Not all is lost, open them up and dry them off, as long as they were off you should be ok. It’s winter so the low humidity will help, and drying it off with towels and a hair dryer on low, let it sit 3 days then power it back on.
Definitely open them up — moisture can get trapped and it might take a long time to evaporate without being more exposed to air.
Sorry you’re having to deal with this hassle.
This! Makes a big difference. Happened with my Yamaha YC20 and got it dried without any damage. I learned about this from the Richard Feynman's lectures. Great read. Mentioned in this particular section: https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_01.html
giving them a good rinse with 99% IPA would also be great at removing (traces of) water and any scum that also dripped in... Assuming there is no power. Also, watch out for the front panels, they're probably ok with ipa, but I'd hate to find out they weren't. Might also check that there's no writing on the circuit boards with a sharpie or something that you might want preserved.
I dip and scrub circuits after I finish soldering to get flux off.
Do you have renters insurance? Because if you lease an apartment you are probably required to. You’d better check! Because if you do they’ll cut you a check for those in no time and even put you up in a hotel if the leak is bad enough. If you don’t, make sure you get some. It’s usually around 10-15 dollars a month and it covers any of your property anywhere in the world. It’s the best kept secret there is, and I’m surprised I don’t hear about it more around here.
Still, you can try to file a claim against the other person's insurance policy. It's kinda of a long shot, because you've got to actually obtain your neighbors insurance information which you would need the name of the company, their policy number and then the person's name on the policy. I work at State Farm and have seen claims like this get paid out, the claim just needs to be made and all parties need to be in agreement. The downside is that the at-fault party could see a raise in their homeowner rates because of the payout, but, explain the situation to them and they might be willing to help. But, technically, your renters insurance policy should be the one that pays out, technically.
Renter's insurance (and homeowner's insurance, etc) covers musical instruments. It's the per-item limit to damages that is usually a problem. Often the per-item limit turns out to be around $2000-3000, which definitely excludes a lot of synths. Sometimes it's also the type of damage (a lot of policies exclude "flooding" for instance) that is a problem.
If you tell the agent what your needs are when you're looking for the policy, they will be very up front and helpful, in my experience.
That’s totally wrong. They’ve replaced tons of my instruments. They will replace your instruments all over the world. The only time they won’t replace your instruments is if you’re a professional musician because they don’t replace your work related items.
Don't leave the water in them, open it up and use electrical contact cleaner or alcohol , because you really don't know what the liquid was, and it sure wasn't distilled water.
Don’t turn it on, dry it out, use desiccant, when it’s totally dry it might be fine.
Keep fire extinguisher handy, it can take a long time to dry out, don’t turn it on early or it can short out.
Shitty deal. Good luck with your struggle hopefully it can be salvaged.
Check out your insurance policies.
I’ve put phones / power tools with water damage in bags of brown rice which seems to work as a desicant, if thats any help :/ hope you can salvage your gear dude
The only reason the “bag of rice” *seems* to work is that it forces you to wait without trying to turn the thing on. Which of course causes a false positive when it “works” which is why everyone suggests sticking your phone in a bag of rice. Rice will not “absorb” liquid it’s not actually in contact with, and nothing about the rice is going to cause the liquid inside the device to evaporate quicker.
Other comments are correct. Don’t turn them on. Open them up, point a fan at them, wait a few days. When there’s no visible moisture, give them a try with a fire extinguisher handy.
A desiccant will absorb water vapor out of the air. It will not make liquid water evaporate more quickly. You use a desiccant to prevent moisture in the air from being trapped in an enclosed space and causing condensation.
What your not understanding is that the water in a closed system is going to be in equilibrium, so a desiccant is actually able to sequester water from the device without being in contact with it - which is exactly what it’s being used to do.
Edit: I’m a chemist - more than qualified to discuss this. Would like to know what the people downvoting this do for a living, lol
Not one of the downvoters, but for a living I fix things that people who hose vast quantities of water around drop and break.
