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I just came across this video and have many questions. Has anyone here done this?

How can it seal things like battery contacts and still allow them to work, yet not short out? It's something that I would consider doing as long as I have some feedback from someone who has tried it and has experience. Someone other than the company selling it, of course.

It's a compound called Liquipel. I don't understand how it can work on moving parts like gimbals and motors without breaking the seal that it provides. Then again, it appears it is being done successfully. Again, I would love to hear from someone who has done this.


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Yeah, just like Bloody Mary, this seems to be an urban myth that keeps popping up from time to time.  Those videos are from 2013 and all use the Phantom 1, which somehow was built differently and some people were able to waterproof it.  But that dealer (DSLR Pros) has since tried to pull the video from their site, and won't return any emails about the subject - I've tried reaching out to them with no luck.  But like everything on the Internet, it never seems to go away.  

There is a competitive UAV coming out shortly that is waterproof, with even a waterproof gimbal - you would use a GoPro with it.  I won't mention the name here, but you can google it.  I live near the ocean, and won't fly my P3P over the water, so I will most likely get it and have one for land and one for sea.

My waterproofing method has worked out for ages with all of my electronic devices: Phantom, phone, tablet, laptop, etc.

I keep them away from water.

Jkeller84 Posted at 2015-7-23 23:20
My waterproofing method has worked out for ages with all of my electronic devices: Phantom, phone, t ...

A good policy, however, many great shots are near or over water. If I don't want to limit myself to only places with no water, it would be great to have the peace of mind that if it does accidentally get wet in some way, that there might be a way to protect it. It is looking like there is currently no one doing drones with this process, since everywhere I see the video or others like it seem to be dead ends, but apparently it was done at one time. It would be good to know if there is something out there that works.

As an update, I just managed to contact Liquipel and spoke to a customer service rep. He told me that they did indeed waterproof drones and the model doesn't matter. He also told me that they had an exclusive contract with DJI to do the process. This contract is no longer in place, however, since DJI decided to cancel that contract. He says they canceled it because of the extra work and high cost of the process.

Here's a breakdown.

Under the contract, you would send back your drone to DJI. They would completely disassemble it and send all the individual parts to Liquipel for treatment. Liquipel would coat each individual piece with their waterproof coating and send it back to DJI who would then re-assemble it and send it back to you. The whole process would take about a month. With the current backlog at DJI for turn-around time, that would probably be longer today. The customer service rep told me that as he recalled, the customer would be charged about $500.00 for the whole process. When DJI discontinued the process, it left Liquipel with a non-compete clause that has to time out before they can start doing this work on drones again, which should happen in another year to 18 months or so. That is why no one can find anyone who is actually doing this sort of work at the moment. It is due to clauses in the contract with DJI.

He did say that he encourages everyone who is interested to keep hitting up DJI asking them to resume the service so that they will re-open their contract with Liquipel. Then the wait would be unnecessary.

He also told me that contrary to what may be portrayed in the video, the drone is not 100% impervious to damage by water under any conditions. It is designed as a level of protection for short incidental contact with or submersion in water. Unlike the video, where they just dive into the pool and pull it out and continue to fly the drone, the recommendation is to go into the pool pull it out, power it down immediately, pull out the battery, and make sure everything is dry and clean before flying again. You are not going to be able to go back to where it went down a week later, pull it out and expect no problems, and you should shut it down and stop using it as soon as you get it out of the wet environment, but it does give you time to do that without suffering any damage from contact with water for short periods.

So, at least according to the people at Liquipel, it is real, it does work, it can be used on drones, and it will be again, as soon as the clause in their contract with DJI runs out, or DJI receives enough pressure from customers to start up the contract with Liquipel again.

So if you are interested in this added layer of protection, please contact DJI by whatever means possible and let that be known. If enough people are interested, they might start it up again.

Well, it can't hurt to ask, anyway.

I suspect that Liquipel might work on a circuit board OK.  Although I know many news media reporters who had their phones treated with Liquipel and dropped the phone into water and the phone stopped working after a day or two.  

I think Liquipel might cause some issues on a device with mechanical moving parts.  For example the tiny ball bearings in the gimbal mount may cease up if Liquipel gets into the bearings.

The Phantom is NOT designed for underwater use.  If you want to shoot video underwater I would suggest using an OpenROV.  http://www.openrov.com

It's also important to understand that fresh water is far less damaging than salt water.  If your drone gets immersed in salt water with the battery turned on it will begin short circuiting the electronics and BURN OUT components very quickly.  It's important to remove the battery as quickly as possible.  Fresh water is far more forgiving to electronics.  Your drone might survive a brief fall int clean fresh water if you remove the battery right away.  (Just let it dry out.)   

If your drone falls into salt water it probably will not survive.  The circuitry will get fried very quickly.  But even if the chips are not fried... You will need to wash the entire thing in clean water to prevent the salt corrosion form destroying the drone.

Some people claim that burrying your device in rice will dry it out more quickly.  Silica Gel is a commercial desicant that works best.  Silica Gel - You can get this from your local hobby store. It is used for drying flowers. Make sure to get "indicator crystals" in with the silica. They will turn from blue to pick, telling you when you need to recharge your desiccant bag. Also, silica gel comes as particles, not as an actual gel.

The best option might be to add floats to the landing gear so it can't sink.  Foam noodles attached to the landing gear might work?

I love low-tech solutions! I completely agree about the salt water being corrosive, which would mean disassembling the drone after rescue and cleaning everything carefully after completely drying out before trying it again. Of course, the idea is to get to it as soon as possible and power it down and remove the battery after any contact with water. What this process does is give you more time to do just that. The video does clearly show the drone submerged in salt water with no ill effects, but as said above, the recommendation from Liquipel is to shut it down and dry it out before trying again, not to just continue to fly like nothing happened as shown in the video.

If it were stable enough to no tip over with the noodles, I would love to give that a try. My guess is that it would flip over and the noodles would be floating on top of the water with the drone submerged under, which at least makes finding it and reaching it a lot easier. If I can get it waterproofed AND add noodles so that it doesn't sink to the bottom where I can't see it or reach it, that would be a big bonus.