Galaxy Watch - Pool Water Damage - Are they Swimming Pool Safe, Can it Be Fixed
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- Опубликовано: 22 фев 2022
- After a few years of use at the local pool my wife's galaxy watch had failed to turn on. This was purchased mainly for its advertised swimming exercise functions along side it's IP68 rating which should be suitable for laps. It wasn't immediately though that it was water damage until it was opened and became evident. The question then became a matter of how bad it looked versus how much functionality could be restored.
Aside from the battery that became suspiciously swollen, all of the original parts were used in the repair.
Samsung Galaxy Watch
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1.5mm Y00 Tri-point Tri wing Screwdriver
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30 AWG Magnet Wire - Enameled Copper Wire - Enameled Magnet Winding Wire - 4 oz
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#samsung #galaxywatch #samsunggalaxy 
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Imagine advertising a watch with swimming tracking, and showing it being used in a pool, and then hiding the fact that it's not recommended to be used in a pool. The rating is also only for 30 minutes immersion in static water at a max of 1.5m depth, no doubt without any button pushes. Great work Samsung, very honest marketing there. The time spent developing the swimming tracking activity could have been used to improve the battery life or fix some other bugs.
Yeah, its all around an unfortunate situation, we wont be buying another samsung watch,
The same thing happened to me. My shock is that a watch that tracks swimming activity is not water-resistant. I have decided to leave Samsung altogether.
I swam for 30 seconds with the watch and it was destroyed. Samsung should face a lawsuit for advertising that, 100% agree.
@@gabrielkaras1858 I believe they are I America. I'm not going back to Samsung either.. I will move to Garmin.
@@gabrielkaras1858؛
My wife's Samsung Active watch locked up after she manually put it in swimming mode and went swimming with it (it wouldn't go into swimming mode automatically). We tried to charge it and reset it and nothing worked. It would still show charging but nothing else. I used your video and disconnected the cables to the motherboard thereby resetting the watch by disconnecting the battery... and it booted right up and worked !!!! Thanks for this awesome video. You saved my wife's watch that was a birthday gift !!!!!
Im thinking the disconnect and reconnect cleaned the contacts, consider deoxit.
@@retrotechandelectronics You were right !!! It stopped working again... bought some deoxit d5 like you suggested and sprayed everything and wiped...it's working again...fingers crossed !!!
Fantastic video. Great to see your watch back to life. I unfortunately don't have the tools, nor the know how to even attempt to open mine, which i went swimming with, and failed after getting stuck on rebooting screen. Left it overnight in a bag of rice. Still nothing. There goes my savings wasted on having to buy a new one...😑😔
Thanks for the detailed video. This was the most descriptive and educating DIY videos I've watched to date.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Had similar water damage but no go after cleaning. Battery spring connector same as yours. I suspect the main ic with its solder balls have degraded too. Or do you think the main ic is epoxied over?
Great video. Just brought 6 faulty ones. All water damage from buttons. Managed to get 2 going but only 2 screens worked. But touch didn’t work on any screens.
This was a great video, thanks for sharing your findings.
You bet
Thank you so much! Lost my watch and it got run through the laundry, not a scratch on it but at least i can attempt to fix it before calling it quits!
wow. well done. fantastic video and instructions!
I hope it helped.
Nice work.. Interesting that the bottom of the board has copper pads for a microSD card, I wonder if that's for R&D/development. No soldermask exposed, but probably a cheap alteration to the PCB mask to make development units.
Actually you will see where I MAY have found the leak in the case is a port with a rubber seal, probably to programme the units during production.
@@retrotechandelectronics Possibly so - but I'm talking about e.g. 5:05 where you can see a number of unexposed copper pads in the shape of a microSD connector (I've used many in my time) which makes me wonder if they use that for R&D. Looks like you'd struggle to pack a card in there for a retail product (with the battery taking up space) and it wouldn't be user accessible, so can only guess it has an engineering purpose.
The exposed pads are probably JTAG or some interface to the internal eMMC - though too few pins to be a true eMMC interface.
@@tomsixsix I did recheck that. Yes I suppose it’s possible, used in dev for storage of apps or logging
Wow i was able to repair my daughter's watch, thank you for sharing this video!
