My EUC was submerged in water, what should I do now?

[RayBanMonster]

On 5/2/2020 at 4:57 PM, LukeRian said:

Drove my Gotway Tesla into a lake today, just thought I'd share this information lol

Been there done that too... the taxi home was a very hollow experience, dressed up like batman without the wheel.

I will never ride in sand/ gravel close to a lake or river again.

RIP MSX 100V

[LeftFive]

Hello! Long time lurker, first time poster.

Here's the EUC World log of me hitting some loose gravel and firing my MTen3 into a canal yesterday
https://euc.world/tour/593117583115053

Gonna make the last little bit of the 5-mo wait for my s18 even harder. It took me a few minutes to fish her out of the water and an hour or so to walk back to my car, but I've got the case and (unplugged)battery box opened up and airing out in the (heated)garage.
How worried about fire should I be, if I'm just airing it out?

It looks like some stuff on the mainboard is fried, but I haven't looked at it closely yet. The headlight came on when it was in the water and it was making some dying convulsions as it was dripping off. The power button didn't do anything and I was worried repeatedly pressing it might make things worse.

[Scottie888]

22 minutes ago, LeftFive said:

Hello! Long time lurker, first time poster.

Here's the EUC World log of me hitting some loose gravel and firing my MTen3 into a canal yesterday

Oooh Dude! I can imagine how I would feel if the same happened. I feel you brah😩. 

Yaa dry it out & see if it can be saved. If not, salvage whatever you can. Luckily, a new Mten3 is amongst the least of investment so it not as big a burden to replace. I dare not even imagine if it was a Sherman or EX or Mpro. Kinda makes me feel somewhat better that my city has no canals or any other bodies of water except a big ass river that runs thru & I don't ride close enough to dunk in it.

Again sorry to hear bout you misfortune. 

[meepmeepmayer]

Poor wheel!

34 minutes ago, LeftFive said:

How worried about fire should I be, if I'm just airing it out?

Not worried, and you acted well by disconnecting the battery, but you never know.

I would remove the battery from the wheel and put it (the battery) in a place where it can both dry, but also where no damage would happen from the fire and smoke, were it to catch fire. Keeping the battery-less wheel in the heated garage (or inside) is great, nothing bad can happen, it just needs to dry before something can rust. As for the battery... put it in an old pot, make sure it's safe from water and the cold, and store it outside (on grass) or something like this. Whatever you can come up with. Or just put a plastic box over the wheel, so the damage would be limited to a burn spot on your garage floor and a lot of smoke under the box and not too much coming out (hopefully). Maybe some careful blow-drying to remove all water quicker? Up to your imagination.

After everything is guaranteed dry (wait a few days!), look very closely for damage (like rust on the battery). You'll see if your wheel acts normal or the board is done for.

-

The idea to quickly dry everything is great. Just assume the battery can light up any moment, even if that is unlikely. Historically, Gotway batteries have been good in this regard (in their blue foil, I think the mten3 has a box, not sure if it's also foiled inside).

In general, a battery (cell) ignites if it gets too hot. It gets too hot from too high (uncontrolled) current aka a short somewhere, e.g. from water connecting some things that shouldn't be connected. So, in theory, at any point a water drop could move into the wrong spot and trigger a fire. Would be bad luck, but bad luck can happen, so act according to your conscience

[EUC Custom Power-Pads]

There was a 16X battery after it had been in the river for a day. The battery went up in flames a few days later.

Yes you should definitely be worried.

 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by buell47

[RagingGrandpa]

Agreed.

Have a good read thru the thread below- you need to teardown that pack and inspect / dispose.
 

On 9/29/2020 at 7:34 PM, amelanso said:

bad news abt pack one - water has reached the cells/bms.

A good reminder that unless u open a pack that has been exposed to water, as tightly sealed as it may appear, u cannot know if it is dry inside...

 

[meepmeepmayer]

To clarify and help visualize, the danger seems to be water in the battery that seeps or gets moved (by moving the battery) so it (eventually) causes a short. Or water causing rust damage (as you see in the picture above) that might lead to a weak spot and problems later.

