrosion eventually

 

[iaincaradoc]

I just keep a shoebox full of all of the silica gel packets that come with every piece of consumer electronics, and put it in the oven on low heat for a few hours once a year to drive the moisture back out again.

I've got some larger purpose-made silica gel boxes that I keep in the media safe that get the oven treatment at the same time, whenever their moisture indicators change color I just put all of them in the oven at once.

But I'm probably an exception, since I'm used to keeping my cameras moisture-free as much as possible, and especially after a good season.

This summer has *not* been a good season. This is from last summer.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

1. Get an airtight box,
2. Half fill with uncooked rice,
3. Put a paper towel over it.
4. Place mavic (or other electrical item) on it
5. Close the box
6. Wait 5 days or more

That'll dry out your electronics much better than using a hairdryer - the dry rice absorbs all the moisture where as a hairdryer will temporarily warm the whole device but not really draw the moisture out.

He's a guy not selling desiccant (just new phones)

How We Drowned Nine Phones and Found The Truth About Rice

We wanted to find the truth about rescuing drowned phones, so we gathered nine devices slated for recycli

www.gazelle.com

"Dry, uncooked conventional rice was the worst of the seven options we tested. It absorbed the least water in 24 hours, losing out to silica gel, cat litter, couscous, instant oatmeal, classic oatmeal and instant rice."
'Don’t waste your time with conventional white rice. And if you don’t have silica gel or instant rice, don’t worry. Leaving your phone in open air, (perhaps with a fan for better air circulation) works just as well.'

At least you could recommend instant rice.

Also I would never use that repair shop again. Sounds like a scam.