Very, very wet Etrex

[+T13]

Since various topics on these forums were helpful in this repair, I thought I'd share my tale.

 

My son and I were working as lock-tenders at the Lowell, MA Pawtucket Canal Lower Locks.

This involves manipulating the large wooden gates and smaller metal wickets to control the

flow of water into and out of large granite chambers built into the canal, in this case in order

to lift inflatable rafts full of white-water rafters up at the end of their journey. It's not required,

just lots of fun. The canal and chamber have been there since 1796 or so. The closest cache,

just across the canal, is GC251FE, The Other River, and that's the reason for this tale...

 

I've been caching for a few months, and just acquired a secondhand yellow Etrex for my son to

use, and for use by Boy Scouts working toward the new Geocaching merit badge. My son was

eager to mark our lock-tending with a cache, and wanted to find out how far the nearest one

was...so brought it along for our lock-tending session, which involves scrambling around on the

granite walls, pushing and pulling the wooden beams on the gates, and manipulating the keys

(3' long steel wrenches) to open and close the water-flow-control wickets, while leaning over the

water in the canal.....and he was carrying the Etrex in a belt holster, clipped to his waistband....and

of course it fell into the water, just upstream of the Upper lock gate. He said that it floated briefly

and then sank....and reasonably, he kept doing his job holding the key to keep the wicket open.

This was while we were pre-filling the upper lock chamber with water, about 12' deep, which would

then be let through the Middle gates into the lower lock chamber, and after the boats had passed,

we'd fill the upper again, and eventually let it all out. So, about half an hour later, we had time to

begin looking. The GPSr in the holster had passed through the wicket with the current (LOTS of water

flow) and settled in the bottom of the upper chamber....we spotted it about 12' down, in the middle,

in about 2' of water after all the fun was over.

 

A bit of finagling with a pool-skimmer and ropes and we'd dragged it closer to the wall and lifted it up,

without having to descend into the lock itself. Judging from the water visible behind the screen, the

unit was about half full of water....some would shake out, but not much. At this point I started reading

forum posts about repair...didn't find much about submerged units, but some about disassembly.

 

The first thing we tried was putting the unit in a container full of dry rice. This didn't do much to

get the water out from inside....it got past whatever 'waterproof' seal there was, but didn't want to

flow back out.

 

Second try involved pressure.....first try was one of those vacuum storage bags, but of course the bag

shrinks around the unit, so there's not really low pressure inside the bag, just not much air. Not having

a bell jar and air pump around, decided to make one....first tries with a glass cutter and wine bottles

were not very successful, eventually settled on a canning jar with a hole in the metal lid, coupled with

a wine-storage stopper and pump, which we use to remove the air from the opened wine bottle for

extended short-time storage. This worked pretty well! The unit no longer looked like a snowglobe

behind the window, but there was still water in there...

 

So I took it apart, following instructions found here. The rubber grip peeled off with a blow-dryer heat

assist, leaving tacky adhesive, but not the expected waterproofing tape, just the two plastic halves of

the case. The case snapped apart easily, and careful blotting, more hot air, and a session in a warm

oven left everything seeming pretty dry, so I carefully reassembled it....and it worked!

 

Then to re-attach the grip....I replaced the missing seal tape with a band of vinyl electricians tape,

carefully trimmed to width, lightly stretched, overlapped about an inch, and passing over all the side

buttons. A test fit of the rubber grip over that seated pretty well, and there seemed to be enough

adhesive left to hold it on, so for now I'm leaving like that....it's not critical for the 'waterproofing',

just for comfort and the buttons, so I'll see how it holds up. If necessary I plan to try some of the

Seam Grip used for repairing tents, and will apply a thin line under each edge of the grip, all around.

If the rubber stays unperforated, that should improve the original, fairly non-existent waterproofing.

(I admit that the specification says 1 meter for 30 minutes, not 30 minutes at 12' after being squirted

through the lock wicket....)

 

We'll have to see how long this holds up, and if there are any long-term corrosion difficulties.

I'm keeping my fingers crosses, and my son will devise a lanyard as soon as possible, even when

the GPSr is on his belt.....better yet, will keep it away from the canal! But, if possible, this repaired

Etrex will be used to mark the coordinates for a new geocache, as close as possible to the site of

its swim....

 

Oh, we tried calling Garmin....emailed first, got no reply, and a phone call, after a time on hold,

got an offer of repair for only $60something dollars....for a unit I'd paid $25 for secondhand.

[+agentmancuso]

Thanks for the detail, it could come in handy sometime.

[+EScout]

I like the low pressure chamber idea.

 

Having 4 cell phones in the family, and other electronic devices, I have worked on 3 over the last few years that have been submerged, including one a couple of months ago.

The first thing is to immediately remove the battery/batteries. I have had a cell phone Li-ion short and become dead very quickly.

Open up the device and rinse with distilled water. Then follow with pure alcohol. Shake it all out and then blow with a hair dryer on low. Then let it sit for a day or two in a dry spot. It should work after this.

[+Team CowboyPapa]

Then follow with pure alcohol. Shake it all out and then blow with a hair dryer on low. Then let it sit for a day or two in a dry spot. It should work after this.

Roger that! That is how I finish off cleaning my keyboards. After I take them out of the dishwasher, I shake out a much water as possible and then flood the interior with alcohol. Shake as much as possible and then put it on top of the water heater for a gentle drying.

[+ecanderson]

Then follow with pure alcohol.

Have been looking for a "retail" source for anhydrous isopropanol for some time now. Seems like mail order through Fisher Scientific or similar is the only option. Minimum of $78/liter + shipping. Got a better source? I really don't NEED sub-micron filtration.

[+supertech]

Then follow with pure alcohol.

Have been looking for a "retail" source for anhydrous isopropanol for some time now. Seems like mail order through Fisher Scientific or similar is the only option. Minimum of $78/liter + shipping. Got a better source? I really don't NEED sub-micron filtration.

First thing is immediate removal of batteries. Second is to open it up. but why introduce any more foreign materials? I say, unless it was saltwater or brackish water;

 

open it up, shake out any exsess water, dab as dry as possible, lay it out to dry in a warm dry place [not over 120deg. and leave it for 48 to 72 hours. then put it all back together and try it out.

 

Why not dump more stuff on it? because it can get between the display or other places. Minimal moisture contact IMO is better than douching...

 

Thanks

Edited April 22, 2010 by supertech

[+BlueDeuce]

If it was trashed, 60 bucks is not tooo bad for repaired compared to replacing it.

 

I'd let it sit for two weeks in the average environment and then see how it worked.

 

Not work - junk it. Work - Keep on caching.