Separate and dry the battery fast but safe. That's the motto of the hour

Later I guess opening the battery box (and foil if it has one) and looking at your cells might be a good idea.

[redsnapper]

15 hours ago, LeftFive said:

How worried about fire should I be, if I'm just airing it out?

It looks like some stuff on the mainboard is fried, but I haven't looked at it closely yet. 

I successfully rehabbed a 16x ( see reference by @RagingGrandpa above) that was strangely hydrophilic. I think u shld follow a similar plan - total disassembly, replace controller, wash all other pcbs & connectors, motor windings, hall sensor in 99% isop. Isolate batt in lobster pot prison (peferably in outside shed etc) - u shld likely start with opening pack to inspect for water intrusion. if pack shows water damage, may not be worth going any further in rehab as buying new batt and controller is almost same price as new machine:-( 1 of the 2 packs in my machine was toast. I hope u r lucky and pack is good. if so rehab is very possible! but drag ur machine has become a submariner... if u rehab please document so we can all benefit.

[NZDoug]

yep, ive only had this for about 6 weeks, slipped backwards  off it on a trial, and it ran straight into a pond and was fully submerged for around 30 seconds. To cut a longish story short, got it out, cleaned and dried it...and  amazing as it seems, all seemed well. Turned on, charged and still seems like all the electrics work fine including the PCB, so bravo to Kingsong.... but now after a few days use, its started making a whining noise which is gradually gotten worse over the last few days. No noise at low speeds. Soooo, its most likely to be wheel bearings or could it be something in the motor? anyone have any ideas on how to check or what it could be?    Doug

[The Brahan Seer]

Maybe water has gotten into the motor or as you say wheel bearings. Maybe need to take the wheel off and have a look, grease the bearings? Kingsong has great video's to help you disassemble your S18 here... https://www.youtube.com/c/KingsongIntellCoLtd/videos

[NZDoug]

I think that you are probably right. Standing looking at has not helped me so far

[mrelwood]

Water damage developes over time, and having been submerged there is a real danger of water having gotten anywhere, including the motor, controller, and the battery. Of which the last one can potentially make it into an explosive waiting to burst into flames at any point.

 Do you have a home or other insurance that would cover the incident? If you do, I wouldn’t hesitate for a second whether to pay a $500 deductible for the insurance.

 If that doesn’t pan out, if it was my wheel I’d dismantle it in total, motor and everything. Check everything very closely and clean up and fix anything pitted or rusty. Aligning the motor and all does add up to being a lot of work, but best to do it now than to wait for a few more weeks or months for it to short circuit and kick you down on the pavement at 30mph.

Edited October 5, 2021 by mrelwood

[Whalesmash]

I would strongly suggest taking apart the motor and letting the internals dry. I would not be surprised if you found residual water inside of the motor, and that water will linger there for an eternity if you don't let it drain or dry out somehow. There's a local rider around where I live that had a submerged tesla V2 that worked perfectly fine after its submarine trip in a lake, but it developed all sorts of gremlins after a few months. When the motor was disassembled 3 months later, there was water still inside it and the internals of the motor were pretty badly corroded. Take the "better safe than sorry" approach with this one and just take it apart for due diligence, it'll pay off down the line.

[NZDoug]

Thanks Guys, thats exactly what I will do

 

[ffontana]

11 hours ago, mrelwood said:

Water damage developes over time, and having been submerged there is a real danger of water having gotten anywhere, including the motor, controller, and the battery. Of which the last one can potentially make it into an explosive waiting to burst into flames at any point.

 Do you have a home or other insurance that would cover the incident? If you do, I wouldn’t hesitate for a second whether to pay a $500 deductible for the insurance.

 If that doesn’t pan out, if it was my wheel I’d dismantle it in total, motor and everything. Check everything very closely and clean up and fix anything pitted or rusty. Aligning the motor and all does add up to being a lot of work, but best to do it now than to wait for a few more weeks or months for it to short circuit and kick you down on the pavement at 30mph.

That happened to me. 

