Yesterday morning my P3S went into our pond for about 3 minutes.  I dried it for 28 hours and with a different batter than the one that was in use when it went under, I'm flying the P3S perfectly now.  OK I got lucky but congrats to DJI for making such a resistant drone.

Now the battery that got wet was at 3 LED's when it went under.  28 hours later it is also at 3 LED's lit - but when I try to charge it, I get a couple cyles of 1-2-3-4 LED's then the orange lite on the start-stop button comes on, then everything goes off.  After a few seconds I've just unplugged it.

It does not look like it is going to charge.  Can anyone from DJI let me know what they think?  Have you tested batteries by submerging in water for 1, 3, 5, 10, 30 or more minutes?  Again, this battery was underwater about 3 minutes.  I dried it best I could - put it in an oven at about 170°F for 10 minutes, then fan-dried it for a day.  The battery never got very warm in the oven-- certainly a lot cooler than after a 25 minute normal flight!

I hesitate to put this into my now working P3S -- but if that's what it needs to re-condition it and you can guarantee that I won't screw-up my nice P3S (which is not getting even near water any longer!!) - I will do that.

Thanks for any comments from DJI or any others that have had experience with a submerged Phantom 3 battery - whether in a P3S, P3A or P3P - or even if you left a battery out in the rain or dropped one in a pond or something.

Thanks so much!

Best regards,

Steve Schulte
Monday 15 August 2016

From any threads I've read on this and other forums, a wet battery is a dead battery. Have no personal knowledge, just what I've read many times. Anyway, why risk having a battery failure at 400'.

Besides submerged; in oven at 170???  The battery is toast and dangerous. Your lucky the drone  still works.

stuka Posted at 2016-8-16 10:36
Besides submerged; in oven at 170???  The battery is toast and dangerous. Your lucky the drone  stil ...

Do you realize what temperature a battery reaches after a 20-25 minute flight?  My battery was exposed to an oven at max 170°F (42F° colder than boiling water) for less than 10 minutes - the inside of the battery was lucky to reach 100°F - batteries often are warmer than that while you are flying.

I can easily toss the battery in the battery disposal trash-- but why not learn something here?!  I'll be looking at some ground tests but also hoping to hear more directly from the DJI experts.

SCS
Tuesday 16 August 2016

Probably better to err on the side of safety.  I'm quite certain the DJI experts will agree.
If the battery should decide to have an internal short while you're away from home and a fire starts, the loss would probably not have been worth the education.

LiPo batteries can be thought of as fire hazards, held back by a very thin margin of safety.

And why put your Phantom at risk in case the electronics are damaged?

Cessna172 Posted at 2016-8-16 07:48
Probably better to err on the side of safety.  I'm quite certain the DJI experts will agree.
If the  ...

Great comments!  Thanks so much and I agree!  Plus DJI has said the Printed Circuit Board corrodes with water contact.

LiPo batteries are probably enough of a risk even when in perfect condition and new!  From now on I am only recharging in my garage on a concrete surface and when I am present.  No walking-away or leaving unattended or plugged-in over night.  So if this 'water-landing' experience has had an upside -- that's it!

Thanks again for your fine comments (and other people's comments, too).

I'm just so pleased that my P3S is AOK!  And my new battery arrives this week so I'll be back to 2 - which is almost an hour of flying time and a lot of fun!

Best regards,

Steve Schulte
Tuesday 16 August 2016