Was it also water damaged? Glad to hear the video helped.
@@retrotechandelectronics Yes and it works after i cleaned the watch! Thanks again
@@junmartin5070 You're welcome.
Very good information..Thank you
awesome fix. Most would throw out or sell as not working
I'm too cheap....
Great Video thank you so very much for the Great Advice
Glad it helped
Love it... good freaking job man. Nice narration as well had me cracking... Pyongyang rofl
Glad you enjoyed it
Can Isopropyl alcohol be a alternative if i dont have any deoxit?
Great video! Thank you, what is the spray called you are using sorry? De-ox?
Deoxit
@@retrotechandelectronics thank you so much!!
Guys, I would like to give some public service announcement:
If you're on budget and want something like a band for swimming, I can say that Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is water "resistant" enough for swimming. I swim about 8 times wearing that band already on a swimming pool with various styles (breaststroke, freestyle). Once I am done with swimming (typically last 30 mins), I take a shower at the locker room. The pressure is a bit high, and I set it to warm water as I also clean my body. It is exposed to soap and warm water with relatively high pressure. So far, it's still functioning well.
At least, if you buy that $40 band, you can be sure you can bring it to swimming reasonably (not babying it and worrying about whether it will break). I am aware that some people may have concern over the security issue and privacy risks going with Chinese device, but water resistant wise, I can attest to their quality. Perhaps, the Samsung Galaxy Fit band may also be as resistant as this (no buttons). But I have no experience with that.
Excellent information and well done you
Thanks
I had the Galaxy 4 Classic until today. Used it swimming at the YMCA for the last week and a half 6 sessions. No problems with water. My pro 5 watch just came today so I've got 15 days to use it and see if it breaks underwater before the return period is up lol
My wife got a year before the insides of the watch rusted
My watch 5 pro didnt survived.
Nice video. It's been quite some years since the release of the Galaxy Watch Active, but the reason it has a waterlock mode even though it's not really water resistant is because they use the same software as the Galaxy Watch (the bigger one with a rotatig bezel), and that is water resistant up to 50m, so it has the swimming modes, and if they port it, the watch active will have the modes too even f it's not resistant.
But advertised as such.
I have the big galaxy watch with rotating bezel and has the same issue now damaged because of pool swimming.
My galaxy watch 4 just malfunctioned. It somehow got wet inside and it's now sleeping in rice. That's as far as I can go with repairs. Your video was fantastic and I may buy a screwdriver kit. What's the spray stuff called again plesse?
The spray is Deoxit. The screwdriver is available on amazon.
updates on your watch?
Nicely done! Deoxit ftw.
You know it!
I just saw your video, did you put sealant or something around the watch? or it is fine to close it normally
This watch continues to be used for testing so it has not been sealed as it is often re-opened
Where can I order a battery from , I'm from south africa and can't seem to find a place.
I'm definitely gonna try this on my gw4 44mm. The power button doesn't work anymore and when I turn it off it just keeps turning back on. This happened after I went to the beach and got it wet 🤦♂️
Forgot to take mine off going in the pool, when I noticed I took it off but it was acting haywire, flashing screen. I put it in a zip lock bag with some rice in a heated clothes press over night, and it came back to life, almost. Showing time, charging, power on and off but no touchscreen. More to do.
Thank you for the video my s3 frontier died 2 months ago after I went to the pool with it... I ended up keeping it inside a bag with rice and and 2 months later I turn on the watch and voila it ended up working... Which is good but I had upgraded to the new s4 classic... 😂 Damn now I have 2 watches...
Glad you enjoyed it.
That's great work. Most other people would have sent it to the landfill
Thanks.
Yeah, had the same thing happen. real scummy from samsung. also, great video, shame that the heartbeat sensor didn't work.
I may get around to opening it back up and seeing if I can repair that too.
Well, never trust the manufacturers about waterproof
I have the same watch as the one he fixed in the video. The manufacturers said that it has no problem when swimming with the watch. So I tried, and it dies after 5 mins under the water.
I hope not salt water.
Same here
Same....luckily I've had it a while, but still that sucks. Why have swimming mode and not hold up....went to the pool a few times. Welp... back to the drawing board...
