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Recently I was using a Ryobi cordless drill to work on some drainage equipment. Unfortunately it caused a spill and a little water got on me and the drill. I did not think it was a lot of water (and I thought the battery had stayed dry), but after that the drill's battery stopped working. When I place it on the charger, the charger says that the battery is fully charged, but the battery's power indicator button doesn't cause it to light up and I can't get it to run a flashlight.

Is the battery kaput? Or is there something I can do to salvage it?

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The classic fix for electronics that have been dunked in water is to put the item in a sealed plastic bag with a bunch of uncooked rice for at least a few days. The rice will draw the moisture out of the electronics, and you might get lucky.

Alternately (and I have no personal experience with this), it seems like Ryobi has a good warranty policy. If the rice doesn't work, you might try that route.

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    m.xkcd.com/1598
    – isherwood
    Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 20:17
  • Good idea. But if the first step doesn't work, be sure to clean all the rice out of the drill before sending it in under warranty. Ryobi is a Hong Kong company and you don't want to risk appearing insensitive.
    – A. I. Breveleri
    Commented Jan 2, 2016 at 22:48
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    The problem with putting electronics into rice right after liquid damage is that the contaminants dry out and may still cause problems and/or make it harder to remove them in a proper repair step. You want to displace the contaminants, so the best thing to do is (besides removing any power sources which is admittedly a bit hard in the case of a battery pack) rinse things in IPA (or if you have to lots of distilled water) and then dry it.
    – PlasmaHH
    Commented Apr 14, 2016 at 11:08
  • @PlasmaHH - that's an awful waste of beer. I'd stick with distilled water. :-)
    – RoboKaren
    Commented Jul 2, 2016 at 15:26

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