[monel_funkawitz]

I am an electrical engineer and repair technician by trade, so I have some insight on this thread.

99.99% of the time, water itself (Especially on low voltage) does not cause the circuit to blow. This is referring to regular water (With no elevated levels of salts or metals) I had a old cd player that I removed the cover to, and would lay it in a bucket of water for a few minutes while I taught a class. I would then remove it, fling the water off with a snap of my wrist, clean off the lens, and play some CD's.

Usually what happens (Especially in circuits above 95 volts) is the water dissolves some of the salts, metals, or contaminants on the board and creates a highly localized area of high conductivity, and THAT is what blows things. Remember, water is a very effective solvent. It may not attack oil, but it attacks salts and metals with the voracious appetite of a teenager at Taco Shack. Transistors get driven into saturation, gates are driven way over their current rating, MOSFETS receive 50+ volts to their gates, etc. At low voltages, this kind of damage is not as common but it does happen. At 14 volts and water having 15,000 ohm resistance per 0.080 inch (Probably not real common though. It is usually either much higher or lower than this in real life) that would equal 0.0009 amps current draw and 0.013 watts. This is hardly enough to do ANY kind of damage, unless the parts are already running at or above spec.

This, however, does not address water damage that occurs from parts flash cooling, physical damage from water, water physically getting into IC's, or detuning of RF circuits. This is just the conductivity aspect of it.

Pure water + simple salts + copper = Flashy, bangy, smokey, no worky.
Higher voltage = Less likely no worky.
Pure water with no access to salts or metals = Anti-flashy, bangy