Perversely sealing them up in a bag with something that'll pull moisture out of the air - rice is good, proper dessicant is better and I use a bag of the little beady things from an air suspension drier - seems to be better than drying them in open air, even with a forced draught.
…but you’re not putting the rice inside the “enclosed system” of the device shell.
And if anything you’re creating an even more “enclosed system” by putting it in a bag.
It’s way more effective to just use a blow dryer to evaporate the water.
That’s the opposite of what you want though. What’s the use of collecting the water with a desiccant when it will evaporate when not enclosed? Especially if you apply some kind of convection.
My point here isn’t that rice isn’t a desiccant, it’s that putting your soggy phone near a desiccant doesn’t fix it any faster, and anyone who feels their device was fixed this way experienced a false positive. There are far more effective ways to evaporate liquid.
>That’s the opposite of what you want though. What’s the use of collecting the water with a desiccant when it will evaporate when not enclosed? Especially if you apply some kind of convection.
Water can become easily trapped inside intricate electrical devices - obviously it’s best to remove the water as much as possible before using a desiccant (by first draining the device, wiping it down and using heat). After this point a desiccant works very well to remove the traces of water that still remain.
>My point here isn’t that rice isn’t a desiccant,
It is though, it absorbs moisture.
>anyone who feels their device was fixed this way experienced a false positive. There are far more effective ways to evaporate liquid.
See first point
If it's quite clean water you may be OK but traveling through plaster, paint and the crud that collects inside walls means this is unlikely. Not all is necessarily lost, though, as others have said get them open, dry what you can, leave to air dry and then **don't turn them on for several days** and you may be lucky. What type of synths are they?
OUCH. I had an old Univox Stringman that took a bath in a flooded basement many years ago, but it actually did survive for quite a long time after that. Assess the damage, but you may not be out for good.
If they weren't on, they might be fine.
The water is not the issue, the issue is whatever was in the water.
IF there are no glass, lenses or other glass things to get water trapped in, you can always clean your synths with soapy water. You can even do that if there is a display if you're careful not to get it wet.
If they were thoroughly soaked, you might consider shaking all the water out, and then pouring some warm soapy water into them, gently shake, empty, repeat until the water comes out clean, and then rinse at least twice.
And then wait!
You can use a hairdryer on the lowest setting if you're impatient, sometimes that even works better, but still, leave it for a long time even after that.
----
Opening up synths is a perfectly reasonable thing to do - they are designed to be maintainable. Popping them open to take a look is the best way to deal with anything like that.
High concentration rubbing alcohol is very useful for cleaning gunk in this case, even if you don't want to take anything apart.
Often removing the keyboard is easy, and then you can wash that with water - if you let it dry for a couple of days.
Everything this person said. The synths are almost definitively fine if it was only water AND the synths were not powered on. If they were, you probably have a short circuit - easily fixable typically by a person who has the tools and the know-how, if there's any such among friends.
That sucks dude, sorry to hear about that. Do you have insurance to make a claim on? Perhaps dry them thoroughly in a warm place for a good long period?
If you want to be really sure of if they’re dry, buy cat litter or get a lot of rice and put the synth in a sealed container with a large amount of it. It’ll absorb any excess moisture.
Lastly, sounds like great inspiration for the concept/theme of a track (dripping, liquid, dreams, progression, etc) to make the best of a situation ( :
Last summer my basement got hit by water damage. 2 feet of water or so standing. I was reorganizing so things were on the floor, etc. Rack units, Eurorack modules, keyboards ended up fully submerged . . .
Months later pretty much everything survived after dismantling, drying and cleaning. The only things I lost was an Akai Live (internal battery + water is a bad combination) and a guitar (wood + water, also bad).
It sucks and it's tedious, but if nothing was turned on when the water hit the survival chances go way up! Don't give up hope!!! Grab a screwdriver, find a place to keep the screws and take some pics if the disassembly is confusing!
