HELP! Dog peed on my unit...

S

Sycamore_Tree

New Member
Have a family member staying with who has a dog, dog came into my music room when the door wasn't all the way shut and peed on my Fractal FM9. It still powers on, but now it smells and you can tell in got into some of the footswitches and output knobs. Best way to clean it up well, including getting inside the unit? Thanks in advance.
 
Is the dog's name Helix by any chance?

Seriously, sorry to hear about this. I would be pissed (pardon the pun)! I am not a dog person. I would contact Fractal Support and ask for some advice on how to clean it.

I have family coming to visit in the next couple of weeks and bringing their dog. I'll be sure to store my FC-6 up off the floor somewhere. I never would have thought of it if you didn't post this so...thanks!

Good luck!
 
I hope you waited until it was completely dry before you powered it on. If you didn’t, you’re lucky nothing got fried.

Was it a female dog? The reason I ask, is that a female dogs urine is very acidic compared to a male dog. We have two female dogs and everywhere they pee, the grass turns brown.

I wouldn’t power it on anymore. If you’re not comfortable opening up the unit, take it to a reputable electronic repair shop and they can probably clean the boards, switches and case with rubbing alcohol. Don’t wait too long, especially if it was a female dog.
 
Toopy14 said:
I hope you waited until it was completely dry before you powered it on. If you didn’t, you’re lucky nothing got fried.

Was it a female dog? The reason I ask, is that a female dogs urine is very acidic compared to a male dog. We have two female dogs and everywhere they pee, the grass turns brown.

I wouldn’t power it on anymore. If you’re not comfortable opening up the unit, take it to a reputable electronic repair shop and they can probably clean the boards, switches and case with rubbing alcohol. Don’t wait too long, especially if it was a female dog.
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Male dog, opened a ticket with Fractal to see what their thoughts are. Mostly just a spray across the board, nothing dripping, hoping an easy fix by a local professional or sending off to Fractal.
 
As mentioned Isopropyl alcohol is a good cleaner. WD-40 now makes a contact cleaner as part of their specialties line. This would be good as well. I use it for cleaning PCBs after soldering to take the flux off. You will want to get that down into the switches and work them a bit. If it were me, I would open it up to see if you see any signs of it getting to the PCB. If it did, clean that as well. Leave it unplugged from power until you have cleaned everything and give it time to dry out before applying power to it. You can use the alcohol or this cleaner on the outside as well.
 
JasonE said:
As mentioned Isopropyl alcohol is a good cleaner. WD-40 now makes a contact cleaner as part of their specialties line. This would be good as well. I use it for cleaning PCBs after soldering to take the flux off. You will want to get that down into the switches and work them a bit. If it were me, I would open it up to see if you see any signs of it getting to the PCB. If it did, clean that as well. Leave it unplugged from power until you have cleaned everything and give it time to dry out before applying power to it. You can use the alcohol or this cleaner on the outside as well.
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Fractal support said the same so going to open everything up tonight and get it nice and clean. Thanks for the intel!
 
Honestly, the best way to handle this is a little on the scary side:

1. Unplug everything.
2. Open up the unit and rinse it with distilled water - electronics and all. Rinse thoroughly.
3. Air dry completely. Use a hair dryer if you want but dry it until it is totally bone dry.
4. Reassemble
5. Play on.

A good mate of mine used to take care of equipment at Air Studio in Monserrat. The amount of dust and crud that got into keyboards and other electronics was appalling. He'd apply the above technique and let the gear dry for at least 24 hours in the Caribbean sun before firing it up.
 
Patzag said:
Honestly, the best way to handle this is a little on the scary side:

1. Unplug everything.
2. Open up the unit and rinse it with distilled water - electronics and all. Rinse thoroughly.
3. Air dry completely. Use a hair dryer if you want but dry it until it is totally bone dry.
4. Reassemble
5. Play on.

A good mate of mine used to take care of equipment at Air Studio in Monserrat. The amount of dust and crud that got into keyboards and other electronics was appalling. He'd apply the above technique and let the gear dry for at least 24 hours in the Caribbean sun before firing it up.
Click to expand...
I'd 100% agree with this, but for a couple of things.

1) "Bone dry" isn't the same as "I don't see any water." Without Caribbean sun, it could take two or three days to really dry out. Put a fan on it if you go this route. You want the water to evaporate completely from the very tight spaces that you can't see.

2) The more "aromatic" components of animal urine might not be completely washed away by water. You could be greeted by a smelly surprise months down the road when you actually do take your FM9 out into the sun. :eek:
 
One more thought while reading the title of this thread: if you have problems with a dog peeing on your unit, you might want to keep your pants zipped up. 🤣
 
Wait, this isn't already part of the QC process? I thought I read about the "dip in urine" toughness test. It's very Underwriters Laboratories.
 
A big 50 lb. COSTCO-sized sack of rice is helpful, as dry rice is a decent desiccant. Put the unit in a cotton bag and put that in a trash bag with the rice.

If you live in AZ, you can just leave it on the floor of the car and park it in the sun. A friend and former coworker baked cookies on a pan on her dash a few months ago....
 
Use high percentage isopropyl alcohol instead of water to clean it out. It will evaporate much faster than water and is better at removing sticky residues. It can also strip out oil and grease, so you might need to relubricate the footswitches after flushing them out. A little dab of white lithium grease on the switch shafts works well for that. Unless the dog really fire hosed the thing and it was soaking in a pool of pee, there's likely less inside than you might expect.
 
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