How to wash & clean electrical components

Disclaimer: I've been doing this for a while now and have yet to kill a motherboard or component. However this doesn't mean you wont. Don't bother doing this on something expensive I.e. You NIB N64DD do it on something you don't care so much about and is easy replaceable. If you kill something, I won't replace it :nod:

First things first, do's and dont's

Do follow the tutorial
Do give it enough time to dry,

don't wash anything expensive or irreplaceable
don't wash optical drives (Floppy, Zip or disk drives) You will just junk them.
Don't wash hard drives, You will just junk them.
don't wash fans, you will just junk them

Now that thats over and done with here is how I wash electrical components. I have 3 methods. Dishwasher, shower and sink.
Dishwasher - stick it in on a lukewarm wash with your cleaning agent. remember, you don't want to melt anything so make sure its a lukewarm wash, after taking out proceed with the drying elements in this tutorial
Shower - prop it up at the side on the inside of your bath, squeeze on washing up liquid and take aim and fire, after wards proceed with the drying elements.
Sink- We will be doing this method in the tutorial.

Step 1.
Obtain your electrical component. I will be working on a motherboard.


Step 2.
Remove any batteries. THIS IS VERY FUCKING IMPORTANT
With batteries in, parts of a motherboard are still live. -


Step 3. Fill up your sink so the mobo will be submerged. Lukewarm water is necessary, don't scald the board.


Step 4. SUBMERGE IT - Remove any loose dirt


Step 6 - take it out and put some washing up liquid on, then give it quick short blasts under the hot water tap.



DRYING TIME - THIS ENTIRE SECTIONS IS VERY FUCKING IMPORTANT.
step 7- prop it up to let most of the water drain


step 8 - rub it down with a towel or kitchen roll to get into small gaps.



step 9 - MOST IMPORTANT FUCKING PART OF DRYING. DON'T BOTHER HALF ASSING THIS.
Place it into your airing tank. - A friend of mine who lives in America has warm enough weather he leaves it out on his truck bonnet in the sun for a day or two. if you're using the airing tank method. You need atleast a week to make sure all the water evaporates. place the board component side down. Leave it for a while (I generally leave it for a week), if after a week the board still feels moist/water runs out when tipped leave it for a little while longer or use a hair dryer on a low setting.


After this component should be nice and clean and in cases smell better. I generally use this for things that are dusty as shit or come from a chain smokers house. It won't do anything for yellowing, but itll sure smell a lot better.

I generally recomend the dishwasher or shower method. much easier.

 

I have done it multiple times and I have yet to kill something.

 

Soak in 99% rubbing alcohol..... will GREATLY reduce drying time and have less chance of corrosion in hidden places.



edit*
I'd recommend against water also. Is it really so bad that compressed air, alcohol and a toothbrush won't clean it?
edit*

 

Holy smokes, you put it in water?

I think I'll stick with compressed air and Earbuds.

 

Hypothetically this is an OK idea. What usually happens is that the water will start up rusting somewhere that you won't notice until its too late.

As a rule of thumb I use water on plastics, ceramics and metals I know and can confirm are not reactive with water (aluminum, gold, silver). Everything else gets cleaned with rubbing alcohol unless reactive with it. If whatever I'm working on is reactive to both then we don't fuck with it if it works just fine.

 

You should never ever do this.

Not only does water make metal rust, but tap water has impurities and hence can conduct electricity. Oh yeah, not forgetting that antistatic products always use deionized water - that should tell you something.

Components are NOT designed to be immersed in water. They are not waterproof and some will take in water.

Also, your towel is not antistatic.

After seeing this, I would never buy an electronic device off you.

 

That's your choice to make, ultra sonic cleaners are expensive as fuck and in cases it's too tedious to go around with a qtip and rubbing alcohol. If its a little dust I'll do that. I got ahold of systems that had gone under in a basement flood. thankfully the CMOS had been removed and the only problem was everything got caked in nasty crap. After it all dried out that stuff was stuck rock hard to the boards and it would have taken ages to do multiple systems component by component with a qtip and rubbing alcohol. So I did them in my sink instead. Everything still works just fine months later and I have yet to receive a call back from somebody that something broke.

It's a matter of opinion - I have yet to have a problem with this method and its quite self explanitary to only use this on easily replaceable things.

 

I like how everyone presents arguments against how wrong this is to do.
Yet you do it. And everything works fine.

 

Dunking a motherboard in any liquid may give problems. There is no way you will get everything completely dried out. Throwing in all the foul language doesn't make your post intelligent.

Try to get all the moisture out of a water logged capacitor.

 

Variety is the spice of life and if we were forced to use language only approved by the Parents Television Council, your local Pope and/or grandmother it'd be a very bland world indeed!

You are correct, water logged capacitors probably don't do as good a job anymore.

 

What is that, distilled water?

 

I use Canola Oil to clean my motherboard

 

and does it work? ;-)

 

You're not serious are you?

 

The motherboard in my backup server (used to be on 12+hours a day at times as I streamed downloaded TV from it) was washed in this method about a year ago until I stopped using it recently (Bought a USB external)

Vegetable Oil is sometimes used to cool computers!


This is the method I use, If you object to it then don't use it but I've had success with it and have yet to have problems.

 

A P2/mobo never kicks out enough heat to cook chips, surely?

 

I use rubbing alcohol for any system boards and most electronic componets. I do use water for cleaning controllers that have liquid damage. After rinsing I use an air compressor to blow the water off, then place it on a heat register for a bit.

However I would never use water on anything important.