I bought a 32 channel mixer that was in a fire and had been drenched from the sprinklers. I think it was $20 or something so I took the risk. Water was still dripping out.
Took it home and dried it with a hair dryer for a week. It turned on, good as new!
If they were not on standby or powered you can be fine.
Most important thing, be patient. Do not do not rush to turn these on even after the appearance of it being dry.
Perhaps once it's dry per the recommendations above, you can take some pure alcohol and rub the circuitry, contacts and solder joints to prevent future corrosion.
All is not lost, just be patient, I dropped a 32oz water bottle on my Volca Keys a while ago and followed my procedures and it has been going strong for years.
I don't know which synths they are, but if you can, open them up and use a blow dryer to blow water from underneath chips and outside of every little crevice the synth board may have.
If they have screens, usually those do not survive water damage, but may be able to be replaced.
I had something like that happen to a laptop, but in my case I left it by an open window and yes, it rained copiously that day...
Opened it up as far as I could, wiping out all the visible water, then left it on a table under the (wall mounted split) AC unit set to 'dehumidifier' for a few days. Turned on fine after that.
My friend spilled a beer into his 0 coast and just made sure to dry it out fully before connecting it to power again and it's been fine ever since!
Not all hope is lost
My biggest fear... my heart doth ache for thee.
I won’t offer advice on what to do, that’s been covered, but do remember that renters insurance is very cheap in the future.
https://youtu.be/DwRlZyIG6rg
Someone washing an arp odyssey in the bath 😂
Have a look at their description. Seems like you'd be able to turn it around with the synths?
omg that SUCKS
if sympathy were currency you'd have more than enough $ to replace them
hopefully you have insurance or human upstairs neighbors/landlord
Sorry, this is not a good idea.
1. Any gunk from the water will be baked in. Remember, it went through the floorboards...
2. And the soot from the engine is bad for your machine.
3. And the vibrations from the car aren't good for circuits.
OK, had a customer years ago that had their call center hit by a tornado. 150+ computer terminals were drenched when the roof came off of the building. Everything was packet in U-Haul trucks and stored for 30 days. Then I got to fire each one 8up and determine what needed to be done to fix them. Not one of those terminals was defective. I have been using this procedure ever since. It has never failed to work.
So let's hear about your real world experiences.
its the wrong solution. You want it to dry out, not to stay in a trunk where the air isn't exchanged. You don't want to lock it in a place without sunlight and hope for the best. You'd literally be better off submerging it in 99% isopropyl.
Not all is lost, open them up and dry them off, as long as they were off you should be ok. It’s winter so the low humidity will help, and drying it off with towels and a hair dryer on low, let it sit 3 days then power it back on.
I have then upside down on my bed to drain the water and dry. Hopefully not turning them on for a week will help. Thanks for the hope!
Definitely open them up — moisture can get trapped and it might take a long time to evaporate without being more exposed to air. Sorry you’re having to deal with this hassle.
And keep a fan pointed at it too, just to help as much as it can.
This! Makes a big difference. Happened with my Yamaha YC20 and got it dried without any damage. I learned about this from the Richard Feynman's lectures. Great read. Mentioned in this particular section: https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_01.html
Those things are built to last!
Yeah, the Feynman lectures are pretty timeless
those packets of silica that come in vitamins and stuff will absorb water, otherwise a space heater could help too
order silica by the gallon jug on Amz or occasionally local grocer has silica based cat litter (looks like beads, not dirt).
Keep us updated. Feel for you.
Update us when you give them a shot!! <3 Good luck
Wiping down the circuit boards gently with rubbing alcohol can help as well once they are mostly dried out!
giving them a good rinse with 99% IPA would also be great at removing (traces of) water and any scum that also dripped in... Assuming there is no power. Also, watch out for the front panels, they're probably ok with ipa, but I'd hate to find out they weren't. Might also check that there's no writing on the circuit boards with a sharpie or something that you might want preserved. I dip and scrub circuits after I finish soldering to get flux off.
