{"id":3516,"date":"2014-01-27T06:42:24","date_gmt":"2014-01-26T20:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.privatefleet.com.au\/?p=3516"},"modified":"2020-06-20T01:28:41","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T15:28:41","slug":"when-smart-keys-go-through-the-wash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/home\/when-smart-keys-go-through-the-wash\/","title":{"rendered":"When Smart Keys Go Through The Wash"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"smartkey\"<\/a>When I first encountered them, I considered smart keys to be a bit of an unnecessary frippery.\u00a0 However, I have grown to like them very much, especially on our recent family camping holiday.\u00a0 If the kids discovered that there was something they needed in the boot or the back of the family Ford Fairlaine <\/span><\/a>after we had turned in for the night, there was no need to go through all the palaver of wriggling out of bed, pulling on dressing gowns and getting out of the caravan (hence the need for a large-engined Ford) and unlocking the car.\u00a0 One press of the button and the MP3 player or book could be retrieved by Mr or Miss Forgetful.\u00a0 I guess heaps of us have also come to enjoy the convenience of smart keys as well.\u00a0 Some of the modern ones (especially on some of the recent releases from Mercedes<\/span><\/a>) get even smarter, unlocking the door for you if you get within a certain radius and no need to even press a button.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the other day, seeming disaster struck.\u00a0 In spite of the family policy of putting car keys in the wooden bowl on the fridge where they belong once you\u2019ve finished driving, a set of car keys got left in the pocket of a pair of jeans (and it wasn\u2019t me who did this, incidentally).\u00a0 And the jeans went through the wash, smart keys and all. The keys were only discovered at the bottom of the washing machine after going through the full wash, rinse and spin.\u00a0 Panic.\u00a0 Did they still work?\u00a0 (We do have a spare set \u2013 always a good idea, as accidents happen).<\/span><\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t.\u00a0 However, all was not lost.\u00a0 For one thing, the actual key bit can still be used to unlock the door and the boot manually the old-fashioned way.\u00a0 There is a way to get them working again without all the hassle of having to order a new one and get it activated \u2013 a lengthy and expensive process.\u00a0 It was very simple, too:<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 1:<\/strong> Open up the fob of the smart key.\u00a0 There\u2019s a weeny screw on the back of our set that needs an equally weeny screwdriver to open up.\u00a0 Every home should have a tiny screwdriver in both flat and Phillips for jobs like this.\u00a0 Other keys may open in another way, so have a good look at what you\u2019ve got.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 2:<\/strong> Take out the battery.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 3:<\/strong> Dry the battery and let the rest of the key\u2019s innards dry out properly.\u00a0 Leaving it in the sunshine is the best bet.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be a muggins and try putting it in the microwave or in a conventional oven.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 4:\u00a0<\/strong> Put the battery back in and put the key back together again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hey presto \u2013 one key almost as good as new again, unlocking and locking the door and the boot again like magic.\u00a0 If we wanted it to be just as good as new, we could have changed the battery \u2013 they do run out after a while.<\/span><\/p>\n

A quick bit of research has also revealed that if your smart keys fall into liquid that isn\u2019t fresh water (i.e. not the washing machine, toilet or swimming pool), an extra step can be added between Steps 2 and 3.\u00a0 This step will involve giving everything a good rinse in clean fresh water to get all the salt water\/beer\/coffee off the working parts.\u00a0 However, I can\u2019t vouch for this one, not having tried it personally.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are really unlucky, the \u201copen it up and let it dry\u201d method won\u2019t work and your smart keys are stuffed.\u00a0 In this case, your only hope is to either (a) use the spare set, (b) resort to locking and unlocking the car manually or (c) getting a new $et of $mart key$ from your local lock$mith.<\/span><\/p>\n

And guess who\u2019s going to be checking pockets before doing the laundry now?<\/span> http:\/\/credit-n.ru\/offers-zaim\/ezaem-zaim-online-za-15-minut.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I first encountered them, I considered smart keys to be a bit of an unnecessary frippery.\u00a0 However, I have grown to like them very much, especially on our recent family camping holiday.\u00a0 If the kids discovered that there was something they needed in the boot or the back of the family Ford Fairlaine after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3516"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12029,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3516\/revisions\/12029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}