Help: Restoring Smoked Electronics

Subject: RE: Help: Restoring Smoked Electronics
From: John J
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 11:41 AM

I don't know much about insurance claims, but a couple of years ago a customer of mine in NW England had a small fire in their workshop caused by a discarded Nicad battery shorting out in a dustbin. (I sell this company loads of electronic components, that's my job)The smoke damage was horrendous, but a specialist company was brought in to clean up all the spare components / pieces of service equipment and test equipment like oscilloscopes / signal generators etc. The stuff was like new after they finished. Perhaps not much help, but it shows that kit can be recovered after smoke damage. Good luck. John

Subject: RE: Help: Restoring Smoked Electronics
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 11:38 AM

Thanks, Matt, I thought you were here, then, too.

Subject: RE: Help: Restoring Smoked Electronics
From: Jeri
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 11:11 AM

As far as tubes go, they're sealed, so the innards ought to be ok. As for the outards, I wouldn't try cleaning any electrical parts myself. Picture tubes have a capacitor - zap city. I don't know if tubes in amps are similar. You'll either fry yourself or the parts. Professionals probably can use alcohol and Q-tips to clean what it's safe to clean.

Subject: RE: Help: Restoring Smoked Electronics
From: Matt_R
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 10:53 AM

I'm sorry, kat. I didn't know that. I think it was just a little before my time.

Subject: RE: Help: Restoring Smoked Electronics
From: GUEST,~Susan
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 08:40 AM

Experts seem to agree with ALL of you, and have vastly different ideas on what to try. We're claiming total loss and have a local tech's written recommendation for same.

Thanks, guys. Now about that Roland Bolt 60 guitar amp... tubes.... what, I tell my Navy son it'll be smokin' next time he plays through it? I hook up the autoharp for Smoke Gets in Your Eyes? Fuggit, it was too heavy to take to gigs anyhow. Thank God the Crate was at the church.

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: Restoring Smoked Electronics
From: Banjer
Date: 20 Dec 00 - 06:37 AM

Jon & 'Spaw, sounds like a Saab story to me. Jon is right, I used to run HAM radio equipment and when the smoke escaped it didn't want to work anymore! I took it to the radio guru and he pumped new smoke in, sealed up the holes and it worked again!

As for Praise, my computer Guru says once exposed to the acidity and moisture, he doesn't see that it can all be removed. He advises trying to get the insurance company to realize that the equipment now has a high possibility of failure because of the fire and should be replaced.

Subject: RE: Help: Restoring Smoked Electronics
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Dec 00 - 01:34 PM

Tell you what Jon, if that worked on a Dauphine, imagine what you could have done with a Simca or a Vauxhall?

Spaw

Subject: RE: Help: Restoring Smoked Electronics
From: Jon W.
Date: 19 Dec 00 - 12:51 PM

Actually smokin' 'em from the outside ain't so bad - it's when you let the smoke that's inside them chips out that's bad. 'Cause those things run on smoke, and when the smoke comes out, they won't run anymore.

Not making light of your situation, just trying to cheer you up.

Jon W.

Subject: RE: Help: Restoring Smoked Electronics
From: Jon W.
Date: 19 Dec 00 - 12:46 PM

I say soak 'em in a vat of Armor-All 'cause that stuff makes anything it touches just like new again. I once restored an entire Renault Dauphine just by soaking it in a vat of Armor-All overnight. Came out just as good as new. Well, maybe that's an unfair comparison because the Renault Dauphine wasn't never any good to begin with. Shucks...

Subject: RE: Help: Restoring Smoked Electronics
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Dec 00 - 02:57 PM

Night Owl had nothing left to be cleaned, Matt. Hers was burnt to the ground, completely.

Subject: RE: Help: Restoring Smoked Electronics
From: Matt_R
Date: 18 Dec 00 - 02:32 PM

Am I not mistaken that NightOwl might be able to offer som advice?

Subject: RE: Help: Restoring Smoked Electronics
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 18 Dec 00 - 02:29 PM

Uncalled for message deleted - by Bert

Subject: RE: Help: Restoring Smoked Electronics
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 Dec 00 - 08:47 PM

Thanks for these contributions.

Please e-mail me if you can with any additional info at:

[e-mail]

Thanks

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: Restoring Smoked Electronics
From: GUEST,NH Dave
Date: 13 Dec 00 - 12:52 PM

Most insurance companies can recommend firms that do nothing but refurbish electronics equipment that has suffered smoke damage.

If it is a computer, any reputable computer repair firm can run the innards across their bench, cleaning boards and burnushing contacts as needed, and insuring that they hard drive hasn't been damaged, or copying the data from a damaged drive to a new or refurbished one. Again, ask your insurance folks, or look in the yellow pages for any large city.

Dave

Subject: RE: Help: Restoring Smoked Electronics
From: Gary T
Date: 13 Dec 00 - 09:39 AM

I'm ignorant in this area, but my thought is that it's not feasible to do an effective cleaning. If that's correct, the most helpful thing may be to learn the insurance company's procedure for delayed claims.

Subject: Restoring Smoked Electronics
From: wysiwyg
Date: 12 Dec 00 - 11:24 PM

Mudxperts,

As our family works way through the fire insurance claim process, I have learned that smoke damage to electronics is a serious problem.

Apparently, housefire smoke is pretty acidic and you can haul a computer up onto the tech's bench, test the circuits, and test as perfectly fine.... while acid keeps eating away inside. Months later, PFFFFFT! And your claim will have been long since been settled. Oooops!

So-- the search is on for people who specialize in the fine task of micro-cleaning the electronic innards. Computers. Copier. Tube amp! Fax.... Most likely, people more qualified than your average Authorized Service Center.

Help! Anyone care to search around on this? We're pretty tied up with the rest of this claim process, and we could use the help. Could help someone else, too, sometime, to have it right here at the Mudcat.

Or, in the alternative, how can we miniaturize Joe and all the Joeclones and send them in there? (Song challenge.)

~Susan