roughlander01

My Feedback: (10)

It was 20 degrees the other night and the gas heater in the barn went out and the next day i come home and water is running out from all sides of the barn. Water was about 2 inches deep on the floor and water was spraying everywhere. On 3 of my planes....my radio box was open..water spraying in it..about 3 inches of water in it and the radios were soaked. Could this hurt my radios and equipment? The adjuster told me today this equipment was sealed and it should be alright. Is this true?
thanks for your comments.

hawkplaya4

yea pretty sure was it completey sealed

rmenke

My Feedback: (13)

Roughlander;

Things like receiver, battery switch, and servos should be ok. Be sure to remove the receiver case top and blow it out, same for the servos. Just open them up and blow out to be sure the water is gone and dried out before you turn the system on again. Be careful with pulling the servo cases appart, keep everything togeather. If you don't have a compressor, get a can of air from your local computer store. Let the balsa birds dried out well in the house. Don't want to let them freeze with water on them, or sit for long wet. Some care now may save you grief in the future. Good luck & ENJOY

blueline

My Feedback: (6)

Rough,

I work with electronics daily and have experienced water damage as well. Your biggest worry is if power was applied to the device while wet. What we've when coming across this type of problem is to:
A: Remove any/all batteries i.e., main battery pack as well as internal
such as a lithium.
B: Tear down the item as much as possible removing a pcb's, keyboard, switches, display, etc.
C: Let all items air dry for a week or so in a dry environment.
C: When circuit boards appear to be dry, go over it and scan for corrosion. If you see any, you
can lightly go over it with a dry lint free rag and rub it off. Be gentle!
let all items air dry for a week or so in a dry environment.
E: It probably goes without saying, but you will need new batteries.
E: When you're comfortable that everything is dry, go ahead and reassemble your item and with any luck it will work.

I hope this is of some help to you and you can salvage some of your items, good luck.

richrd

Yes water is how the boards are cleaned when made. water solvable flux.
But dirty water is another story, Good advice given must be dried before power applied I have done this to many remote controllers that have gone though the wash cycle. Sometimes a wash in alcohol will dry and clean.
BTW. Cell phones are almost imposable to dry.
Rich

cyclops2

Unfortunaly the real damage will not be seen until to late. Water will wick, get sucked into, the tiny spaces between the leads on big IC chips and start to do the mold / corrosion. Planes fall out of the sky for no reason.

You may get lucky. I would have the insurance company take the fact that ALL RC radio manufacturers would say the RC gear is shot. Replace it.

Send Futaba and others a email about what happened. None will cover soaking in water.

NEW RC GEAR.

Rich

roughlander01

My Feedback: (10)

Cyclops2,
Thanks for the comment. The insurance adjuster told me he had a friend that use to fly RC airplanes and they could be repaired easy. I sent Horizon Hobby an e-mail and they told me I should not listen to the insurance company. To send everything in for them to check and also an issue was that the airplanes that water sprayed in 2-3 inches of water in the fuselage...that the water may warp the wood.
What do you think.
Thanks Cecil...roughlander01

cyclops2

The Adjuster is REQUIRED to give you the CHEAPEST repair job possible and get you to sign a check that has a " RELEASE OF ALL FURTHER REPAIRS " on it.

Hobby Lobby knows 6 million times more about what NEEDS to be done.

FULL Replacement of all water soaked parts for SAFETY reasons!!!!!!!!
He could care less if in 3 months you lose control and crash into people or cars!!!!!!!

Get a list of repair costs from Hobby Lobby. That is what you WANT.

Rich

Jazzy

I agree!! Don't listen to the adjuster!!
The first thing a person wants to do when a good dousing or soaking occurs is turn everything OFF and remove power sources.
Your radios will need to be sent in. The batteries in them will start to corrode and cause corrosion within the units almost immediately - replacements will be necessary when Futaba or whoever gets a look inside.
You'll be lucky if the integrity of the fuselages isn't compromised. Remove all tension/stress on the entire airframe as best you can. Put a box fan or the like in front of the pieces and let dry for a few days.
Receivers & servos should be OK as mentioned in previous posts.
Run your engines ASAP to evaporate any moisture and lube them up.

Sorry Roughlander, that sucks!

I hope things turn out with minimal losses!

Deadeye

Insurance adjusters are as big a liars as politicians. Replacement is certainly in order here. That is why you pay those unGodly insurance premiums. If the adjuster can screw you, he will. If he saves his company money on a claim, he is rewarded with a bonus.

Insurance is becoming the biggest joke in the world. Biggest bad joke, I mean.