water proofing the key

The motorcycle and the fishing scenario are easily solved.
The difficult key in the pants pocket solution requires both you and your wife to check your pants pocket before washing.

I solved the pants pocket problem by always placing my wallet and keys together in a soft lined box when coming into the house. It's a wonder how important a habit is.

Motorcycling or fishing, you already solved. Keep a small ziplock bag in the boat or under the motorcycle seat. The air in the ziplock bag will keep it afloat should you fall in.

Now where did I put those darn glasses?

ZC1

 

I've seen a several posts here to the effect that the sks fob survived a trip thru the washing machine; I don't recall seeing any posts stating that it didn't. It does have an o-ring to seal the internal compartment. This said, I wouldn't deliberately expose it to water.

 

I can vouch for this My wife washed her key ring, luckily she found it before it found its way into the drier.

I opened it up pulled the battery and left it to dry for a few hours. I fully expected to give my wife the spare I have hidden in the car, but to my surprise once I put the battery back in, it worked just fine.

For going out on the boat, I have a small water proof ziplock bag I got at REI. it works fine, and cost about 2 dollars.

 

I can relate to the OP, here is a technological marvel but the key/fob needs to be treated with kids gloves, and its expensive to boot, is it asking too much for it to be water resistant (not water proof) & have some kind of RF shield, are all new cars (not just the Prius) this sensitive

 

Unless you take your fob diving, it is functionally waterproof. I'm not saying you can't deliberately destroy it with water, but for practical purposes you should have no worry. You give the Toyota engineers too little credit.

 

One of mine was ruined with just a splash. After it dried out half the functions worked.

 

Was that a splash of salt water, or fresh water?

 

Not for any reason other than idle curiosity, but which half of the functions continued to work?

 

I didn't drop mine in water, but it fell out into the snow. I couldn't find it, so I decided to wait until the next day because it would show up better with less snow on the ground. Well, the snow didn't melt so I went searching through it and eventually found the key. It still works the way it did before (though it doesn't have SKS functions).

 

Went to the pool yesterday with my two children.

Played around for 45 minutes with them in the water.

Climbed out to take a break and felt the SKS key fob in my pocket. Damn...

I took it apart and left it (minus the key) on the dash of my car in the sun for an hour and a half to slow dry it.

Works fine (for now). Luckily it was not salt water it was exposed to.

 

I've had two cell phones go for swims with me. First thing is don't try and turn it on or use push any buttons. Each time I simply opened the battery compartment, set the battery aside to dry, then placed the phone in a bright sunny window sill, or under a halogen desk lamp I have (with blub a few inches away). A hot sunny car dash would also work very well.

Let bake for days if possible. All was fine.

Keys have pretty simple circuit boards with low power batteries. Bake out all the water vapor and there is a very good chance of it being OK.

Or, as added protection, can't you just shrink wrap it which would be removable if/when needed.

 

I use a zip lock bag for my Prius fob when riding the Waverunner.

 

Well, this is a timely thread.

My wife just washed her smart key with her gardening overalls. It was a front-loading machine (which doesn't fill up with water) so I was hopeful. But so far, the results are not good. The car doesn't recognize the presence of the key, and the buttons don't do anything either. The fob does work when plugged into the dashboard, but where's the fun in that?

I opened up the battery compartment, which was wet -- the O-ring didn't protect it.

My past electronic dunkings resulted in one loss (a pager) and one win (a cell-phone which was very promptly disassembled and blown out with pressurized air). So I've blown out the fob with air, and now it's baking under a lamp. I think blowing it is important, because drying over a day or two could cause a lot of corrosion. Anyway, we'll see.

tom

 

Both of my keys have survived trips through the washing machine! It always scares the crap out of me though. Key 1 has gone through 3 times, and key 2 has gone through once. I also don't have the little number plate this being a used car purchase. I received one on the new 05 prius. Will that matter?

 

So it's the day after the washing machine, and the smart key works again -- both proximity and the buttons.

YAY!

tom