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My two-year-old son dropped a socket cube (similar to picture) into a bucket of water. I tried to dry it as much as I could, and placed it on a heater. But I'm very hesitant to plug it back into a socket.

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Is there a way for me to find out whether it's safe to use the cube (because it has completely dried), or is just not worth the risk, and safer, overall, to throw it away and get a new one?

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Almost impossible to answer. Leave it in the airing cupboard for a day, a week, a month, or a year, then plug it into a long extension lead in the garden. Retreat and turn on the power. Leave for an hour. If nothing happens, switch off, check the warmth of the cube.

Plug in a low power mains device, and repeat, etc.

Plug in a high power mains device, and repeat, etc.

Plug in a USB device, and repeat, etc.

Did the devices all work? Did the cube overheat? Nobody can guarantee any safety for you. Make your own risk assessment.

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    I figured as much, but thanks for confirming my suspicion. The cube will be replaced.
    – Christoph
    Commented Dec 11, 2023 at 8:44
  • The one in your original link cost only €9.
    – Weather Vane
    Commented Dec 11, 2023 at 23:28
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Electronics such as a cell phone can be dried out putting either rice or little silicone packets in a ziplock bag and keeping it in there for a good while. I did this with a cell phone and it was good the next day but if the item you are using had been soaking for a very long time you may want to leave it much longer. The rice or silicone beads will absorb the humidity out of the device. It's Hit or Miss but for the most part this is my go-to and it's why I collect all the little silicone bags out of my purchases such as shoes or purses Etc.

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    This is such bad advice, yet gets repeated across the interwebz as though it was the correct way to deal with water spills. It isn't. You might get lucky, and on a low-voltage device so long as the battery doesn't catch fire, there's not a great deal of additional danger inherent. What everyone fails to recognise is that it's not so much the short-circuiting now, it's the corrosion later that will kill the device, or you. [btw, it's silica gel, not silicone]
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Dec 12, 2023 at 18:04
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    A socket cube isn't electronics. Even if rice were a good idea for electronics it wouldn't work on electricals. Silicone will not absorb water at all. This is not a valid solution.
    – Chenmunka ♦
    Commented Dec 12, 2023 at 18:49

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