USB drive and moisture?

[-TesseracT-]

I recently bought a new USB drive, which I have on my keychain. I carry it with me everywhere I go. When I'm taking a shower, I'll leave it on the basin. Ive noticed the drive getting a little moist afterwards. Will this damage the drive in the long term, or shorten its life span? The connector is exposed like this:

[A Silver]

As long as it isn't coated in condensation it should be fine. A little moisture is fine

[Julian5]

2 minutes ago, -TesseracT- said:

I recently bought a new USB drive, which I have on my keychain. I carry it with me everywhere I go. When I'm taking a shower, I'll leave it on the basin. Ive noticed the drive getting a little moist afterwards. Will this damage the drive in the long term, or shorten its life span? The connector is exposed like this:

I doubt some moisture will affect its performance but I would be more comfortable leaving it outside, I personally have had components ruined to to having them near moisture like a fishtank.

[tlink]

its not really good for it but it won't drop dead at the spot because of it. you will probably lose your warranty over it because the pcb will show moisture damage.

[-TesseracT-]

Ok thanks for replies guys, I will leave it outside from now on.

[Mooshi]

Considering moisture from a shower can damage the charging port of a phone via corrosion, I wouldn't leave any tech you actually care about exposed to moisture when avoidable.

[manikyath]

as long as it's completely dry (inside as well, that's the difficult bit) when you plug it into something, you can take it in the shower with you, not that i'd recommend doing that.

 

i'd actually be more worried about the moisture eventually starting to eat into the metal casing and diminishing the "looks" side of things.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Mooshi said:

Considering moisture from a shower can damage the charging port of a phone via corrosion, I wouldn't leave any tech you actually care about exposed to moisture when avoidable.

but a phone has a battery, a usb stick doesnt, that's the difference.

[Mooshi]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

but a phone has a battery, a usb stick doesnt, that's the difference.

Corrosion isn't good either way, though.

[manikyath]

Just now, Mooshi said:

Corrosion isn't good either way, though.

on a usb stick it's pretty minimal. it shouldnt be a problem functionally, but that doesnt mean it's a good idea

[Zodiark1593]

A monolithic type drive (everything on a single chip) is unlikely to be bothered by water so long as it's dried before use. The components of the drive (it really acts as an SoC, btw) are on a single chip that is encased in epoxy, with the only exposed contacts being the USB connection, which itself is gold plated to reduce corrosion. However, if your drive ever fails, data recovery will be extraordinarily difficult for this type of drive. 

 

A traditional flash drive, with board and discrete components will tend to be more vulnerable to water and corrosion, as well as physical damage. In practice, I've had such drives go through the washer and still function flawlessly years later. Of course, faster drives tend to be the traditional style as additional flash chips can easily be added for parallel operation. Cheap drives will also be this style.