Rubbing alcohol and thermometers

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EvilTOJ

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I went to my mom's house with all my AG gear and made a few brews a few weeks ago, and finally got around to putting the rest of the stuff into their proper places. Inside one of my pots I found a small plastic bucket with a tiny bit of water that I'd forgotten about. When I looked inside, my digital meat thermometer was sitting in it! I pulled it out and saw a nice sheen of mold growing on the LCD screen! ew ew ewwww! So I wiped it off and cleaned it as best I could, but the temp decided that it was either a constant -40º or 571º. I changed the battery, no go.

I read somewhere once that if you ever dropped your cell phone in water (like in the toilet) to soak it in denatured rubbing alcohol and it'll displace the water, then evaporate. Figuring it's ruined either way and I have nothing to lose, that's what I did! I poured a small amount of 99% isopropyl rubbing alcohol into a tupperware, just enough to submerge it. I let it soak for about 5 minutes, then removed it and shook out as much of the alcohol as I could. I let it evaporate overnight. It's now good as new!

I only tell this story because I'm sure some of you have had something similar happen and wanted to know if that alcohol thing ever worked.
 
Great tip, Sir! I just toasted a probe on one of my thermometers the other day by trying to *gently* heat it enough to boil all of the water out. I got it a bit too hot apparently because now it only reads "Hi".
 

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