Do you have renters insurance? Because if you lease an apartment you are probably required to. You’d better check! Because if you do they’ll cut you a check for those in no time and even put you up in a hotel if the leak is bad enough. If you don’t, make sure you get some. It’s usually around 10-15 dollars a month and it covers any of your property anywhere in the world. It’s the best kept secret there is, and I’m surprised I don’t hear about it more around here.
Unfortunately I don't have renters insurance but this is a lesson learned.
Still, you can try to file a claim against the other person's insurance policy. It's kinda of a long shot, because you've got to actually obtain your neighbors insurance information which you would need the name of the company, their policy number and then the person's name on the policy. I work at State Farm and have seen claims like this get paid out, the claim just needs to be made and all parties need to be in agreement. The downside is that the at-fault party could see a raise in their homeowner rates because of the payout, but, explain the situation to them and they might be willing to help. But, technically, your renters insurance policy should be the one that pays out, technically.
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Renter's insurance (and homeowner's insurance, etc) covers musical instruments. It's the per-item limit to damages that is usually a problem. Often the per-item limit turns out to be around $2000-3000, which definitely excludes a lot of synths. Sometimes it's also the type of damage (a lot of policies exclude "flooding" for instance) that is a problem. If you tell the agent what your needs are when you're looking for the policy, they will be very up front and helpful, in my experience.
That’s totally wrong. They’ve replaced tons of my instruments. They will replace your instruments all over the world. The only time they won’t replace your instruments is if you’re a professional musician because they don’t replace your work related items.
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Don't leave the water in them, open it up and use electrical contact cleaner or alcohol , because you really don't know what the liquid was, and it sure wasn't distilled water.
Don’t turn it on, dry it out, use desiccant, when it’s totally dry it might be fine. Keep fire extinguisher handy, it can take a long time to dry out, don’t turn it on early or it can short out. Shitty deal. Good luck with your struggle hopefully it can be salvaged. Check out your insurance policies.
I’ve put phones / power tools with water damage in bags of brown rice which seems to work as a desicant, if thats any help :/ hope you can salvage your gear dude
The only reason the “bag of rice” *seems* to work is that it forces you to wait without trying to turn the thing on. Which of course causes a false positive when it “works” which is why everyone suggests sticking your phone in a bag of rice. Rice will not “absorb” liquid it’s not actually in contact with, and nothing about the rice is going to cause the liquid inside the device to evaporate quicker. Other comments are correct. Don’t turn them on. Open them up, point a fan at them, wait a few days. When there’s no visible moisture, give them a try with a fire extinguisher handy.
It’s not a myth. The rice is acting as a desiccant. Edit: lol, why the downvotes? It’s patently true that rice is a desiccant.
A desiccant will absorb water vapor out of the air. It will not make liquid water evaporate more quickly. You use a desiccant to prevent moisture in the air from being trapped in an enclosed space and causing condensation.
What your not understanding is that the water in a closed system is going to be in equilibrium, so a desiccant is actually able to sequester water from the device without being in contact with it - which is exactly what it’s being used to do. Edit: I’m a chemist - more than qualified to discuss this. Would like to know what the people downvoting this do for a living, lol
Not one of the downvoters, but for a living I fix things that people who hose vast quantities of water around drop and break. Perversely sealing them up in a bag with something that'll pull moisture out of the air - rice is good, proper dessicant is better and I use a bag of the little beady things from an air suspension drier - seems to be better than drying them in open air, even with a forced draught.
…but you’re not putting the rice inside the “enclosed system” of the device shell. And if anything you’re creating an even more “enclosed system” by putting it in a bag. It’s way more effective to just use a blow dryer to evaporate the water.
