Why dont they seal LCD devices?

I've learned over the years that water destroys all LCD screens. Several years ago, I had a pipe break in my house. Did considerable damage to the house and other stuff, but it soaked a police scanner and a AM FM radio nearby. The radio had an analog dial. I dried it well, and it worked fine. I dried the scanner too. The scanner turned on, but the LCD screen was dead. That rendered the scanner useless. Aside from that, the speaker was shot. Replacing the speaker was minor, but even if I could find a replacement LCD, I am sure it would have been costly and difficult to replace.

Eventually I found an identical scanner on ebay for probably less than what a replacement LCD would have cost me.

I lost a cellphone outdoors. Weeks later I found it, after several rain storms. The same with that. The LCD screen was dead. The phone appeared to work, (made sounds), but without the screen it was useless.

I had a similar experience with a GPS, which got soaked.

Why dont they put some silicone sealer on the edges of those LCD screens? Or something that will prevent water from getting into them?

Reply to
tubeguy
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Cost efficiency, cost efficiency and cost efficiency.

Reply to
Look165

Most smaller LCDs are hermetically sealed. Pinched glass seals with IC style legs exiting the edges.

You seem to have a lot of bad luck with electronics.

Reply to
Terry Schwartz

You didn't like the answers you got for this same question last June? You posted the same question under your "oldstuff" acronym.

Reply to
Terry Schwartz

"Oldschool"

You need to repost the shoelace thing.

--
"I am a river to my people." 
Jeff-1.0 
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Reply to
Fox's Mercantile

Wrong. I have devices with LCD screens that are at least 20 years old that work just fine. Where did you get this "information"?

I had to do that for a friend who had a similar flood. I used an air compressor to blow away most of the water, and plenty of hot air from a carpet dryer to evaporate the rest.

All black, all clear, segments missing, etc? Dead is not a technical term.

Yep, that's usually the problem with custom LCD displays.

Nicely done.

You keep saying "dead". I can usually tell what killed the display if you would kindly provide a better description.

That could have been saved. The problem is that standing water is sucked into the display through the pressure relief hole when the temperature of the panel drops. For example, if you warm up a display to something above ambient, such as 30C, and then dump it into 12C water, the liquid and air inside the panel will contract, creating a partial vacuum, and sucking in the standing water. You can heat up the panel in the hope that the water remains near the point of entry, but I haven't had much luck doing that.

What does work is turning the LCD panel upside down. For some dumb reason, the designers of most (not all) LCD panels put the pressure relief hole at the bottom of the display. When even splashed with water, the water will puddle near the bottom of the panel, and eventually be sucked in by the partial vacuum. Turning the display upside-down moves the puddle to where it can do less damage. However, there's a problem. If the panel has a metal frame, as in most laptops and LCD monitors, the water puddle will be trapped between the glass panel and the metal frame. I don't have a solution for this situation, except to turn the panel upside down while drying and hope for the best. Whatever you do, don't let the panel cool down until you're sure all the water has been cleared from the pressure relief hole (with an air compressor).

Because changes in altitude, air pressure, and temperature will cause the glass panel to either expand or cave in. If thin enough, it will probably crack. Small changes in air pressure over large panels such as big LCD monitors will result in quite a few pounds of pressure on the display. A 0.1 psi change in air pressure, across my 270 sq-in LCD display, will exert 27 lbs of force over the entire glass area. Putting that much weight on thin glass will bend and possibly break it. So, there has to be a method of equalizing the internal pressure with the external air pressure, which is the pressure relief hole. The problem is less with small displays, but pressure relief holes are still used quite often.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Same place he gets all of his information. He pulls it out of a Unicorn's ass. Kind of like Fox News.

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"I am a river to my people." 
Jeff-1.0 
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Reply to
Fox's Mercantile

Having never seen a unicorn on Fox news I always figured they pulled their info from their own asses. Maybe that explains the shit eating grin they seem to wear so often. And whenever I see a picture of Tucker Carlson he always looks like he's straining. Eric

Reply to
etpm

Bwahahahaha

--
"I am a river to my people." 
Jeff-1.0 
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Reply to
Fox's Mercantile

You are mixing your metaphors badly. Unicorns will go only to virgins - qui te unlikely either with Olds... or with Faux Spews.

And, with that in mind, consider that Faux Spews is not an actual news orga nization, but an entertainment organization. They are unencumbered by any n ecessity as truth-bearers or tellers, as long as they continue to sell Viag ra, Depends, 23 & Me, Ace Hardware and so forth. Deplorables make a safe an d reliable audience, don't need any subtlety, nor any facts.

And, consider the side benefit is that they get to make US Foreign Policy a s a side job!

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Reply to
peterwieck33

Oldstuff.... Oldschool.... Oldshit.... I have a memory block when it comes to this dolt.

Reply to
Terry Schwartz

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