Hello,
Recently I was going to fly, but it stared drizzling. Just to be safe, I canceled my flight. Just for future reference, I have a couple questions.


1) WIll a light drizzle change the color of the water sensing paper (Therefore voiding the warranty)?
2) Will the aircraft get damaged/water get in moters or other openings?
3) Wil the battery get damaged/water get in where the button is on the top of the battery?

Electronics and water don't mix, however I have seen some videos of Mavic flying in the rain..

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-1-26 13:24
Electronics and water don't mix, however I have seen some videos of Mavic flying in the rain..

I understand but I doubt any water would have gotten in if I had flown. My main concern is the battery. Do you believe water could have gotten in through the button because this weather will most likely not stop me from flying in the future.

UtopianCrew Posted at 2017-1-26 13:30
I understand but I doubt any water would have gotten in if I had flown. My main concern is the battery. Do you believe water could have gotten in through the button because this weather will most likely not stop me from flying in the future.

lets face it regardless of what anyone says you're looking for that one random person to say yes its okay so you can go and fly. just do it, it's your drone... go deep sea diving with it if you want.

devGOD Posted at 2017-1-26 13:41
lets face it regardless of what anyone says you're looking for that one random person to say yes its okay so you can go and fly. just do it, it's your drone... go deep sea diving with it if you want.

LOL I'll limit flight in rain, just wondering if the battery will immediately fail if water get in through the button. And I'll get deep sea diving with it too.

UtopianCrew Posted at 2017-1-26 13:30
I understand but I doubt any water would have gotten in if I had flown. My main concern is the battery. Do you believe water could have gotten in through the button because this weather will most likely not stop me from flying in the future.

Water always finds its own level, so if anything is not completely sealed , it will get in the cracks, I know this from owning a boat.
You might just get away with light drizzle, buy hey it's your Mavic.

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-1-26 13:44
Water always finds its own level, so if anything is not completely sealed , it will get in the cracks, I know this from owning a boat.
You might just get away with light drizzle, buy hey it's your Mavic.

Thanks! Ummmmmm... I'm not going to fly in the rain... seems like everyone is telling me that. But just wondering will the battery immediately fail if water gets in?

UtopianCrew Posted at 2017-1-26 13:46
Thanks! Ummmmmm... I'm not going to fly in the rain... seems like everyone is telling me that. But just wondering will the battery immediately fail if water gets in?

If water gets in it will ruin your battery, I'm not to sure how quickly.

If you are that worried, just don't fly it when it's raining, drizzling, foggy, high humidity, etc, etc stuff that has water.
- Also don't fly over water when its warm/hot day, because water will evaporate and go up and into your Mavic.

Like others say before... if u want it, do it.



Heavy Rain test at 8:00 minutes
The mavic will do it, the question is how long.
but for sure: If u love ur mavic and keep it for a longer time...Dont do it.

What a coincidence, just today a light shower took place while my Mavic was in the air. It wasn't too far, but rain got me by surprise as it took a few secs to realize it had started. I managed to land in about 1-2 minutes but still both the AC, the RC and my 6S took some water on the top. Not soaked, fortunately, dried everything out right away to be sure. Let's see what happens.

I have a feeling that perhaps you flew your Mavic in a "slight drizzle" and now want to determine if you may have caused some type of water damage and/or if the water sensing indicators may now show positive. With that said, please let us know if you have any problems near term or any future warranty coverage problems.

Please accept my apology if my take on your statement  "Just for future reference"  is off base...

Also have a look at this:

ScreamMaker Posted at 2017-1-26 17:15
I have a feeling that perhaps you flew your Mavic in a "slight drizzle" and now want to determine if you may have caused some type of water damage and/or if the water sensing indicators may now show positive. With that said, please let us know if you have any problems near term or any future warranty coverage problems.

Please accept my apology if my take on your statement  "Just for future reference"  is off base...

No, I really meant it just for future use because I get this weather all the time.

That Extreme Test video never ceases to amaze me.

Somican Posted at 2017-1-26 16:04
Like others say before... if u want it, do it.

HeavyRain Test Video

IF nothing else this shows us what not to do,  but  on the other hand,  you show that the Mavic can withstand  a lot of  abuse,    That being said,  I would not do that to mine,  but  I think I am a little less worried,  if the weather changes,   I think will still have time to  bring it home,  safely,   if I am even in that situation,   

Water is tricky. I have had electronics that dried out after exposure to water (placed them in bag with some descant) and they were fine.  In other cases a bit of water exposure seemed to be fine and then six weeks later I started to have issues leading to ultimate failure.  It would be interesting to hear if anyone has flown in rain or dunked their Mavic and what the long-term consequences were (or will be...).

Thanks for all the help!

UtopianCrew Posted at 2017-1-30 06:17
Thanks for all the help!

