I am wanting to collect some input from people in the business of amp repair as to how they treat work related to amps damaged from battery acid infiltration.
What are the watch outs for taking on work like this?
What precautions do you take to make sure that the amp doesn’t come back in short order due to some latent damage to components the may not present themselves on the test bench?
Do you test them more rigorously before returning them?
What chemicals, cleaners, process, methods work best to clean up residual acid that infiltrated the circuit?
Are there any givens to repairing the amp or is it a judgement call and a case by case basis?
Have you had much success in this area of repair or is it more a matter that you win some and lose some?
Has taking on any of these types of repairs threatened to hurt your business reputation? ie; negative feedback on social media or otherwise.
Safety precautions or watch outs?
Can trace repair be more in-depth or advanced?
Do you return the repaired amp with any assurances or caution to the customer?
Thanks for you input,
David
What are the watch outs for taking on work like this?
What precautions do you take to make sure that the amp doesn’t come back in short order due to some latent damage to components the may not present themselves on the test bench?
Do you test them more rigorously before returning them?
What chemicals, cleaners, process, methods work best to clean up residual acid that infiltrated the circuit?
Are there any givens to repairing the amp or is it a judgement call and a case by case basis?
Have you had much success in this area of repair or is it more a matter that you win some and lose some?
Has taking on any of these types of repairs threatened to hurt your business reputation? ie; negative feedback on social media or otherwise.
Safety precautions or watch outs?
Can trace repair be more in-depth or advanced?
Do you return the repaired amp with any assurances or caution to the customer?
Thanks for you input,
David
Acid from a lead acid car battery can be neutralized with a solution of baking soda and water, google the proportions for an amount large enough to dunk the entire board in (fair size bucket should work) and use chemical safe gloves. Rinse with a 50/50 solution of water and iso alcohol, then straight distilled water. Dry at 150f for 6 hours, then you can begin repairing it. If the traces haven’t been eaten by the acid, repair as normal. Amp better be worth something when done tho, I’m not messing with battery acid for a worthless amp. Too many hours for too little return.
Components by themselves sort of survive acid, wiring gets corroded and you may find "green copper" way inside the plastic sleeve, which will eventually crack or at least keep corroding.
Acid is *deadly* on PCB tracks.
Only hope is that many times epoxy solder mask covers most of them, but you will always have unprotected areas near soldering pads.
Up to a couple deadtracks reconstructed with fine wire is sort of acceptable, any more means very probably you will not catch some damage and make your efforts useless.
To put things in perpective: sometimes not even undamaged (by acid that is) stuff is eoonomically worth repairing
Acid is *deadly* on PCB tracks.
Only hope is that many times epoxy solder mask covers most of them, but you will always have unprotected areas near soldering pads.
Up to a couple deadtracks reconstructed with fine wire is sort of acceptable, any more means very probably you will not catch some damage and make your efforts useless.
To put things in perpective: sometimes not even undamaged (by acid that is) stuff is eoonomically worth repairing
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