[citation][nom]rhelme[/nom]The reason MOST items work when dropped in tap water that comes from a city source is the lack of minerals and conductive ions in the water. If you get water from a well, and you drop your card or phone in the pooper, you are probably SOL (pun intended). The reason is the minerals will have dried and deposited on the card and may have formed their own electrical path's, or caused a once open circuit to become capacitive...If it is distilled water or water from the city you are in better shape, but distilled water is actually the water that most devices can survive because water by itself is NOT CONDUCTIVE. If you take an Ohm meter and test the resistance of distilled water it should be infinite. City water is touch a go, but better than well water which I find is often very conductive.... ergo yellow sidewalks... worst is salt water.... take that distilled water with infinite resistence and add a touch of salt and.... SOL.Thats why if you READ the correct procedures usually have you taking the item that was dropped and putting it in distilled water, shaking it out, refilling a new cup with distilled water and trying to dilute the deposits that maybe left.Many items can come back 100% if acted upon quickly and you have true distilled water available. If you have old phones, that really are not worth selling, mess around with it... but there are some good guides out there, but the advice I gave here is pretty good....Sometimes its luck, but if you drop it in the ocean, you will want to keep that puppy powered off (if it was like a camera you have much better chance) and in a container of salt water until you can "rinse" it out with distilled water and hopefully leave no salt behind... sometimes its luck, most of the time, quick thinking can save the day....[/citation]
slightly wrong an ohm meter should so NO resistance pure water is not conductive because there are no minerals to carry an electrical current, there should however be NO resistance this is what most people don't understand, pure water has NO resistance but also NO minerals to conduct electricity