How to remove water inside a sealed head?

I was at a house party yesterday. Everything was great. They even had a pool. Several people saw my TD-15 and wanted to play with it. I said, why the heck not, I'm too drunk to care.

Someone decided to go for deep-sea exploration with the light. That was fine, except the airhead decided to play with the strobe setting and submerged the light in the pool with the head slightly unscrewed, allowing water to seep in.

I have managed to get most of the water out, except for some inside the head itself. Unfortunately, the head of the light is sealed, the stainless steel bezel welded to the head to prevent the lens from being removed. So far, I have

1. Placed the head in front of an air conditioning unit for about an hour;
2. Left it out in direct sunlight for several hours;
3. Baked it in a toaster oven at ~100°F for about 30 minutes.

I am currently in the process of having the light turned on at full blast to see if the heat from the emitter will evaporate the water inside the reflector. Of course, the head is slightly unscrewed so that there will be space for the condensation the evaporate from the heat.

Does anyone know other ways to remove condensation inside a sealed head?

And, obviously, this should be one of the reasons why I should never lend expensive hardware to clueless fools.

I'm sure somebody will have a better idea, but you might try to find a local, inexpensive source for a desiccant similar to this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0018O035O/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Possibly a photo store, although it's possible someplace like Home Depot would have some as well.

Put the light head and the desiccant in a ziplock bag together and leave it in the sun for a while.

Good luck .

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, it seems the reflector could be a total loss. I managed to pry open the head with a Leatherman, and let the head, lens and the reflector dry, all upside down to prevent dust from gathering. I let them dry for a few hours and there is still water inside the head, while the reflector has blemishes from what could only be from the pool water. It was probably from the attempt to boil the water away.

I'm trying to see if I can drown the reflector in a cup of Windex to see if that will dissolve the water residue, but I'm not holding my breath. I'll most likely have to fork over for another TD-15.

In any event, I have learned my lesson; NEVER give my lights over to anyone. If they need illumination, I'll shine the beam for them, but I'll never hand the light over to anyone willingly.

Distilled water might be better for cleaning the reflector.

Heat the head and force the besel off with wrenches. Its used threadlock on the besel, cant weld steel and alu together
I use to put the head's in a plastic bag and hold it in boiling water for some min if i want to open threadlocked stuff. Use wrenches and open it while the threadlock is still hot. Wrap the head up in rubber, a letherbelt or something if you don't want to scratch the light up in the prosess.

Try getting a bowl of rice and burying it in it for a few days and leave it in the sunlight.

Initial result shows some promise. Having the reflector soaked in window cleaner for more than two hours seems to have rid of the blemishes.

Now the hard part is waiting for the head to dry up. I'm going to see if I can find some desiccant and use it on the head, like Derek suggested.

enomosiki said:

Initial result shows some promise. Having the reflector soaked in window cleaner for more than two hours seems to have rid of the blemishes.

Now the hard part is waiting for the head to dry up. I'm going to see if I can find some desiccant and use it on the head, like Derek suggested.

Click to expand...

If the blemishes are whitish mineral deposits, try vinegar or CLR.

enomosiki said:

Initial result shows some promise. Having the reflector soaked in window cleaner for more than two hours seems to have rid of the blemishes.

Now the hard part is waiting for the head to dry up. I'm going to see if I can find some desiccant and use it on the head, like Derek suggested.

Click to expand...

rice is a natural dessicant if you have some.

I have found in the past that you can heat something up as much as you like but if there is no airflow, it won''t dry out. Stick it in front of a fan for a few hours and that should do the trick. This works well even on 'almost' sealed units like torches and phones.

Bad news, folks. The light is dead. I'm not sure what happened, but I let the head sit buried in a bowl of rice for six hours, reassembled the head and switched it on, but nothing happened.

I will leave the head alone in the bowl for the rest of the day to see if any miracle will happen, but I'm not holding my breath.

Anyway, I've discovered that soaking the reflector in ammonia-based glass cleaner is not a good idea, as it is discolored. It got rid of the blemishes, but the reflector now has a slight yellow hue as opposed to original silver. I'm not sure if it would have faired better in non-ammonia-based cleaner, but it would have been interesting to note the color of the beam if the light worked. For all I know I could have had a TD-15 with XP-G R5 1C with neutral tint.

Bummer, I think I am too late. Yeah twisting bezels and tailcaps is a bad idea when the light is wet or submerged. Unscrewing creates suction/vaccuum that tends to pull water past the O-rings. Even just a little bit, if nothing else causes the gasket to slide and can allow moisture to seep past.

FWIW... When a dive watch gets misty inside from a water intrusion, you can unscrew the crown and wrap it in an electric heating pad on MED-LO overnight. With the crown facing vertically upwards, the moisture will evaporate.

enomosiki said:

Bad news, folks. The light is dead. I'm not sure what happened, but I let the head sit buried in a bowl of rice for six hours, reassembled the head and switched it on, but nothing happened.

I will leave the head alone in the bowl for the rest of the day to see if any miracle will happen, but I'm not holding my breath.

Anyway, I've discovered that soaking the reflector in ammonia-based glass cleaner is not a good idea, as it is discolored. It got rid of the blemishes, but the reflector now has a slight yellow hue as opposed to original silver. I'm not sure if it would have faired better in non-ammonia-based cleaner, but it would have been interesting to note the color of the beam if the light worked. For all I know I could have had a TD-15 with XP-G R5 1C with neutral tint.

Click to expand...

It could take a day or two for the rice to work. I saw a thread where people had got cell phones soaked and used the rice trick on them to remove moisture. The problem I think is if the water cannot be coaxed out of the head (somewhat sealed).

Derek Dean said:

Distilled water might be better for cleaning the reflector.

Click to expand...

Yep

That clueless fool would be paying for a new light if it were mine.

You wanted a new light anyway!

Radioshack sells a "cell phone rescue kit" like the one here: http://www.dry-all.com/

I usually go to home depot and getting the chemicals and use a zip lock which actually turns out to be a ton cheaper... Just need activated silica or activated alumina... both are great desiccants. I just leave them for about 3-5 days... works better than rice actually...

It's been two days and there's still not a single flicker (pun intended) of life coming back to the light. Bummer. I'm going to go see if I can grab some desiccants at Radioshack today.

Goodness Gracious, THE LIGHT IS ALIVE.

It turns out that I accidentally repositioned a thin piece of tape that was blocking the contact between the two solders on the emitter base and the reflector, shorting the light out. I found this out when I disassembled the head to tinker with it. I unscrewed the bezel, took out the glass and o-ring, and was promptly greeted with a blinding light when the reflector dropped out of the head, when it was no longer shorting the connection.

I'm in the process of cleaning the reflector again, but I expect that this light will be back to almost normal in no time. Hell, it might even be for the better because I'm expecting a neutral tint beam from the discoloration of the reflector.

And this all happened not even an hour after I spent $150 for a Thrunite Scorpion v2 with turbo head to replace it.

Thanks for all the support, everyone. In the past seven months I've had this light I've beaten the crap out of it and ran it dangerously past where I was worried about thermal damage countless times, as well as the water damage a few days ago. But, in my case, this light just will not die. Now, as soon as I can get the reflector cleaned and have the light back in my pocket, I'll be a happy camper.

For the "Rice" trick, make sure it is uncooked.

You never know about some people.

I keep all of those little desiccant bags that come with electronics and such.

baking in an oven at 225-250 for about 4 hours reactivates them.

I have over 4 lb of the stuff.