Do I have to recyle my router?

[Abinsmom]

I spilled my coffee all over my router over the weekend, and thus INTO my router over the weekend! Ugh! And of course, it was ruined.

So I marched out and bought myself a replacement, but now I don't know what to do with my old one. It is completely ruined. But is it something that has to be recycled, or can I just throw it away? You know, is it hazardous waste like computers are? Any ideas?

[OpalsMom]

It's a special-purpose computer, and needs to be recycled like any other computer. Just be happy it doesn't have a monitor.

Sometimes, especially if the coffee was black, turning the item off IMMEDIATELY, draining the coffee out, if possible disassembling the thing and removing coffee from its innards gently, and then letting it dry COMPLETELY before turning it back on will leave you with a functional if coffee scented piece of electronics. If the coffee was not black, or if you spill your soda, you need to rinse it off. Nerve-wracking at best. Technically, best undertaken by at least ending with a bath in high-proof isopropyl alcohol, but we used to wash coke bathed items in warm soapy water, clear water, and then an isoprop dunk. (Not hard disks. Hard disks will not survive. Keyboards will usually make it even without the isoprop. Other equipment... well, you wouldn't be trying this if it were likely to work otherwise, would you? The odds tended to be 50-50 years ago when I dealt with college students and computers.)

DH, totally without help from any of the genuine klutzes in the household, spilled gingerbeer into his laptop. He swore, turned it upside down until it stopped dripping, turned it off and left it propped mostly upside down for 2 days. The keyboard doesn't work so well, although with time it's reviving a bit. Otherwise the laptop is perfectly functional. Mostly it means that he worries about what to replace it with, and he and DD fight over MY external keyboard which they both like a lot.