Slightly off topic but still "hardware" related - need ideas/advice about cordless phone dropped in bathtub.

[billandopus]

Bathing my kid yesterday - looked elsewhere for a moment - looked back and he was eating the soap.

Needless to say( but i'll say it anyways) I reached over quickly to get it out of his mouth and all the while dropping the cordless phone into the tub.

It was submerged for maybe 3-5 seconds, maybe more. Took out the battery (wasn't that wet at all) and shook out the rest of the water which had seeped into the pores of the phone.

It's not working and it's been more than a day. The base still works which is a good sign but it looks like the handset is toast.

Question(s):

- is there any chance of my handset coming back to life?
- is it possible to get another model handset to work with my base from the same manufacturer? (it's a Sanyo and more than 5 years old but was still working beautifully before the accident) I'm assuming that it's probably not possible. Anyone know?

Thanks to any responses.

 

[MichaelD]

My son is 5. However, I have many, many nightmares....er, ah...MEMORIES of bathing him when he was younger....I feel your pain. Anyway, try to take the phone apart, i.e. remove the guts from the case and either dry them with a hair dryer or just let them air dry for 24 hours. Then put it back together and check it out. You've got about a 50/50 shot of it working again. I dropped my pager in motor oil and it worked, but after degreasing it, it didn't work, let it air dry for a few days and it works fine.

As far as another manufacturer's handset working with your cradle, I doubt it. Cordless phones (at least the older ones) and most beepers operate somewhere in the 900MHz frequency range. My beeper is 931.5257. See how they take out the frequency to the fourth decimal place? (I don't know the exact terminology....my friend is a "Ham" but he isn't around). Your phone has a specific frequency that it runs at. All phones are different, as to avoid interference. What they ususally do is if they make 1,000 phones (for sake of arguement) with similar freqs, they ship them to different parts of the country to avoid interfernce. It's possible, but not probable that you'd get a different handset to work properly with your base. Bah, the 2GHz phones are really nice, and you can get a nice phone/ans machine combo for around $150. I'd wait and see if the old one comes around though. Good luck. BTW, if your kid eats enough soap, he'll fart bubbles...mine did.

 

[LordEdmond]

a trick we used on radio transmitters and such like

take apart and wash out with pure distilled water ( medical quality if poss ) then dry very slowly for five days we had a 80% success with this method

the pure water flushes out the contamination ( note distilled water is an insulator it is the minerals in water that conducts )

works well for keyboards to

cevat emptor

take care

 

[dkozloski]

I heard about someones dog swallowing a cell phone and not only did it ring inside the beast it still worked after it was expelled and cleaned up. However my TV flinker did not survive being dropped in the toilet.

 

[LevcoS]

Take it all apart and wash the circuit boards... I've even successfully done this with keyboards in the dishwasher, though LordEdmond's suggestion is probably safer

Odds are, though, that you've already killed it by applying power so quickly after submersion...

LevcoS

 

[codehack2]

Put it back in the tub & toss in a hair dryer(be sure it is plugged in), all it needs is a good jolt to get it going again.

CH2

 

[Workin']

<< Cordless phones (at least the older ones) ..... operate somewhere in the 900MHz frequency range. >>

A five year old phone would likely run on 42/47 MHz.

I'd take it apart and let it dry for a few days. You're probably screwed, but a new 900MHz phone would work better and only cost like US$30. Hell, spend $100 and get a 2.4GHz model, they rock. But you wouldn't want to take a bath with a $100 phone, I guess.

 

[SUOrangeman]

I'm sorry, there are too many good quotes in here to not bump this up.

-SUO

 

[Modus]

Walmart sells Memorex cordless phones here in Vancouver, Canada for around $35. That's $23 US.

Let the phone dry out for a while, maybe even dismantle it first, but don't worry too much if you have to buy a cheap replacement. At your kid's age, you're about ready to enter the world of cheap, disposable household items. Don't invest too much in anything your child might find interesting

Modus