Pcb died 2 months after being the wheel partially submerged. 

It was working nice after being submerged and 2 months later it suddenly stop working and 3 of the 4 battery packs drop down voltage to 2 volts/cell before I disconnected them from the PCB.

Recovered  batteries and still waiting for a new PCB.

 

[NZDoug]

Hey All, appreciate the feedback and help. I pulled it all apart last night, and found water in the motor, not much  but enough to cause damage over time. I think the specific issue was in one bearing, with grit or water in it that you could hear when spinning. the other bearing seemed fine, but im replacing both ($8.50 at amazon- gotta be the cheapest part on a unicylce?), redried everything, then used a hair dryer on the whole  wheel. Battery pack seemed very sealed up, lots of gunk so fingers crossed. The longer term issue maybe the PCB which definitely got wet so lets see....I should be back on the wheel once parts turn up in a few days.

One thing i noticed as i pulled it aaprt was the build quality was pretty good, even overkill on screws etc. Took out over 100 screws/bolts to get to the bearing! 

[RockyTop]

PCB- water does not damage PCBs like most people think. The damage usually occurs after drying. The biggest danger at this point is debris traces. The water evaporates and leaves minerals that form a trace line shorting the system. It does not take much. 

Edited October 6, 2021 by RockyTop

[Mantraguy]

1 hour ago, NZDoug said:

Battery pack seemed very sealed up, lots of gunk so fingers crossed.

Having been there myself, I'd suggest pulling the heat shrink off of the battery packs and taking a good look at the ends of the cells. You may have to order new heat shrink but it's cheap and easy to use. After a short trip through a puddle that was deeper than anticipated, I later ended up replacing wheel bearings (like you) but everything else seemed fine... until I had a quick peek inside one of the packs. The water can easily seep between the seams in the heat shrink and get to the cells. They use a special green paper (called barley paper) between cell tabs and it absorbs water, keeping the anode and cathode damp until you get in there and replace it (or until the tabs rust through). The fact that the tabs have an electrical charge speeds up the corrosion process. Even individual cells are fairly expensive - do yourself a favour and take it apart for a good look. If you catch it early, you can brush off any surface rust and replace the barley paper, fibre tape and heat shrink. Left a bit longer and you may find yourself with the slightly onerous task of replacing individual cells (as I did). Left too long, and you'll have so much corrosion that some cells will be so badly damaged that the entire pack becomes a major hazard, especially during charging or discharging. I haven't seen an S18 battery pack in person, but unless you're very confident that they're water-tight (I'm sure others can provide their opinions on this better than I), it's probably worth having a look in the packs.

[NErider]

On 10/6/2021 at 1:19 AM, ffontana said:

That happened to me. 

Pcb died 2 months after being the wheel partially submerged. 

It was working nice after being submerged and 2 months later it suddenly stop working and 3 of the 4 battery packs drop down voltage to 2 volts/cell before I disconnected them from the PCB.

Recovered  batteries and still waiting for a new PCB.

 

Did you verify Sub Voltage on the small pins of the battery packs? I was able to recover my batteries with a 100V adjustabke power supply, but the 12V sub voltage did not recover on some of the packs, so they had to be replaced. 

[ffontana]

On 10/10/2021 at 2:24 PM, NErider said:

Did you verify Sub Voltage on the small pins of the battery packs? I was able to recover my batteries with a 100V adjustabke power supply, but the 12V sub voltage did not recover on some of the packs, so they had to be replaced. 

No, I didn't, just checked the main pins. Then I Itook the wheel to the dealer to Repair it. He said at least 3 of the 4 packs seem to be ok and charged up to 50% until PCB arrives. The 4th pack still in doubt.

 

still waiting for the PCB.

[RagingGrandpa]

On 10/5/2021 at 12:59 PM, NZDoug said:

[S18] ran straight into a pond and was fully submerged for around 30 seconds

You're not the first one

Threads merged now- I recommend reading from the top here.

Edited October 11, 2021 by RagingGrandpa

[peddiparth]

Drain the water in the motor & batteries. Rebuild the battery packs.