Alcohol bath or not?

sixstringer23

Member
Jul 15, 2014
19
0
0
Visit site
Jumped in the pool with my lg g2 in my pocket and swam for 5 min before noticing. Took the back off and put her in rice. Got it to power back up and work obviously with some issues though.... I'm having problems mainly with the watermark left on the screen, touchscreen is a bit funky now. Should I do an alcohol bath testing my luck or just deal with it?
 

Aglet

Well-known member
Jun 25, 2014
190
0
0
Visit site
Screens can take some time to dry completely. I'd leave it for now; if it's still a problem in a week, deal with it then. Unless you can get your hands on some analytical reagent, chances are the alcohol has some water in it anyway.
 

Aglet

Well-known member
Jun 25, 2014
190
0
0
Visit site
One of my chemists dropped her Samsung into Port Phillip Bay -- salt water. After a rinse in deionised water and drying in the lab oven all the next day it had a large circular mark on the screen. Literally, I suppose, a watermark. Could still use the phone okay but it was very unsightly. The effect disappeared within a week.
 

Chiplg

Well-known member
Jul 24, 2010
166
0
0
Visit site
Anhydrous alcohol has no water in it, hence the name. It will be labeled as such. I got some at Fry's for use on optics and electronics. It is 99.99%+ alcohol. You will not find this in the pharmacy section of any store. The other good thing about it is that it dries completely. Hose it down liberally and let it dry. Anything left behind will be from the alcohol not washing it away, not from the alcohol itself. I recommended this or an electronics cleaner to another poster earlier. For the screen, the alcohol would be better.
 

sixstringer23

Member
Jul 15, 2014
19
0
0
Visit site
Anhydrous alcohol has no water in it, hence the name. It will be labeled as such. I got some at Fry's for use on optics and electronics. It is 99.99%+ alcohol. You will not find this in the pharmacy section of any store. The other good thing about it is that it dries completely. Hose it down liberally and let it dry. Anything left behind will be from the alcohol not washing it away, not from the alcohol itself. I recommended this or an electronics cleaner to another poster earlier. For the screen, the alcohol would be better.
Do you suppose that the watermark is the chlorine/salt more so than water?
 

Chiplg

Well-known member
Jul 24, 2010
166
0
0
Visit site
Yes, it is "impurities" in the water. That's basically what all water marks/water stains are. Stuff floats in the water either by accident or design and gets left behind. There could still be water involved as well.

How long has it been? You might wait and see if it persists or changes over time. As for bathing it in alcohol, I would not do it without a disassembly as well. That will both allow the residue to wash out easier, and the alcohol to evaporate more completely.
 

Aglet

Well-known member
Jun 25, 2014
190
0
0
Visit site
Do you suppose that the watermark is the chlorine/salt more so than water?
I don't think so. The dunked display I saw had the watermark in the centre of the screen which slowly got smaller and smaller in diameter, until it disappeared -- as if there was moisture trapped in the LCD sandwich which was slowly drying out with the heat of the device and the display when it was on. But this was an old device; maybe displays are better sealed now.
 

Chiplg

Well-known member
Jul 24, 2010
166
0
0
Visit site
That makes sense if it changes as the device temperature rises.

I don't think so. The dunked display I saw had the watermark in the centre of the screen which slowly got smaller and smaller in diameter, until it disappeared -- as if there was moisture trapped in the LCD sandwich which was slowly drying out with the heat of the device and the display when it was on. But this was an old device; maybe displays are better sealed now.
 

anon8380037

Well-known member
Dec 25, 2013
5,171
0
0
Visit site
Anhydrous alcohol has no water in it, hence the name. It will be labeled as such. I got some at Fry's for use on optics and electronics. It is 99.99%+ alcohol. You will not find this in the pharmacy section of any store. The other good thing about it is that it dries completely. Hose it down liberally and let it dry. Anything left behind will be from the alcohol not washing it away, not from the alcohol itself. I recommended this or an electronics cleaner to another poster earlier. For the screen, the alcohol would be better.

That must be the same as Isopropyl Alcohol then. A thread a few months ago with a Note 3 brought up some help. Yes 99% is better but commercial concentrate still worked.
A Dragons Den UK guy was pushing to distribute reviveaphone in the UK. Basically Is Alc in sealable bags.
Their old website said screens take about 5 days to clear up, but the phone should recover in 2.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk Pro
 

Rukbat

Retired Moderator
Feb 12, 2012
44,529
26
0
Visit site
A few decades in the industry, repairing a lot of phones that were dropped into a lot worse than ocean water, taught me a few things.

