living here in florida the high humidity is everywhere, and i cant seem to find the ingredients to my damp rid, so i wont do that, and i just have them laying out --drying out
how long should i wait until i try them?
3-4 days? longer?
they probably got rained on for about 20 minutes with only one of them showind lower db when i finally started recording
thanks so much for all the help
advise?
Rain water starts out as pure (naturally distilled) water that in itself is harmless to electrical gear, and is an excellent insulator (if truly pure).
However, rain is known to gather pollution on the way down.
Not so much a problem unless in an industrial area with power plants and/or chemical process stacks where pollution in the rain water can be significant causing contamination accumulation inside exposed to rain gear.
While completely air-drying out the recording gear usually restores full as-before performance, the contamination residue inside makes decks/connectors/mics far more sensitive to humidity moisture effects, where before contaminated, would perform fine in 90+% high humidity (non-condensing) moisture conditions, with inside contamination this may no longer apply.
In cases like this knowledgeable professional service may be best advice, but usually NO damage to gear before or after only if residue is non-corrosive (not containing salts) type that activate to eat up (oxidize) metals when exposed to moisture.
If you know your equipment has been exposed to air containing corrosive salts of any kind (especially common if at or within a few miles of ocean coastlines) then any moisture getting inside will activate the salt deposits to start eating away at all (unprotected or susceptible) metal components.
Also, you might consider that even new gear
might not be so clean with fingerprints/other salt type residues (from handling/manufacturing processes) waiting for moisture to become active. Also, pure water running inside gear can dissolve salt (film deposits) from one not-originally-at-risk section to a component section that is susceptible to moisture activated salt oxidation effects.
Keeping your gear absolutely dry during and especially after use (best tact is using recording gear inside equipment case where practical/possible, and storing sealed with non-corrosive, humidity grabbing desiccants) avoids any real damage from occurring even if salt contamination is inside.
In constant high humidity regions, many professionals with sensitive recording/camera equipment at risk use 'hot boxes' containing 1 or 2 incandescent 15-to-60 watt light bulbs that keep relative humidity very low so stored gear is kept relatively moisture free at all times when not in use.
For that unexpected rain or water exposure occasion, desk type task lamp(s) using 60-100 watt bulbs may be placed within a foot or two to gently heat and more quickly/thoroughly dry out water-exposed gear. Less time the moisture is inside, the less potential damage from salt corrosion.
Some preventive measures for at least the exposed metal surfaces of audio/video connectors is available, and can be (almost) permanently protected from salt/chemically induced corrosion (also caused by fingerprints) with CAIG labs DeoxIT 'ProGOLD' product.
I
used to be a stocking distributor for this, but NO LONGER as is costly to buy stock, and really couldn't get the message across on the value of using ProGOLD enhancement/protection treatment. However, I still use this on my recording gear products produced here that are cleaned and ProGOLD treated allowing metal surfaces to remain pristine for many years even if exposed to highly corrosive fluids.
Read about this at:
www.sonicstudios.com/access.htm#caig and
http://www.sonicstudios.com/progold.htm