Is this USB charger still safe to use?

I just managed to drop a USB charger into a bowl filled with about one inch of water. I grabbed it straight away, and then blasted it with a hairdryer for several minutes, with the ports pointing downwards.

Now I’m wondering if it is still safe to use? It doesn’t seem user serviceable, i.e. I can see no way of opening it. Model is Orico 2.4A 4-port charger.

in a bag of dry white rice (the cheap stuff that is free from dust, do not use ecological rice)
put in closed bag
keep it there for 24 hours

Or dry it out on a sunny windowsill.

If you live in a high-humidity area, the rice trick might work. Otherwise, most air is already dry enough, and if you add some warmth from the sun, plus a bit of air flow, it should dry out faster. Think of it the same way you might dry laundry. On a rack, don’t throw it in the dryer! :smiling_imp:

Good idea, hadn’t thought of that. Which reminds me that I should have some bags of silica gel floating around somewhere that I could chuck into the mix (if I can find them).

The silica gel is a good idea. Also, try gently baking it under a low wattage incan bulb. I dropped a camera into a lake in about 2 feet of water. Ended up carrying the waterlogged camera all day until I got back home. I took off what little of the shell I could and put it under a 40W bulb in a desk lamp for a couple of days. That was over ten years ago, and I still use that camera, with no ill effects.

I’ve also used a CRT to gently warm a laptop mobo overnight after I cleaned it off in the sink after a coffee spill… It worked great, but CRTs are getting difficult to find…
:stuck_out_tongue:

The question is - how much do you want to save few pounds, and how much are you willing to risk for it.
Most probably the charger will be OK, but there is a small chance of electrocuting - maybe one in a million, maybe even less…
…but - as long as something can explode, apply high voltage where it isn’t expected or harm me/others in any other way, I wouldn’t risk.

if you run a/c set it on a vent.
the dry air will speed up its dryout.

I wouldn’t recommend that. Air conditioning works by passing warm air over cooling coils. This reduces the air temperature, and if the air is cooled below its dew point, it will also remove moisture.

That cold air coming out of your vent may therefore be close to 100% relative humidity. It’s just that it’s cold, so doesn’t hold a lot of moisture. When it warms up, its relative humidity will drop.

But if you place something right on your vent, you’re just exposing it to cool air with high relative humidity. It’s not going to dry very fast.

I decided to try the rice method, before forgetting about it for five days. Just tested with a USB voltmeter / ammeter and everything is fine! :slight_smile:

Our water here is very hard though, so I wouldn’t risk it if I dropped the same device into water several times. There’d be chalky deposits forming inside pretty quickly.

Cool, forgetting means longer drying so even better!
Nice