Plasma TV Water Damage
Page content

Horror Stories

The last thing you want to hear is that your plasma TV has gotten water damaged. Horror stories I’ve read on the internet range from something as simple as a water gun being taken to the TV all the way to flooding and extreme water damage. In order to analyze what the next step should be, let’s take a look at a few of the ways your TV can meet its grisly end.

Low Water Damage

Some kinds of plasma screen water damage are definitely fixable. When a small amount of water manages to penetrate the screen and gain access to the “innards” of the plasma TV, you’ll want to follow a series of steps to see what happens next:

1. IMMEDIATELY shut off the television. This will ensure that the water has limited access to the electrical components to create any kind of horrible screen-destroying short circuit.

2. Once the TV is off, leave it off for up to 3 weeks in order to allow drying. Do not attempt to use hair dryers or air blowers of any kind, as that could cause additional problems that you don’t need.

3. After the 3 week period has passed, try to turn the TV back on and see what happens, be on the lookout for any kind of dark circles or dark areas on the TV that will indicate permanent water damage to the TV.

Should the TV work well for a continued amount of use (like say a week or so), there’s a good chance you’re in the clear in terms of water damage. However, if dark circles start to appear, you undoubtedly have water damage in the TV, which can lead to either living with the damage or replacing the TV. So then, what happens if your TV sustains a large amount of water damage?

High Water Damage

flooding 1961 19132456 0 0 7006279 300

This kind of damage might not seem clear, but there are a few categories of damage that qualify under this sort of high water damage:

Flooding

This kind of damage involves the TV being submerged inside a large source of water. In case it isn’t obvious, when a TV undergoes submersion in a body of water of any kind, it is completely un-salvageable. Don’t bother drying or even opening the TV to see if you can fix it. Chances are that if the water made its way into the TV at this level, the residual water damage in the TV will be nigh-impossible to dry.

Rain/Ice

Rain damage isn’t like flooding damage because drying could still be possible depending on the amount of rain that hit the screen in question. Furthermore, if the rain damage doesn’t hit an open part of the screen, far less drying time could be required, though I definitely recommend waiting at least 2 weeks for that to happen. Ice damage on the other hand could cause much more physical damage, in which case, it’d be better to seek professional repair.

Additional Reading

For more about fixing your broken or water-damaged TV, check out these articles:

Fixing a Flat-Screen TV

Fixing LCD’s Broken Backlight