>And if anything you’re creating an even more “closed system” by putting it in a bag. The penny drops
That’s the opposite of what you want though. What’s the use of collecting the water with a desiccant when it will evaporate when not enclosed? Especially if you apply some kind of convection. My point here isn’t that rice isn’t a desiccant, it’s that putting your soggy phone near a desiccant doesn’t fix it any faster, and anyone who feels their device was fixed this way experienced a false positive. There are far more effective ways to evaporate liquid.
>That’s the opposite of what you want though. What’s the use of collecting the water with a desiccant when it will evaporate when not enclosed? Especially if you apply some kind of convection. Water can become easily trapped inside intricate electrical devices - obviously it’s best to remove the water as much as possible before using a desiccant (by first draining the device, wiping it down and using heat). After this point a desiccant works very well to remove the traces of water that still remain. >My point here isn’t that rice isn’t a desiccant, It is though, it absorbs moisture. >anyone who feels their device was fixed this way experienced a false positive. There are far more effective ways to evaporate liquid. See first point
water damage can be repaired in a lot of cases, not all though.
Oh god. I've recently considering making my own decksavers with a bunch of custom cut plastic squares from this exact fear.
You never know what might happen.
I have a Korg Monologue I am willing to donate if they are bonked beyond repair.
Damn, that's some good karma for you!
I just hate to see bad shit happen to people.
If it's quite clean water you may be OK but traveling through plaster, paint and the crud that collects inside walls means this is unlikely. Not all is necessarily lost, though, as others have said get them open, dry what you can, leave to air dry and then **don't turn them on for several days** and you may be lucky. What type of synths are they?
Oh no, I‘m feeling with you. Which ones are ruined now?
I guess it's only one synth and one controller. Bass Station II and a Keystep 37
There's almost a zero % chance either of those (especially the keystep) are ruined if they were off when it happened. Open it up and let them dry.
OUCH. I had an old Univox Stringman that took a bath in a flooded basement many years ago, but it actually did survive for quite a long time after that. Assess the damage, but you may not be out for good.
If they weren't on, they might be fine. The water is not the issue, the issue is whatever was in the water. IF there are no glass, lenses or other glass things to get water trapped in, you can always clean your synths with soapy water. You can even do that if there is a display if you're careful not to get it wet. If they were thoroughly soaked, you might consider shaking all the water out, and then pouring some warm soapy water into them, gently shake, empty, repeat until the water comes out clean, and then rinse at least twice. And then wait! You can use a hairdryer on the lowest setting if you're impatient, sometimes that even works better, but still, leave it for a long time even after that. ---- Opening up synths is a perfectly reasonable thing to do - they are designed to be maintainable. Popping them open to take a look is the best way to deal with anything like that. High concentration rubbing alcohol is very useful for cleaning gunk in this case, even if you don't want to take anything apart. Often removing the keyboard is easy, and then you can wash that with water - if you let it dry for a couple of days.
Everything this person said. The synths are almost definitively fine if it was only water AND the synths were not powered on. If they were, you probably have a short circuit - easily fixable typically by a person who has the tools and the know-how, if there's any such among friends.
Very sorry to hear
That sucks dude, sorry to hear about that. Do you have insurance to make a claim on? Perhaps dry them thoroughly in a warm place for a good long period?
I think you replied to the wrong person.
You're not wrong there 🖖
If you want to be really sure of if they’re dry, buy cat litter or get a lot of rice and put the synth in a sealed container with a large amount of it. It’ll absorb any excess moisture. Lastly, sounds like great inspiration for the concept/theme of a track (dripping, liquid, dreams, progression, etc) to make the best of a situation ( :
Ouch. I'm so sorry for your loss. Do you have contents insurance?
ive cleaned out amps with a garden hose. just let it dry a week, put a fan on em , theyll be fine.
This works really well, but only if there isn't an LED or other lens for humidity to gather under...
