this guy is puting water on pc parts how does it still work??

Putting water on an unpowered PCB is not going to affect anything, there is no power flowing through it to short anything out. I would not really suggest doing it with tap water as he is doing as the deposits that can be left behind are generally not great but he's drying all the components thoroughly so its not the end of the world.

Short answer, water on powered electronics is bad. None of those parts were powered, with proper drying it can be just fine.
 
You can wash really dirty parts in distilled water with a toothbrush and let them dry extremely well and there will be no problem. I used to do it when I fixed/rebuilt my smoker buddies PC because it had that nasty tar on it.

Like criccio said the only thing to avoid is tap water because of the various minerals in it that can cause damage.
 
criccio said:
Putting water on an unpowered PCB is not going to affect anything, there is no power flowing through it to short anything out. I would not really suggest doing it with tap water as he is doing as the deposits that can be left behind are generally not great but he's drying all the components thoroughly so its not the end of the world.

Short answer, water on powered electronics is bad. None of those parts were powered, with proper drying it can be just fine.
Click to expand...
LigTasm said:
You can wash really dirty parts in distilled water with a toothbrush and let them dry extremely well and there will be no problem. I used to do it when I fixed/rebuilt my smoker buddies PC because it had that nasty tar on it.

Like criccio said the only thing to avoid is tap water because of the various minerals in it that can cause damage.
Click to expand...
i see thanks! learning new things by the day hahaha
 
idk what to say said:
this youtuber is litrly washing pc parts lol how do they still work?
edit : its at 1 min
Click to expand...

Didn't have sound on, but looks like he is using an ultrasonic cleaner?

Water on specifically unpowered components will not damage anything. You do however have to be absolutely sure it is completely dried before powering back on. Some people take a data vac to it, or let it drip dry for several days, or a combo of both.
 
If there are capacitors on a board which has been powered on recently, it can still damage the board. Those are short term batteries in essence.
Most boards in PC's have capacitors.
So, do not use water ever to be sure, just use alcohol.
 
pendragon1 said:
unplug, hit power button, now caps drained.
Click to expand...
Still is tricky, doesn't drain all caps on all boards, just not worth the risk. If a capacitor is drain before the chain of the board you are washing is up, the it will still hold a charge. Just do not use water to be sure.
 
I work in electronics manufacturing. Distilled water is completely fine for cleaning electronics as long as no electricity runs through it. The large cleaning machine at work uses distilled water to wash components. When I was in the Navy back in the 1990's, the movers dropped a box in about two feet of water that had my computer in it. I was panicking that the computer was ruined. One of my friends was an electronics technician said it was most likely okay. He got a hair drier and we disassembled the computer. He used the hair drier to dry everything off. We put it back together and the computer powered on.
 
StormNobleheart said:
I work in electronics manufacturing. Distilled water is completely fine for cleaning electronics as long as no electricity runs through it. The large cleaning machine at work uses distilled water to wash components. When I was in the Navy back in the 1990's, the movers dropped a box in about two feet of water that had my computer in it. I was panicking that the computer was ruined. One of my friends was an electronics technician said it was most likely okay. He got a hair drier and we disassembled the computer. He used the hair drier to dry everything off. We put it back together and the computer powered on.
Click to expand...
i once dropped my cellphone into a pond. it sat at the bottom for two weeks until i got a kid to fish it out for me. i dried it out, cleaned up some rust and mud, and it worked fine for most of a year until i upgraded. the thing that saved it, was the battery popped off when it hit the dock before hitting the water.
most electronics will handle getting wet just fine, as long as the dont have power going through them and you dry them proper before reapplying power.
 
LigTasm said:
You can wash really dirty parts in distilled water with a toothbrush and let them dry extremely well and there will be no problem. I used to do it when I fixed/rebuilt my smoker buddies PC because it had that nasty tar on it.

Like criccio said the only thing to avoid is tap water because of the various minerals in it that can cause damage.
Click to expand...
You can use tap water as long as you rinse it off with ISO alcohol. Typically I don't use water and just go straight for the ISO, but really nasty shit needs hot water typically
 
Koldur said:
Still is tricky, doesn't drain all caps on all boards, just not worth the risk. If a capacitor is drain before the chain of the board you are washing is up, the it will still hold a charge. Just do not use water to be sure.
Click to expand...
they never told me that when I was a tech at HP performing component level Instrumentation repairs. We even added soap to the water - go figure
 
idk what to say said:
this youtuber is litrly washing pc parts lol how do they still work?
edit : its at 1 min
Click to expand...

Water doesn't actually damage electronics on its own. It can cause corrosion (or short circuits) if the boards are wet while they're powered on, but as long as they get dried off thoroughly before they get used, it's perfectly fine to to wash them with water. You can even put them in the dishwasher.
 
I used to wash a lot of filthy industrial analog pcb's in tap water with dish detergent and dry on hot sidewaly in the sun but VLSI electronics are a different animal. Wash a glass in water, If you see water spots after it dries then that is not good water to clean pcb's in. The white powdery spots have a level of conductance and can cause flaky intermittent issues. Especially for smd IC's with very close solder joints. Denatured alcohol or electronics cleaning spray and a toothbrush are your friends.
 
Koldur said:
So, do not use water ever to be sure, just use alcohol.
Click to expand...

Most alcohol is still partially water. It's almost impossible to get alcohol to 100 percent because it will draw water out of the atmosphere into it. A lot of isopropyl alcohol is 70 percent alcohol and 30 percent water.

I've used lightly soapy hot water to clean components for years, without an issue. Most components have circuits that slowly bleed down any electricity in the caps even if they're unplugged. I wouldn't turn them off and immediately transfer them to water, but an overnight rest will do it for sure.

CRTs on the other hand...
 
Axman said:
Most alcohol is still partially water. It's almost impossible to get alcohol to 100 percent because it will draw water out of the atmosphere into it. A lot of isopropyl alcohol is 70 percent alcohol and 30 percent water.

I've used lightly soapy hot water to clean components for years, without an issue. Most components have circuits that slowly bleed down any electricity in the caps even if they're unplugged. I wouldn't turn them off and immediately transfer them to water, but an overnight rest will do it for sure.

CRTs on the other hand...
Click to expand...
And if you hold down the power button you'll drain most if not all of the flea power (if external power is off) too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Axman
like this
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top