If you have the Care Refresh, water damage is now covered, so if you'd like to try it, go for it!
http://www.dji.com/service/djicare-refresh/info#s4

Click on question #10

mejia Posted at 2017-1-30 12:59
If you have the Care Refresh, water damage is now covered, so if you'd like to try it, go for it!
http://www.dji.com/service/djicare-refresh/info#s4

Thanks! But I don't have Dji care refresh. I may purchase it!

UtopianCrew Posted at 2017-1-31 06:18
Thanks! But I don't have Dji care refresh. I may purchase it!

Oh, my bad, regardless, i would look into drone insurance rather than the DJI care Refresh. It seems to be the much better move (just my two cents if you plan on getting the care refresh) anywho, keep us updated if you do fly it in light rain!

I use a electrical spray that gives your electrical parts a protective wax coat that can help for unexpected light rain for a short period of time......

although i do not recommend flying in the rain, i have done so and will report my exeraince ( https://www.skypixel.com/videos/in-da ) rain was not too hard, like a heavy drizzle for a period of a few minutes at the end of my flight, maybe about 5 min total, first soft and for the last few minutes pretty hard - like a light rain. I chose to give it a try to determine if if happens again (that i get caught suddenly with rain) if i must land immediately or have chance to fly home.
My conclusion is that i i get caught in the rain again, i will be confident that i can fly it home (at full speed)
my devise screen was completely wet and i could not see at all the picture in the screen at all (my devise is sony z3 and is splash proof so i did not worry at all for my phone). When the rain started and my testing began i flew big circles around me so i could keep my drone in vlos in case a problem occurred but nothing happened.
I thought the video picture may be useless because of water drops on the front lense but was surprised that not a single drop was seen on my footage.
- my only little concern was the water in the top battery button -i have had maybe 10 charges since then and do not notice any issues.  i did anyway put my battery in rice for the night - just in case
The electric circuit spray is a good idea - i plan to get some for just in case i am flying on a suspicious day then i will spray the top of the drone and feel comfortable that i have reduced my risk.

Important to add is that i am almost always in sport mode and certainly during the rain i kept my drone going fast thinking that the water is less likely to enter the battery power button going fast than if i was going slow or hovering.
Personally i did not notice any color paper leaching marks on my drone.
I believe that if i was asked to use my drone in the rain for an emergancy at short notice that i would do 2 things and then fly confidently;
1. put my lense dome protector on (to give me peace of mind that no excess moisture is getting in through the fan - i believe that enough heat exists there during flight to manage  little bit of moisture.
2. either put some electric spray or masking tape over the top battery button
post flight my first actions will be to wipe off and excess water from the body  and remove the gimbal dome to allow the camera to acclimatise naturally (means without warming it artificially with car heater of hairdryer) to prevent condensation build up inside the assemble.

Many Instances of Mavic being caught in the rain:

UtopianCrew Posted at 2017-1-31 06:18
Thanks! But I don't have Dji care refresh. I may purchase it!

Go with State Farm insurance. 60 dollars a year and covers all. Even if the drone is lost.

QuadKid Posted at 2018-1-27 03:03
Many Instances of Mavic being caught in the rain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li0uJyUNNrU

Wow!

Don't. Got caught in a heavy shower last month. Mavic dropped like a stone. Haven't found it yet. (Prickly bushes!)

I flew in thick fog and all went well.
https://forum.dji.com/thread-118727-1-1.html

Also, I've seen Phantom filming in a drizzle (flown by a professional pilot whom our company hired for an outdoor event)

UtopianCrew Posted at 2017-1-26 13:30
I understand but I doubt any water would have gotten in if I had flown. My main concern is the battery. Do you believe water could have gotten in through the button because this weather will most likely not stop me from flying in the future.

It is not the battery per say. There are other vents inthe casing for airflow over the MCU etc.  Not helped by the forced air from the rotors.

If you get water on to the PCB it will short things out. Depending what it shorts out you may loose some or all control.   Also it could cause damage shorting things out.  How much water under what conditions is a bit of the "roll the dice" and see.
The battery will probalby protect itself from high current discharge but it will untill that point power any shorting onthe main PCB.

The problem is that if your drone crashes on someone/something and it was raining/foggy etc your insurance and DJI will say you are on your own and you should not have been flying.  Which may be all the Police need to prosecute never mind the injured party claiming.

Until DJI make an all weather UAV (at a not insignificant cost)  don't fly in inclement  weather

This is approximately equivalent to asking, is it okay to take my mobile phone for a dip in the lake... Uh, No.

What about a mavic mini, is it ideal to fly in the rain or when it drizzle.

I have experienced rain during return flights on the mavic, a drizzle won't effect the drone, but there is always the risk of failure (so far so good). The battery would be fine. After each 'drizzle" flight i will put the drone in a bag with some silica gel to suck up all the moisture.

I have also crashed the mavic, twice in rivers & once at the beach. Water damaged the battery, drone will be okay if you take it apart & dry the internals. The beach is the worst, sand would get stuck in the gimbal motors, ruin the gimbal & fan untill it is 100% cleaned up, it will not work properly.
But after all that, drone is still flying, but i have lost many batteries though.