Cleaning Electronics After a Fire

6/25/2021 (Permalink)

Did you know that smoke, soot and fire can cause invisible damage to your high-end electronics?

If you’ve suffered a fire in your home, you’re likely preoccupied with the most obvious, visible damage to your structure and your possessions. Often, unless they’ve been seriously charred or melted, electronics can look like they made it through the fire unscathed.

Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Here’s how electronics get damaged in a fire, and here’s how to clean them.

How are electronics damaged in a fire?

Obviously, if your television set melted, it’s been damaged by the fire. We won’t bother going into that.

Sometimes, though, the damage is not so obvious. Heat, smoke and soot can lead to a variety of issues, including:

• Corrosion: soot can be acidic, and if it finds its way inside your electronic devices, it can corrode key components without you realizing.
• Insulation: a coating of soot is actually a very effective insulator for heat. This is bad news for electronic devices, which can very easily overheat if they’re not able to cool themselves properly.
• Magnetization: smoke can sometimes carry a magnetic charge, which can short-circuit certain types of electronics. While many devices have protections against magnetization these days, it can still happen (remember when you could wipe out a hard drive or a credit card with a magnet?). 

How do you clean and restore fire-damaged electronics?

First, you try to determine if it’s even worth trying. If your electronics were exposed to extreme heat and damaged, then it’s probably wise to just call them a loss and see if your insurance carrier will replace them.

If they haven’t been damaged in this way, though, you stand a chance of restoring them.

First things first - disconnect the device from the power source if you think it has sustained smoke damage. That will prevent it from short-circuiting or causing further damage.

Wipe down the exterior with a soft rag and see if that deals with the soot damage. If you have compressed air, use that to clean out the openings, ports and crevices.

Past that, you’ll need to involve an expert. If there was serious smoke damage, there may be significant levels of soot inside the device itself. Unless you’re a professional electronics restorer, you probably lack the skills to dissemble, clean and reassemble your device effectively.

If that’s the case, give us a ring. We’re here to help.