Alcohol is not only anhydrous if it's 99% (has almost no water [open the container of 100% alcohol and, unless the humidity is 0%, it's no longer 100%), it's hygroscopic - it absorbs any water it comes in contact with.

Being liquid, it can dilute and wwash out impurities - such as the salts in sea water or whatever gets into the phone when it's dropped into a toilet.

It's not the water that causes the damage, it's the impurities. Pure water (water made by combining hydrogen and oxygen and kept in a pure state) is non-conductive and non-corrosive. It wouldn't have much effect on a cellphone, as Aglet's experience bears out. But we seldom drop our phones into pure water, so the important thing is to immediately (before doing anything else, unless it's saving your life) stop the flow of electricity (which, flowing through those impurities, causes the damage), then wash the insides of the phone out with a few changes of alcohol - 70% isopropyl that you get from the store is hygroscopic enough. (If the phone doesn't have a replaceable battery, which is cheaper - having the cut-out battery resoldered and putting a new case on the phone, or replacing a non-working phone? Break the back enough to be able to cut one of the battery wires.)

Putting a wet phone in dry rice (silicon gel is better, if you have enough - so is a hearing aid dryer) just delays the inevitable. The impurities have hours to etch the copper on the motherboard (and any other boards) and every time the humidity goes up they get wet enough to get another shot at it. Current flowing through a salt trail between conductors forms a carbon trace that forms a short. Eventually, even though the phone's been working for weeks, or even months, it suddenly stops - and you have a phone that no reputable shop will even attempt to repair. To save $5 on a few bottles of alcohol? (Or even $100 to replace the broken back on a $700 phone?)

I don't know who came up with the dry rice bit (I heard it more than 10 years ago, at least), but it wasn't someone who repaired phones for a living. (Maybe it was someone who sold them.)
 

sixstringer23

Member
Jul 15, 2014
19
0
0
Visit site
A few decades in the industry, repairing a lot of phones that were dropped into a lot worse than ocean water, taught me a few things.

Alcohol is not only anhydrous if it's 99% (has almost no water [open the container of 100% alcohol and, unless the humidity is 0%, it's no longer 100%), it's hygroscopic - it absorbs any water it comes in contact with.

Being liquid, it can dilute and wwash out impurities - such as the salts in sea water or whatever gets into the phone when it's dropped into a toilet.

It's not the water that causes the damage, it's the impurities. Pure water (water made by combining hydrogen and oxygen and kept in a pure state) is non-conductive and non-corrosive. It wouldn't have much effect on a cellphone, as Aglet's experience bears out. But we seldom drop our phones into pure water, so the important thing is to immediately (before doing anything else, unless it's saving your life) stop the flow of electricity (which, flowing through those impurities, causes the damage), then wash the insides of the phone out with a few changes of alcohol - 70% isopropyl that you get from the store is hygroscopic enough. (If the phone doesn't have a replaceable battery, which is cheaper - having the cut-out battery resoldered and putting a new case on the phone, or replacing a non-working phone? Break the back enough to be able to cut one of the battery wires.)

Putting a wet phone in dry rice (silicon gel is better, if you have enough - so is a hearing aid dryer) just delays the inevitable. The impurities have hours to etch the copper on the motherboard (and any other boards) and every time the humidity goes up they get wet enough to get another shot at it. Current flowing through a salt trail between conductors forms a carbon trace that forms a short. Eventually, even though the phone's been working for weeks, or even months, it suddenly stops - and you have a phone that no reputable shop will even attempt to repair. To save $5 on a few bottles of alcohol? (Or even $100 to replace the broken back on a $700 phone?)

I don't know who came up with the dry rice bit (I heard it more than 10 years ago, at least), but it wasn't someone who repaired phones for a living. (Maybe it was someone who sold them.)
So look should I do an Alcohol bath or not ?
 

Aglet

Well-known member
Jun 25, 2014
190
0
0
Visit site
Time to take it a step further then and see if you can't clean it up a bit more. Do not have any power to the device while doing so and you should be okay. As chiplg says above.
 

Trending Posts

Forum statistics

Threads
942,409
Messages
6,913,973
Members
3,158,403
Latest member
evinrude