Your experience with a wet battery

[kenjancef]

Did a night flight, had to change batteries. Put the used one on my deck, flew with my second battery. It started to rain, forgot my battery I left on the deck. Rained for about 20-30 minutes. Didn't realize until a few hours later that I left the battery outside.

Brought it in the house without even tapping on the button on top, let it sit on a table until the following afternoon. Had no dessicant or rice, so went out and got some rice, put the battery in a bag with it. It's been sitting in it for about 24 hours now. I'll probably wait another 24 hours to check it, but figuring it's toast.

What has been your experience with a wet battery? Should I have not used rice? Will it recover? Should I do something different? Upset because I am taking my Air 2 on vacation next week, and I can't afford a replacement battery right now.

Thoughts/opinions....

 

[edcMavicPilots]

I don't have this specific experience but I do with other electronics. I would leave it in the rice as long as I could before pushing the button or trying to charge it. There's nothing to gain by trying before you leave. If I had to bet I would bet it is probably fine. Electronics don't get destroyed as quickly as people think from just water assuming it isn't salt water which rain is not.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

In all honesty, it all depends.
20 - 30 mins is a long time for water to capillary in, water finds it's way easily.

The button on top, the contacts possibly pooled surface tension water around the contacts . . .

Assuming battery placed down with power button up.

Did you see water pooled in the power button, around the contacts, were they wet ?
Obviously it might be ok, not wet inside, and rainwater is about as pure as you can get (unless acid rain in urban areas).

Did you wrap the battery up to keep rice dust off it ?
I personally wouldn't bother with rice or silica gel, not for a battery.
Just take it out, put it in a warm place, a sunlit window sill, above a fireplace on a mantle, etc, let it go a couple of days.

Don't turn it on until those couple of days are past.

Try it out of the aircraft, if it looks ok try it in the aircraft, if ok, do a safe environment test flight, if seems ok a longer one.
If you can build your trust in it, great.

I'd say you have a far better than 50/50 chance it will be ok long term.

 

[MS Coast]

In all honesty, it all depends.
20 - 30 mins is a long time for water to capillary in, water finds it's way easily.

The button on top, the contacts possibly pooled surface tension water around the contacts . . .

Assuming battery placed down with power button up.

Did you see water pooled in the power button, around the contacts, were they wet ?
Obviously it might be ok, not wet inside, and rainwater is about as pure as you can get (unless acid rain in urban areas).

Did you wrap the battery up to keep rice dust off it ?
I personally wouldn't bother with rice or silica gel, not for a battery.
Just take it out, put it in a warm place, a sunlit window sill, above a fireplace on a mantle, etc, let it go a couple of days.

Don't turn it on until those couple of days are past.

Try it out of the aircraft, if it looks ok try it in the aircraft, if ok, do a safe environment test flight, if seems ok a longer one.
If you can build your trust in it, great.

I'd say you have a far better than 50/50 chance it will be ok long term.

The back edge of the top of a refrigerator is a good spot for drying things - warm air and air motion.

 

[F00Man]

I crashed my Air 2S on a night flight before a storm and had to let it sit there overnight while it rained. Both drone and battery survived without problems. I do have a WrapGrade skin on it so maybe that helped but let the drone sit overnight and after blowing everything with compressed air and then a few hours in the sun the next day. Same with battery. Brought them in and used compressed air to remove anything else and have been flying fine since.

 

[kenjancef]

In all honesty, it all depends.
20 - 30 mins is a long time for water to capillary in, water finds it's way easily.

The button on top, the contacts possibly pooled surface tension water around the contacts . . .

Assuming battery placed down with power button up.

Did you see water pooled in the power button, around the contacts, were they wet ?
Obviously it might be ok, not wet inside, and rainwater is about as pure as you can get (unless acid rain in urban areas).

Did you wrap the battery up to keep rice dust off it ?
I personally wouldn't bother with rice or silica gel, not for a battery.
Just take it out, put it in a warm place, a sunlit window sill, above a fireplace on a mantle, etc, let it go a couple of days.

Don't turn it on until those couple of days are past.

Try it out of the aircraft, if it looks ok try it in the aircraft, if ok, do a safe environment test flight, if seems ok a longer one.
If you can build your trust in it, great.

I'd say you have a far better than 50/50 chance it will be ok long term.

I didn't wrap the battery before putting it in the rice, thought about that this morning.. .oh well... great tip though.

It's been in rice for about 48 hours now. I'm going to take it out when I get home from work this afternoon, visually inspect it. I am also going to mark it, so I know which battery was the wet one (I'd probably not remember after a while... lol...). I'll give it a few low test flights and charges to see how it acts. Still upset that I left it out, so I hope it'll be ok.

 

[millbah]

Let us know the outcome.

 

[kenjancef]

Let us know the outcome.

Funny, I just finished with it... good news so far. I took it out of the rice, tapped the button, reacted normally. I checked the battery contacts, all looked good. Put it on the charger and it appeared to charge normally. I'll be able to test it over the weekend. I put a small tag on it so I know it's the one that got wet. So I think I'm going to be ok...

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Funny, I just finished with it... good news so far. I took it out of the rice, tapped the button, reacted normally. I checked the battery contacts, all looked good. Put it on the charger and it appeared to charge normally. I'll be able to test it over the weekend. I put a small tag on it so I know it's the one that got wet. So I think I'm going to be ok...

Maybe somehow number your batteries, assuming you have a flymore 3 x ?
You should rotate them for even use, get the most out of them and ensure all get a regular charge and use.

So I think I'm going to be ok...

Yeah, I think so, it's not like an aircraft submersion where it'd be hard to imagine all the very exposed electronic inside getting soaked.
A battery underwater is a different matter, but rain sheds pretty well in general.
Hopefully DJI has managed to improve battery power buttons on top to prevent water ingress as best possible.

 

[eEridani]

Also - rain water has fairly low conductivity. Generally rain wetting things that aren't dirty or higher voltage isn't too much of a problem. You are probably going to find the battery is fine and will last the normal 200 cycles.

 

[changkh]

One time I crashed my drone into a tree and it got stuck in one of the branches. Managed to hit it with a stick after many attempts but forgot to put some cushion underneath to soften the fall. So it came down at a spot which was a grassy slope; rolled down and went into a small drain with some water in it, maybe 10 cm high?

Based on previous experience with a water damaged iPhone, first thing I did was to power off the drone, removed the battery and flicked off the water. I didn't expect water to get into the drone nor the battery since I was quick to bring it out of the water. As a precaution, I still left it to dry for some time while examining the drone for damages from the crash and the fall.

When I think the drone and battery were dry enough, I put the battery back and power on. Luckily, it came on and I decided to call it a day. Once I got home, I tried to power on the battery but this time it was giving some weird LED flashes that took a long time to turn off. I was thinking maybe the battery got damage after all and hoping the problem will go away. I had just spent some money to fix another battery due to overdischarging and wouldn't want to spend money again to fix another battery problem.

Left the battery over night and the next morning, first thing I did was to power on the battery and this time, nothing happens. No LED flashes nor anything. Throughout the day, I just tried turning on the battery and either it gave the weird LED flashes or no response at all. I was prepared to write off the battery.

Somehow, many days later, I tried my luck and turn on the battery and the usual LED flashes indicating the remaining power came back. I felt safe enough to charge the battery and tried charging and did not encounter any problem since. I am thinking if maybe there was really some water that went in, it could be because I was quick to turn it off and did not try to charge it, so there was no short circuit that would have fried the electronics inside. Nope, did not use rice or any dehumidifier. Just leaving it out as how I usually store my batteries and somehow it revived.