Well I am grateful that I saw this before going to the beach w my new Samsung watch. :) Thank you! I had a feeling I should not put it in water because water never mixes w electronics. I might buy a cheap wind up watch for swimming. :) Thanks for saving me a 300$ watch/fix. Down the road.
Glad I could help!
Thanks for this video, the screw driver size is 1.2 x 25mm or 1.5 x 25mm?
1.5 x 25mm The video has a typo, sorry
@@retrotechandelectronics I just bought a 1.5 tri wing screwdriver for my Galaxy active watch repair after watching this but it’s too big. What am I reading wrong here?
Mine died after being briefly submerged in a swimming pool. Very weak waterproofing if chlorine or salt can do this.
Good work, but a lot of it! Plus tools and parts required! Think I will just stop supporting Samsung and buy a new watch with ethical marketing instead of throwing my time and money at it. Thanks for the video which allowed me to make this educated decision
Yeah.... If you really need one of these watches, pay extra and get an apple one, imho.
@@retrotechandelectronics I agree but I have Samsung phone and the apple watch loses some features I believe
@@johnnyt5108 yes that’s quite possible.
Has anyone had a similar issue happen to them?
My daughter has the Samsung 4 watch, she did a recent software update and the watch stopped work. She sent it in for repairs and they get back to her saying that the tech support found water damage and that the warranty is nulled. First of all she has never gone swimming with the watch and then they proceeded to say “ma’am do you wash your hands?” My daughter replied“yes I do?” Tech “That’s enough to damage the watch”. My daughter proceeded to say” unbelievable I don’t submerge my hands all the way up to my wrist I never had any issues with it until the update,that’s ridiculous! So unfortunately they want $175.00 to fix it so they can fix the issue with the software. This sounds like they are trying to make money. The watch stopped working in the first place after the update. Her warranty is over in November she spoke with the manger and they won’t back down. Unbelievable try to get someone to pay for something that wasn’t the issue because she never got the watch wet in the first place and it’s only a year old. When she first got the watch it had an issue with monitoring the heart rate she reported that and they said they were working on that with an update and fixing that glitch she wasn’t able to use that feature for a while. Evidently Samsung is selling faulty and false advertising. Lol and he said you should have the water lock mode on when you wash your hands. 🧐
I've been swimming quite a few times with my active 2 watch with no problems, but the other day after a swim it then refused to charge. Showed zero percent on the screen then went blank. Just taken it apart and the water indicator is pink so water must have got in. Now waiting for a new battery and hopefully I can resurrect it.
Better flush out the chlorine before the insides rust
Hey i've got a active 2 watch with water damage. everything works expect the touch screen. I've saw some corrosion under the screen and cleaned it. Now only a small part on the right works when swiping but the rest is still unresponsive. What would you recomment me to do as next? Btw im an electric technician. So i have some experience
Clean the connections with deoxit like I did
Hey thanks for the idea. But i found the problem already. And sadly its qite bad. Because one track vanished because it rusted away. I've tried to solder a wire to it. But its so small i cant do that with the tools i have at home.
Hi very nice work. Do you do repairs for others. I be willing to pay you.
The costs for labour and shipping would quickly outweigh the cost of the watch for this type of work.
My active watch 2 did this as well. I might try and fix it after seeing this. Samsung wanted to charge me 200 to fix it
That’s about the cost of the watch
@@retrotechandelectronics I know ridiculous
@@blakewarren658 Did you fix it?
@@axhrafy unfortunately no
@@blakewarren658 Did you try this method? Or you just didn't even bother?
Well done. Way to keep it out of the landfill.
If it could only run on…….
@@retrotechandelectronics I’d like to solve the puzzle: thorium.
@@jerryameral6760 you win!
Hey dude. My watch has done the same. I took it apart like yourself and there is minimal damage / water after swimming. It's stuck in reboot mode. What would you advise to fix it? Many thanks
Deoxit on the button pads.
I have the same watch. The screen does not working anymore...i think. Before it dies, it display weird green lines and black display afterwards. I do use it when swimming coz Samsung advertised it as such as you mentioned. :(
Yeah, it needs what I did to mine.
the battery of active 2 works on active 1?
What I used in the video was not a direct swap. It was only for testing.
