recover your gear from a flood - part 2

​phase 2 - bathtime
​

Disclaimer:  The following steps are NOT for high voltage/high current circuits.  This would include tube amplifiers and other circuits that contain dangerous voltage/current potentials.  If you are not for sure, please do not attempt to do this.  Contact an electronic repair professional.  

The following steps  can be used to repair gear that operate on low voltage/current.  This could include, 9v-24v guitar pedals, modern non-tube rack gear, mixing consoles, computer motherboards, keyboards, synthesizers, direct boxes, cables, etc:

Once you have completed phase 1 of disassembly, now it's time to clean all possible areas of the circuit board.  Before we begin, I would like to recognize Jim Debarker for coordinating with me about this article, and reminding me of some important facets of getting your gear going again.

The first thing to keep in mind for our non-flooded friends whom might be reading this, is that these steps aren't the ultimate guide in recovering your gear with endless supplies of the best devices and chemicals to clean up flooded pieces of gear, but rather when you are in this situation, supplies are not easy to come by, and when you've likely lost everything, the steps have to be easy, to the point (not overwhelming), and with as little supplies as possible.  When you are in this situation, you are more worried about the next meal your family will eat than restoring your gear (although I suppose this is not always true for some).

​bathtime!

You will need the following supplies (all of which should be somewhat easy to find):

1. Pair of rubber gloves (the red cross can probably hook you up if you don't already have a pair)
2. Isopropyl Alcohol (the purest you can find).  70-90% will work.
3. Soft cheap paintbrush - like the cheap throw away kind made in asia with a small wooden handle 
4. Some type of tub or container (the cleanest you can find)
5. Water (the cleanest you can get)
6. Not totally necessary but a facemask if you are sensitive to Isopropyl Alcohol
7. Not totally necessary again, but dish soap.  
8. Rag, old shirt, whatever cloth you can find
9. A small glass jar or bowl
10. Phillips & Flathead Screwdriver

Clean the Chassis/Case:

Take the chassis/case (with no electronic parts connected to it), and totally clean it as best as you can with water and dish soap (if you have any).  Clean water from a hose is best, but use what you can.  Once the chassis/case is clean, set it to the side where it's sunny and dry. 

Clean the circuit board:

Now is the time to clean the circuit board.  If you have plenty of Isopropyl Alcohol, place the circuit board in the container (if you have one), and immerse the circuit board in alcohol.  Do not touch the board nor the alcohol as you do this.  
​
Once the board is fully immersed for a few minutes, lift it out of the alcohol immersion.  Use your soft animal hair paintbrush and gently brush the entire board from one side to the other - being very methodical.  Clean every nook and cranny.  Under every component and every trace.  Keep your brush wet with clean alcohol as you work.  If it's really dirty, this make take several batches to get it totally clean.

Now is the time to work on the volume controls/faders.  Knobs and faders are what we call "potentiometers."  They typically look like this: 

What's cool about most potentiometers, is that they are really easy to clean thoroughly.  

See these tabs here:

Gently pry them upward and straight.  Once you have them pried up, you can very gently pull the back off of the control.  The same applies with faders.  They will have these tabs (most of the time) as well.  Some of them will bend, while others will twist.  Once the back cover of the control is off, it will look like this (most of the time)(although there are stereo controls as well which are a little bit of a different animal - but you get the idea): 

Once the back is off, use your wet brush to clean every nook and cranny.  Be thorough, and clean it the best you can.  Once each pot is totally clean, replace the back by following the above steps backward.  You may have to desolder each control to be able to get this part.  You can learn more about that here.  Now, it is totally possible, that the potentiometers you have on your gear are "closed" or "sealed."  This is ideal because a lot of the time, they will still be clean inside.

Sealed Pots

Once every ounce of the circuit board has been thoroughly cleaned, let it sit out for a couple of days (in Louisiana, in 100% humidity, you may let it sit out for a couple of weeks).  Once the parts are totally dry, re-assemble the unit.  Now is the time to power the unit on.  

---

Things I didn't mention, but is totally worth mentioning (oh wait, I just mentioned it):

Caig Deoxit/CRC QD Electronic Cleaner (cheaper)
Use a lube/cleaner for open pots to re-lube them.  
De-Soldering Irons
De-Mineralized Water
Cavitation Baths
Don't user WD-40 (extremely flammable)
Learn how to solder, and go over the most stressed solder joints on the board: like 1/4" jacks, XLR jacks, etc.
If you have transistors with heatsinks, make sure you apply some thermal paste between them and their heatsinks - most of the time the thermal paste will still be there, but sometimes the alcohol can wash it away.
Thoroughly clean all input and output jacks.  Sometimes thick pipe cleaners with alcohol or Caig can help.
Silica Gel Packets (as found in shoe boxes) can help as well.
If cleaning a keyboard, petroleum jelly can work in a pinch to re-lube plastic piano keys
If keys are broken - super glue works great on Yamaha's, but not at all on Rolands (typically).
Check relays (like what are found on older roland rackmount piano modules.  If your audio output is distorted, this is almost always the issue.  The top clear cover will pry right off. Clean it super well!

If I forgot anything, feel free to comment below...

Much Love Everyone!