PSR-500 + water?

[gainantenna]

Wow, dodged a bullet with my 500. Seems as though I put it in a sack with some other "stuff" including an 8 ounce (sealed - so I thought) cranberry juice. The next day I pulled the 500 out and discovered that the juice had leaked into the bag and into my scanner. Pulling out the battery pack revealed more dripping of cranberry juice. Well, I had heard of drying cell phones in white rice so I filled the battery case cavity with white rice and then immersed the whole radio into a bag of white rice. 12 hours later I shook out the rice (quite a job in itself) and the radio purred like a kitten. So, if this happens to your scanner don't forget about the "white rice treatment!"

 

[iMONITOR]

Just wait until the ants invade it this summer!

Seriously, if you're not confident to do it yourself, send it into GRE to have it disassembled and cleaned.

 

[RadioDaze]

MPSCS has a point; I'd also worry about mold, and maybe some corrosive effects from the juice. Would have been better to have it water-logged than juice-logged.

It's a sad tale. But maybe you could unleash an ant colony on it and they will lick it clean.

 

[gainantenna]

I guess I'll wait this one out and see what happens. Hopefully, the return to a dry environment will be the end of this unfortunate event. Time will tell.

 

[fordcobra04]

If you feel confident, carefully take the radio apart, and use a toothbrush and alcohol and clean up the electronics inside... the compressed air in a can works great for blowing the excess out. We used this same technique when I worked on cell phones and it worked great...

 

[gainantenna]

KD8GWD,
Do you mean rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol?

 

[KK4HG]

KD8GWD,
Do you mean rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol?

No. Jim Beam will do just fine.

 

[RadioDaze]

Look for 91% alcohol, which is more pure than the 70% rubbing alcohol.

Just don't get it mixed up with the Jim Beam. You won't need your radio if that happens. If you survived it, you'd need a Braille display installed.

 

[KE4RWS]

It Happens . . . .

I would also disassemble the scanner down to a point you’re comfortable with (if at all). I had a 900 MHz cordless phone go through the washer one time in the pocket of a pair of pants. Although it was quite dead, I was able to disassemble it and thoroughly clean the soapy residue with clean water & dry it out. After a good charge of the battery it powered up and worked without a hitch.

I think the white rice method would work reasonably well but I wouldn't let it go with that alone.

I would think any sort of juice would leave a tacky residue but maybe not. If it's working again with no problems then that's great. However, usually any liquid containing sugar will be a bit sticky once it dries and leave behind some residue. Even though it seems to be working I'd be a little wary about leaving that way. At some given point it may develop some strange anomalies. I certainly hope not but it could happen.

I think we've all done stuff that's resulted in unexpected issues but I certainly hope no one bashes me for it if I simply ask for someone's opinion of how to deal with it.

 

[gainantenna]

Thanks for the sympathy. Most people have at least one "brain fart" when it comes to scanners and I had mine. Thank you for understainding...it's easy for others to cast stones for them. Of course, they never did anything stupid, did they?

gainantenna

 

[KE4RWS]

It all starts here

Hey no problem my friend. I've done many things in my lifetime that I looked back on and wished I'd done it differently. I just see no point in verbally berating someone on here for it. And to think people somehow believe they're gonna get a positive response from the individual by saying things like that in an open forum? I don't think so . . .

Have a good one