Why is water so damaging to electrical and electronic goods?
In: Engineering
Bit of a dick answer for an ELI5, but it’s not….
Pure water isn’t very conductive, so doesn’t bother electronics much.
Normal water, which has all kinds of impurities conducts electricity fantastically.
If your device is turned off, and the battery removed. Water isn’t going to cause any immediate problems. Dry it off before you add power. Rusting might cause issues later but it will probably be fine.
The problems come when you have electricity and a conductive liquid, like impure water.
Instead of electricity flowing where it’s supposed to, the water bridges gaps, and the electricity flows wherever it wants to, causing short circuits.
It doesn’t need to be liquid, you can imagine the damage you might cause if you opened up your PC, and wired the power supply directly into the CPU or RAM. Water is doing much the same thing inside your devices, but not so obvious, and with the side effect of extinguishing any small fires it may start.
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