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Quick follow up, it was only the 6 keyboards on the very top that were actually submerged, the rest just got some light splashes if even that, but I have them all laid out because I kinda freaked out in the moment

I’m leaving this up as it’s no ordinary help request.

If it were my boards, the first thing I would do is drain them like you did and pull them apart, removing keycaps, and pcbs from cases. Keycaps and cases should be fine just dried off. Now if any are hotswap, take the switches off and inspect to see if any water got in them, hopefully the keycaps acted as little umbrellas and you’ll be alright. The pcbs I would take some very high percentage isopropyl alcohol and wipe down as much as possible. The alcohol should make the majority of the water evaporate and then by wiping them down you are removing any deposits left by the possibly hard water. I would do this asap and then one more time about 24 hours later just to be safe. I’d wait another two days to plug them in, making sure they are super dry.

try leaving the PCBs in rice for a while? and cleaning them w 90% isopropyl alcohol?

i'm not sure if you can save the switches but it's worth a try

good luck and sorry to hear about the boards 😕

None of them were powered up, so there's a very good chance they will be OK. I would strip them down, and let them air dry in a warm dry place. Once dry you can give the PCBs a gently wipe with isopropyl alcohol, but if it's just clean water, they may not be necessary.... but I would anyway. If you live in a very hard water area though, I definitely would clean with alcohol.

Switches however, that may be a different matter. They should be OK once dried out, but if they were lubed, I would want to relube them once all the water is out. The Preonics hot swap? If not, that may not be an option you wish to take, obviously.

The fact that they were not powered means the chances are good. I would leave at least two or three days AFTER they appear to be all dried out... so just strip them down, put them somewhere warm and dry, wipe off the PCBs with IPA after 24 hours, then put them back in the warm dry place until new year before you power them up again. In fact, if you have a large seal-able container that fits everything, and lots of silica gel, that may be a good idea.... but only with silica gel... if you don't have any, don't seal them inside anything. Without the silica gel, any moisture will just be trapped inside the container.... with it, the silica gel, being a desiccant, will absorb and trap the moisture.

Thank you for allowing the post, I appreciate it!

I have pulled one board apart so far, and the PCB is soaked, but I think you are right, the caps seemed to have protected the switches, I popped a couple open and there is not water inside the switch.

Going to give the alcohol idea a try, thank you!

Yeah no problem, your best bet is to get the pcbs dry as soon as possible. The alcohol will help evaporate any water trapped where you can’t see it.

I would not recommend putting the PCBs in rice. Chances are, since they weren't plugged in, they should be fine. Adding rice can introduce a bunch of particles into your keyboard (esp if hotswap) and it's just a bad idea all around. Pat them off with a towel or something. Good luck!

pcb will likely be fine. You can soak it in 99% isopropyl alcohol if you really want to make sure every part is good, and it's easier than manually cleaning.

Many good advices already. The key is to dry the boards out as quickly as possible and to not power them up until you know they are dry to prevent any shorts which would fry components. Leaving humidity/water in contact with components will lead eventually to oxidation so time is of the essence. If I only had a handful, I would immerse the PCBs in an IPA bath before letting them airdry but you may have too many to do that. Alternative is to use a hair dryer in low settings and dry them at 40-50C.

Never put any electronics in rice, especially as the starch and powders in rice will mix with water and congeal making it even worse. Silica gel if in a humid environment but natural drying and alcohol is best.

If any are wireless defs take the battery out

Thank you for the advice! I have stripped them down and it seems like all the switches made it super dry, I would not have guessed they are as water-sealed as they seem to be!

I have them stripped and heading out to get IPA and looking at silica gel, have not heard of that before!

Thank you! my first thought was rice too, but assumed the same thing you did around adding rice dust everywhere hah

Hi! Thank you for the advice! With a number of people suggesting IPA, I was going that route, but was assuming I would be applying the IPA to the PCBs with a cloth. It sounds like you are suggesting immersing the whole PCB in IPA, is that right? I have only 6-7 that were fully submerged and have a ton of moisture on them now that I have started taking them apart. No problem to immerse them, but I have not done that before, want to double check I am understanding right before I put them all the way in instead of dabbing them with cloth.

Thanks!

Great call, thank you!

only the ones with battery are in imminent danger. the rest of them should be able to dry off, no current running thru em.

Yup, rice in general does nothing really to curb the real damage. A lot of distilled water to wash the normal water away and then dry. Might help minimize the oxidation.

Maybe silica gel can also help with drying, since they add that to l'île every package of electronics

It's those little packets with bead like things inside that is often part of electronics packaging. It's not make or break, but if you can store the boards with some of that it may be helpful. Otherwise, just a warm dry place for a few days.

Merry Christmas, and I hope everything is OK.

I wouldn’t be worried about keycaps or the pcb. I would be worried (and pretty salty) if I had hand lubed switches in there