# Flash drive went in the washer & dryer



## madatintuit (Apr 18, 2007)

Just FYI was surprised it worked after the washer and dryer.  I foolishly left my flash in the change pocket of my jeans then washed and dried them. I was still able to read and download the files after this. WOW. I dont recommend nor will I try it again. 

Not an ad but for those who will ask it was a Lexar 4gb Platinum II 60x  some raw files and jpegs on the disk about 3.65gbs. All files look good. :up:


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

Flashdrives are solid-state. There are no moving parts, and more than likely it is a sealed component. So, it is no surprise that it still works.

I am glad that you found this out to the good, but it really isn't much of a mystery.

(Perhaps, after repeated washings and dryings, all pictures of people in denim clothes, the clothes may appear faded, and some may shrink.  )


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## kiwiguy (Aug 17, 2003)

I have had a bargain basement flash-drive survive a full wash cycle.

You have to remember that pure water is actually an insulator, and although the tap water isn't that pure, it usually dries without leaving enough residue to affect anything. The rinse cycles would have removed the soap residues.

I have also fully restored a cellphone that was dropped in a vat of milk. Disassembled, washed well in warm water, dried for several days and it went for some years after that.


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

With a device, other than a flashdrive, the inside circuity may be exposed. A cell phone, a calculator, a camera (excluding a waterproofed camera), a keyboard, a mouse, etc. has circuitry and connections that are exposed to moisture. With a flash drive, the only connections exposed are usually just the USB pins, which by themselves are not helped by the immersion into water (or milk!?) but are not necessarily harmed either.

The long term effects of corrosion will not immediately be noticed, and even the very low leakage of cross connection contacts will not be an issue, since the voltages there are substantially more than the threshold barriers needed to conduct any meaningful currents in the USB connector. (In other words, USB signals will not be impacted by plain water.)

I had a very unlucky "credit-card size" calculator that survived two trips into the clothes washer. I simply opened the device and air dried it out for a day or two before re-assembling it and got it working again. In time, the innards finally corroded to a point where other things started to "mis-behave" but I did get a few months of usage out of that calculator.

*kiwiguy* has a good point, where rinsing with clear water, even better de-mineralized water, and even better pure alcohol (not booze, not rubbing alcohol) (pure alcohol will dilute and absorb water and dry with no residue) and then letting to air dry will often get some electronic components to remain functioning (for a while, at least).

But, I would not classify water as an insulator. Ultra pure water is an insulator. But, it extremely unlikely you or I would ever come across ultra-pure water (outside of a laboratory). It is safer to just consider water as a poor conductor of electricity. Also, tap water is far from pure .

Personally, I would not have too much of a worry of similar maladies happening to any of my USB drives. I would not tempt fate, by purposefully doing the wash-and-wear (abuse-and-use?) tests; but it, like I said, is no real surprise.


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## blaqDeaph (Nov 22, 2005)

But Tap Water is pure enough (most of the time) that it shouldn't so *too* much to affect the components. Not that I'd recommend pouring tap water to wash out your computer any time soon.

Some friends and I toyed with the idea of filling a CPU case with Pure Water as sort of a cooling system, but it never really got off the ground, due to issues with finding pure water (and a sealed water proof case)


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## kiwiguy (Aug 17, 2003)

The problem is that the coatings on all the components etc would immediately contaminate the water, distilled water would only be non conductive until it hit them.

Almost impossible to get and keep all the workings sterile, then there is the issue that the water would find it's way into the rotating drives real quick.


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

(and people wonder how subjects gets side-tracked!  )

(I am resisting hard to not continue this discussion with mentioning things about oxidation.  )


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## Nlarke (Jul 28, 2007)

Couldn't a liquid be engineered and poured into a sealed case that's completely stable (i.e. doesn't exchange electrons or change oxidation state, although that might be very expensive)?


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## madatintuit (Apr 18, 2007)

Quote "Couldn't a liquid be engineered and poured into a sealed case that's completely stable (i.e. doesn't exchange electrons or change oxidation state, although that might be very expensive)?"

Paint is the liquid you described above with one flaw the end product is a film or coating. In the can it is stable and can be designed with most of the properties and yes the liquid is gone in the end . 

Please remember I am the guy that is washing his flash drive and amazed it went through both the washer and dryer. So you may not find this as tech as some of the other replys. 

My favorite reply is the first one where he says repeated washing may fade and shrink photos with jeans in them. So fare this has not happened. My next task is to test washing my taxes to see if this has any effect on the them. I am hoping for back taxes to be washed. But that that is a new subject and a dif forum.


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## Datalyss (Dec 8, 2005)

madatintuit said:


> Just FYI was surprised it worked after the washer and dryer.  I foolishly left my flash in the change pocket of my jeans then washed and dried them. I was still able to read and download the files after this. WOW.


 Talk about a clean install.


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## cams-dad (May 29, 2007)

Friend of mine lost his flash drive in a parking lot, found it 2 days later in a puddle of slush and snow. Dried it out and it worked fine. Was very surprised that the muddy water didn't kill it.


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

re-read Msg#2


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## blaqDeaph (Nov 22, 2005)

Yea if it were a HDD or something more complex then no way


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