Silica Gel is many times better than Rice, i've come to think of rice as one of those old wives tales. Sam
Fresh cup of coffee with milk over the keyboard of my work dell laptop while powered on a couple of years ago! Quickly pulled the battery out, poured the coffee out of it then stripped it completely down. Washed everything under running water and left on top of a few cabs in the data centre for a couple of days before putting it back together The only bit that didn't work afterwards was the volume down hardware key and the laptop is still going running today. :-D
That is SUCH a bad idea. Why? Salt! You put a PSU in the dishwasher and give it a single wash cycle and anything inside that can get rusty will get rusty. Heat, water, salt and ferrous metals may be a great way to make Iron Bru but a sure fire way to kill electronics.
I didn't say it was a good idea, just that you COULD. And if I were to do such a thing I wouldn't use a dishwasher tablet at all. Actually if I were to do such a thing I would just wash it in the washing up bowl in warm water The point I was making was that you can submerse just about anything electrical into water and then use it again. So long as it has no current passing through it while it is wet.
basically, when an exec drops a phone in water or spills something we always doused it in alcohol, put it in a bag of rice for a few days, let it air out, and they always seem to work fine afterwards with no corrosion
My new shiny hipster iphone 4s was dropped into a mug of coffee at starbucks hows that for stereotyping. damn thing survived it's immersion but wasn't able to use the handsets loudspeaker for a while. Still smells of espresso.
Breaking away from the whole swim thing for a moment...my wife's IPhone 4S dropped to the floor from no higher than 1.5 feet...The outcome?...a trip to the Apple store in Cambridge as it was rendered completely useless...fantastic build quality the iphones have.
My friend when into the swimming pool with his ipod touch about two years ago. He left it drying on the rad and it's still working today
Actually rice works like silica gel since the stuff you get at the supermarkets is dried and adsorbs moisture fairly well. Just not as well as silica gel. But then again, being an asian, I typically have a couple Kgs of rice at home. Not so much for silica gel.
A can of beer burst in my m8's bag, soaking his external soundcard. Because the sugar in the beer can erode circuitry, he immersed the whole thing in water, let it dry naturally for a couple of days, and it worked perfectly after that.
I've dunked several Nokias over the years, all survived. The most annoying was one that slipped off my lap as I was laying on the sofa... Straight into a pint of water! What are the chances! Pulled the battery, left it over night, was fine. And it wasn't a golden oldie Nokia either, it was a newer touchscreen model! At the same time my little brother went canoeing and his wasterproof Nokia died. Ironic really.
my htc desire HD wanted some milk and lets say the screen was milky lol and can air doesn't help edit: wifi bluetooth 3g all stoped working lol
Speaking of dropping iPhones. Dropped my 4S off the kitchen counter and it landed flat on its back. Didn't bounce. Did you know iPhones can blue screen? I found out.
I had a Samsung Tocco something or other and I left it in my bag while I went sailing, came back, dumped wet clothes in the bag. Get home and blue salty battery crystals everywhere
Speaking of drowned phones, my old Palm Pre had a run in with some WD40 - it worked fine for a few months and then the screen started touching itself - in the process attempting to dial 999. Lucky I managed to rip the battery before the call connected. Annoyingly before it started touching itself, the WD40 had no effect on lubricating the OS into running a bit faster Off topic, that was a brilliant phone - just a pity that the hardware was shockingly bad quality and the processor wasn't really fast enough...