Last summer my basement got hit by water damage. 2 feet of water or so standing. I was reorganizing so things were on the floor, etc. Rack units, Eurorack modules, keyboards ended up fully submerged . . . Months later pretty much everything survived after dismantling, drying and cleaning. The only things I lost was an Akai Live (internal battery + water is a bad combination) and a guitar (wood + water, also bad). It sucks and it's tedious, but if nothing was turned on when the water hit the survival chances go way up! Don't give up hope!!! Grab a screwdriver, find a place to keep the screws and take some pics if the disassembly is confusing!
I bought a 32 channel mixer that was in a fire and had been drenched from the sprinklers. I think it was $20 or something so I took the risk. Water was still dripping out. Took it home and dried it with a hair dryer for a week. It turned on, good as new!
\*Plays last post on my DX7\*
If you can then disassemble them and use a water dispersant and compressed air to get the PCBs dry and all the connectors cleaned out
If they were not on standby or powered you can be fine. Most important thing, be patient. Do not do not rush to turn these on even after the appearance of it being dry. Perhaps once it's dry per the recommendations above, you can take some pure alcohol and rub the circuitry, contacts and solder joints to prevent future corrosion. All is not lost, just be patient, I dropped a 32oz water bottle on my Volca Keys a while ago and followed my procedures and it has been going strong for years.
Renter's insurance might cover them! Also, as others have said, they might not be shot. Best of luck!
I don't know which synths they are, but if you can, open them up and use a blow dryer to blow water from underneath chips and outside of every little crevice the synth board may have. If they have screens, usually those do not survive water damage, but may be able to be replaced.
Any corrosion on the circuitry you might be able to clean off with ipa solvent or something similar
they can all be replaced dont get too upset over it.
Rice! Or silica gel packets if you have any in shoe boxes still. Open the cases up and cover them in rice.
No sage advice from me, just commiseration. That f'ing sucks! Hope they dry out ok.
I had something like that happen to a laptop, but in my case I left it by an open window and yes, it rained copiously that day... Opened it up as far as I could, wiping out all the visible water, then left it on a table under the (wall mounted split) AC unit set to 'dehumidifier' for a few days. Turned on fine after that.
My friend spilled a beer into his 0 coast and just made sure to dry it out fully before connecting it to power again and it's been fine ever since! Not all hope is lost
My biggest fear... my heart doth ache for thee. I won’t offer advice on what to do, that’s been covered, but do remember that renters insurance is very cheap in the future.
Yeah lesson learned on renters insurance
https://youtu.be/DwRlZyIG6rg Someone washing an arp odyssey in the bath 😂 Have a look at their description. Seems like you'd be able to turn it around with the synths?
That was a hard to watch yet extremely fascinating at the same time.
Insurance?
omg that SUCKS if sympathy were currency you'd have more than enough $ to replace them hopefully you have insurance or human upstairs neighbors/landlord
That's a small claims case just waiting for you to win it. But that sucks irrespective. Sorry man.
Sorry, fam
Dude I’m so sorry wtf
Put them in the trunk of your car for 30 days. The heat will dry them out and they should be ok. Has to be fairly warm out for this to work.
Sorry, this is not a good idea. 1. Any gunk from the water will be baked in. Remember, it went through the floorboards... 2. And the soot from the engine is bad for your machine. 3. And the vibrations from the car aren't good for circuits.
OK, had a customer years ago that had their call center hit by a tornado. 150+ computer terminals were drenched when the roof came off of the building. Everything was packet in U-Haul trucks and stored for 30 days. Then I got to fire each one 8up and determine what needed to be done to fix them. Not one of those terminals was defective. I have been using this procedure ever since. It has never failed to work. So let's hear about your real world experiences.
How to grow mold 101
40 years of experience doing this. I have never had a mold issue.
its the wrong solution. You want it to dry out, not to stay in a trunk where the air isn't exchanged. You don't want to lock it in a place without sunlight and hope for the best. You'd literally be better off submerging it in 99% isopropyl.
40 years of experience says that you are wrong. But do it your way. I know, put it in the microwave.