I just got mine into the pool yesterday and now it is in an infinite reboot loop 🙃
Yeah maybe water shorted one or more of the buttons
same with mine
Same..although i just showered in mine. Smh. Had to buy a new one. Water won't come close to this one.
What should i do bro ? . Pls help me
I have a galaxy active 2. I knew i could use it in a swimming pool. today was my first day in a pool and now the watch screen starts becoming green in places and then just starts glowing brighter and at last becomes white. I restarted it and saw that the screen was working fine. and then all of a sudden, it does the same thing again. any suggestions?
If its under warranted send it for repair, if not, stop swimming with it/
@Retro Tech & Electronics I have had mine (Galaxy active 2, same watch) for a few years and got brave enough to use it in the pool today and that looks like it was a mistake. My dad bought it for me, so I'm not sure there's any protection. I have it in rice right now. I wonder if there are professionals near me that could fix it if not. I regret trying :(.
So at the end, what do you suspect was the reason for the bootloop in your watch ?
Stuck button pad
thanks!@@retrotechandelectronics
my samsung watch is charging fine but screen is not turning on when i press both the buttons..it had some water damage..
If its broke, you cant break it.
My Galaxy Watch 4 Classic got water damaged, while I was swimming for couple minutes I checked my watch and it was working abnormally, it was on watch-only mode and screen wasn't responsive but no damage to the screen. I went home and I tried to charge it, it shows lightning and for some time the temperature warning. (I was still able to boot it, even though it has water inside) after several tries, I tried shaking off my watch and it really had water inside like a lot. I put it on rice and dried it under the sun.... and after that when I charge it the lighting logo does not appear anymore and the watch only heats up.
Now 2 weeks later, I got the tools to open it. Some parts of the watch were still wet. Cleaned everything using isopropyl alcohol 99%, I soaked the logic board in isopropyl, some has signs of corrosion, but the battery was not bulgy so I thought it would still work... after drying everything up for few hours in direct fan and assembled it, it no longer heats and doesn't show any signs.
My question is, considering it was working beforehand while the inside were wet, I was able to boot it up on Samsung logo (but after the sammy logo then the lightning screen goes off [while it was plugged or charging] ) this means board is ok and screen?
Another, what do you think I needed to buy so my watch would still work?
Battery? considering what's happening to my watch...
Hoping for your reply 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🥰 I subbed
Why did you put wires from the battery to the board instead of direct contact?
There were no contcts left, they were completely eaten away
My samsung galaxy watch is not working anymore after i started swimming with it about 5 weeks ago. Shame on you samsung for showing false advertising
Yeah, its not good.
I’m gonna slap a bunch of deoxit d100 on my galaxy watch 3 and see if it works. Thanks big homie.
No problem.
@@retrotechandelectronics it worked btw. New battery was the main thing but I’m sure the deoxit helped.
@@Dude902 nice. Glad to hear it.
I tried open it and fix it, it has water inside. I cleaned it but it doesnt turn on, the watch its "charging" all night but doesnt seem to warm as always do.
deoxit the buttons.......
Can I get where and which battery please.
Search for Watch Battery EB-BR830ABY For Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2 40mm SM-R830 SM-R835
My watch active 2 goes into boot loop after swimming. Any idea how to repair it
I believe the bootloop is due to an oxidized button... open the watch and clean the mechanical button mechanism and connectors with deoxit as int he video.
Man! I had my watch for years and now it got water in it I guess. Many times I used it in water and it was fine. Now it stopped working. It it vibrates and then it's just a black screen.
Try to fix it maybe , you cant break broken
I JUST BOUGH A NEW SMARTWATCH...DOES IT HAVE TO SHOW THAT ITS CHARGING???BECAUSE I PUT IT TO CHARGE AND ITS NOT SHOWING ANITHING YET...15 MINUTES IN
Yes there is a change indication.
My watch sensors are busted the accelerometer, gyroscopy, barometer and HR sensor. the rest is working.. is this usual?
In the video you will see they are all connected with tiny connectors to the main board, probably dirty connections.
@@retrotechandelectronics thanks. It came up with an error of high temp in a very cold swimming pool and had had these issues since. I fear water damage but, it's weird it still connect to my phone, received messages etc.. but the diagnostics state all the sensors are currently bustsed.
