Dropped LED in water

[shoelaceike]

I dropped a small part of my LED strip light in my qt tank....I waited a couple days and besides the timer being a little faded, the light works fine. Is there any danger or risk to using this light?

 

[TheEngineer]

Just make sure you clean it well. You don't want to wind up getting corrosion anywhere that will cause an arc later.

 

[TheEngineer]

Water and electronics are not a problem so long as the electronics aren't powered at the time. The only thing the water does is give a new conduction path for the electricity to follow and in that uncontrolled fashion it tends to break delicate components. Most raw electronics are actually submerged in alcohol after they are assembled so they can be cleaned.

 

[shoelaceike]

Just make sure you clean it well. You don't want to wind up getting corrosion anywhere that will cause an arc later.

Thanks..... Couldn't there be corrosion inside?

 

[shoelaceike]

Water and electronics are not a problem so long as the electronics aren't powered at the time. The only thing the water does is give a new conduction path for the electricity to follow and in that uncontrolled fashion it tends to break delicate components. Most raw electronics are actually submerged in alcohol after they are assembled so they can be cleaned.

It was on when it fell in.

 

[TheEngineer]

Thanks..... Couldn't there be corrosion inside?

Yup. If you can easily open it up, I would.

It was on when it fell in.

Yikes! Lucky it didn't short out.

 

[shoelaceike]

Thanks. I may just toss it. I don't know much about electronics.

 

[haninja]

You need to clean it. Although it appear to be dry and work fine, the salt remains inside and eventually will cause a problem.
I dropped mine... and what I did was open it completely (to my best of my ability), soak in RO water, thoroughly dry with hair blower and let it dry further for a couple of days.
Never had any issues after that...