Mild corrosion on a circuit board

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I did mean Drying ( The keyboard moved )

But I quite liked the idea of frying :)

If there are no fancy components on the PCB, I tend to just give the a wash in washing up liquid, warm water, with an old toothbrush to try to clean any water damage off, followed by a thorough rinse under running hot water, then blow the remaining water off with a compressed air line. You have to be gentle with the brush, on modern high density PCB's. I would then put the PCB on top of a radiator (when on in winter) or use a hair dryer in summer to get it completely dry. If I still have doubts about possible corrosion and if an low voltage only board, I would give it a through soak in WD40, which will help kill the existing corrosion and prevent it getting any worse, leaving a waxy deposit.
 
Unfortunately John, even though it has dried it still needs cleaning off, microscopic dendrites can still form and cause issues ...
If I use meths, then 9similar to Harry) I rinse it off with running water (rather than waiting for it to dry), at the same time giving it a good scrub with something like a toothbrush. I must say that I would not bother about the water being de-ionised.

Kind Regards, John
 
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There seems to have been some confusion about "IPA" - some of the tongue-in-cheek comments (including some from me) related to India Pale Ale, not isopropyl alcohol ;)

Kind Regards, John

Ha, no confession here, as it happens we get some lovely IPA's here in Jersey, which I would be pleased to enjoy after resolving this issue :)

I've poked around the unit a little more.... Im reasonably confident with electronics, however have never needed to clean up a circuit board, does this one look salvageable with a reasonable amount of work? I am now thinking it never got 'wet' but water was below it, and condensation left it on the board.

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Thanks for all the replies, a wealth of knowledge here and numerous options! It has a control panel attached through to a different board, so before running under water (terrifying thought!) I would need to separate them of course.
 
Someone has cut the earth conductors from those flexes.

I think this was an edit after I replied, but that's nothing to worry about.... I only had 3-core available when fitting... it's a volt-free connection to a relay elsewhere, nothing to be concerned about :)
 
Best course of action from here...? :)

As already advised - just give it a good wash down to get that water staining off, finally a good rinse, a good dry off, then decide whether to spray it with WD40 to stop any corrosion.

I'm seeing some water damage on the top side of the PCB as well, when I zoom in.
 
You can spray it with conformal coating after cleaning and drying to waterproof it.
 

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Clean it as advised.

Do NOT spray WD40 over it, WD40 is not a product that is designed to be used on PCB's.
 

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