"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...

In general, the first rule with any kind of liquid damage, is get the
battery out as fast as possible. I have on many occasions seen the results
of electrolytic action across close spaced tracks and component legs, as a
result of small currents passing through the liquid that is doing the
contaminating. This often leaves a conductive 'corrosion' mess behind it,
that can be quite difficult to remove, and tends to leave component legs
and solder joints, a dull grey.

Thank you Arfa for an explanation of the possible mechanism involved in the
creation of a conductive "corrosion" mess which may have remained even after
I dried the cell phone out. The phone was in about six feet of water for
about 15 minutes. It was not ON, but the battery was in place and I suspect
that corrosive paths were established during that period of time. I don't
remember enough electrochemistry to know exactly what was happening, but the
lake water which I measured today does have measurable conductivity. It's
actually about half the conductivity of my tap water which comes from a well
so I guess I was better off dropping it in the lake than dropping it in my
sink. :-)

Dan