@@LilyKaren1980 the main board can communicate. Not the cable connected peripherals
Can i send you mine to check out the damage...lol great video
Haha sorry , I don’t do watch repairs as a business.
@retrotechandelectronics the sad part is...i didnt even swim in mine...i didn't take it off during showering. Water wont come near the new one I just purchased...lol. enjoyed the video and best believe I'm about to play Macgyver with this old one.
@@lulawilliams7528 you can’t break what’s broke…
Does it blend?
Blend?
@@retrotechandelectronics In a Blend Tech blender. Guy blends various items in his company blenders to prove they are durable. Google it, good times.
@@N0IMB You want me to put it in a blender to see how durable it is? You saw how well the swimming pool test worked.
Mine went out a couple days ago, 6/20/22 after getting it wet while washing my hands... SMH.
Sounds about right... Open it up and have a look. Cant hurt if its already broken.
Cool intro. Looks like you are performing microsurgery.
It was done through two sets of magnification. My into is a throwback to the end of the old bell system commercials
Recently had my Samsung Watch 5 Pro damage after a swim in the pool, not even diving in the pool, guess what, it went out on me. Called Samsung, they simply blamed on out of warranty as convenient. A flagship product that doesnt last more than a year and half? Wow. Thats my very Samsung Watch
Nice work! You could be a brain surgeon!!
My mom would be proud.
Can I send you my watch? Samsung Active 2. Pool damage. How much to fix?
I often get asked this. The total cost of shipping, parts and labour would exceed the cost of the watch.
in my own opinion, the bulging battery contributed to the water damage
hard to say, they do that after water exposure.
My samsung active 2 was damaged only by hand washing. A friend of my went swimming in a pool and got damaged by water. I am never going to buy another samsung watch and recommend anyone else buying it also
Mine died today. I have been in pool 6-7 times... Today, I justo got the "Reboot loop" issue.
Samsung Galaxy Watch nevet again.
Mine is Galaxy watch Active 2.
I believe that’s an issue with one of the buttons
How much you charge to fix. Mine won't turn on now.
I'm in Michigan, can ship to you if not too expensive
Sorry I don’t do repair service
@@retrotechandelectronics I fixed it. But thanks for the reply.
I have 2 of these galaxy watches because the first one died, I didn't have a warranty, was hoping it was a fluke, so I bought a second watch, kept it alive about a year, without swimming, which it was supposed to be able to do, and now it's dead. I'll try what you did and see if one of them will come alive. But definitely NOT buying another samsung watch.
Good luck, me neither.
@@retrotechandelectronics update, couldn't get the screws out of the back, best buy ended up giving me a store credit even though it had been just over the 2 year period. Used the money to get a galaxy watch 4. paid $60 for the 2 year geeksquad warrenty. I won't swim in this one even though swimming is one of the activities still listed in the exercise modes.
You are lucky the screen still works mine vibrates but won't turn on
Could just be a dirty connector like in the video
you can Buy screen too
the same thing happened to my watch this week April 5, 2023. :(
What time????
Wore mine in the pool today and it's dead. I'm afraid to pull it apart
With mine, the rationale was ‘ya can’t break broke’
My galaxy watch active 2 dead due to swimming pool, wish I knew ealier
Quick tip, buying used watch 4 is cheaper than repairing it 😆
Me too..
Had my Active 2 for 2.5 years and the touch reaction suddenly went after washing my hands
Yeah.... Not waterproof for sure.
Mine stopped working as well. I tried to get it fixed and they said not worth it to fix because once it's opened it will decrease the water resistant effect and may cause more damage
I'm crying, i literally have a watch and i decided to swim in it. I'm literally so mad
Yup, i hear that a lot
Entonces no es para agua??
No confiaría en él en el agua
No lo es. Tengo el 5 pro y murio unos minutos despues de meterlo a la.piscina
I got 2 samsung watch and both got water damage by swimming at the pool , dont’t buy samsung watch as it’s not gonna last long
Science is cool
yup.
Are you a business? Can you fix mine?
Sorry, im not a watch repair business.
And give me my money back!!!!
good luck.
Haha i dont use ur kinda useles informasion
I don't use yours either.
Your intro is really annoying now I see why you only have 20000 followers
.