Modem got infested with bugs. Safe to wash it?

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realflow100

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#1
Can I take it all apart and unclip any metal covers inside and wash it with a toothbrush. soap. and water.
then rinse it off completely. shake the excess water out. and let all the components dry for a few days in front of a fan?

I want it to be squeaky clean so it doesnt get infested again.
Already cleaned the entire area underneath it and moved it to a different location inside of a plastic sealed bag so no bugs can get in or out.

I was thinking of putting it inside of a large plastic container sealed but big enough to let the heat pass through the plastic container and not overheat. so bugs can never get into it ever again. drill a hole for the cables and hot glue them inside so nothing can get to it.
It's been cutting on and off because of the bugs infesting it. possibly from them walking on a crystal oscillator while touching another piece of metal or something causing it to temporarily lose signal.
its low voltage run on only 12v.

We've already been bug bombing the house once a month spraying and baiting finally got the bugs under control and just wonder if I can clean the modem instead of throwing it out and buying a new one. we cant afford a new modem right now.
 
#2
A soft brush, hot water and detergent will work well. Try not to wet mechanical parts, switches, relays and any sealed and adjustable coils such as tuned circuits.

Rinse well and use a paper towel to wick up excess water from under and surface mounted chips. Hot sun or a radiator to dry.

Not sure boxing/bagging it up is a great idea tbh. It will need circulating airflow.

Washing an amplifier board
 
#3
I know about the rice trick and I know its fake (does more harm than good) so im not doing that
I can put it over the heat vent on a wire rack to dry faster it only puts out gentle warm air.
not hot air.
and it has no backup battery in it.
Theres also no switches or relays in it. all the coils are open and unsealed from what I can tell. no heatshrink wrap over any components.
 
#4
I've used isopropyl alcohol to clean excess flux off a circuit board before. It worked without damaging anything.

I believe that isopropyl alcohol doesn't conduct electricity, and also evaporates quickly. Those properties may be advantageous here.
 
#6
I have done lots of this, by putting the equipment in the dishwasher and let it run a short cycle. Dishwashers and dishwasher detergent are designed to clean fast, without damaging chemicals, and dry without leaving any residue. Just the ticket for your modem. Or power amp. Or lab power supply.
I kid you not.
Anything manual is less good and will leave residue.

Jan
 
#7
ok I did and it came out so clean it looks fresh off the assembly line!! Not even a single fingerprint or anything anywhere on it!

i put it in the sun in front of a fan and it dried out within an hour or two
I'll leave it in front of the fan for a few more days drying on the wire rack just to be sure its dry.
 
#10
I put it back together into a sealed plastic container about 2x bigger than the modem with a hole for the wires gone through the container and hot glue sealed so no bugs can get to it anymore.
it works!! and no more flaky service!
The bugs have all disappeared too. I havent seen even one since I cleaned the modem
 
#13
I wash computer components on a regular basis at work, with water, mild soap and Isopropyl Alcohol 99% as others have suggested. We have a couple of large fans to help accelerate drying. For more complex and layered items like touchpads, keyboards etc, I put them under a adjustable workbench light with an old fashioned 100W incandescent bulb in it. I space it off the part about 8" or so and move around or rotate the part every half hour or so. The combination works well, and I can't count how many laptops I've rescued from various liquid spills in the last 4 years. Has to be at least 300+ by now though.
 
#15
MAAC0 said:
I wonder who is still using modems in this broadband fibre era
Click to expand...

I am pleased that you have optic fiber.

Until yesterday there was NO hope of seeing a light-pipe near my house. I just found out that the oldest telephone company in the woods, traditional business shrinking, is beginning to run fiber in two areas. My area is on a map. I am pretty sure this is "future plans", that there is no fiber on my street.

"Modem" originally (1958-1962) meant connecting short-range data links to long-range datalinks. Specifically DC signalling to audio tones to pass over a telephone line, and back, for linking air-defense terminals and then business terminals over first leased and later dial-up lines.

The word got re-used for DSL and Cable and Optic data boxes which connect a small private system (home) to a large public system (telephone, cable, fiber), and convert the blips squeegies and flashes to/from different formats. These may also enforce access to the network with password or often by checking the hardware ID against a good-customer database.

Residential "modems" may also have routers, firewall, DCHP, Wi-Fi, and the other cruft needed for good safe network operation.

Your fiber connects through "a box". It may or may not be called a "modem". The optic network nearest to me, Verizon FIOS, often says "router" but also says "modem": Verizon Fios(R) Modems | Fios Internet Equipment --Huh. Apparently FIOS wants you to have *two* boxes, modem and router. IIRC, they also put telephone on fiber. So the modem may go in the basement with the phone junction. My Cable modem/router works fine this way, but in other houses it would make sense to have the router upstairs. I'm stunned that FIOS *forces* a 2-box solution. Spectrum gave me a box worth $20 which does it ALL (when it wants to): modem, gateway, firewall, wifi, ethernet switch, and stuff I dunno what it is.

Any of these boxes can house bugs, just like cassette decks used to be roach motels.
 
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