A warning to Blu-ray owners re: water damage (1 Viewer)

[Vincent_P]

I just wanted to put this out there re: flood/water damage and Blu-ray discs. After a friend's apartment got flooded due to the recent superstorm, we've been picking through the damage and salvaging what we can. This includes going through hundreds of DVDs, HD-DVDs, and Blu-rays that were submerged in the flood. While I knew the cover art was gone, I figured I'd be able to salvage all of the discs themselves. In the cases of the DVDs and HD-DVDs, no problem- they all cleaned off fine. In the case of the Blu-rays, not so lucky. So far, I have five Blu-rays that have been destroyed due to the water damage (including two Criterion titles). It seems the water got under the anti-scratch protection layer, fogging the discs and rendering them unplayable. Just a word of warning- water and Blu-rays don't mix!
Vincent

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Oof. Good to know. Best of luck to your friend -- I've been maniacal about taking pictures for insurance purposes ever since my crappy old apartment was robbed over ten years ago.

 

[BJQ1972]

The reason that optical discs use polycarbonate rather than other polymers with similar optical properties is because of polycarbonate's low water absorption, so they should be OK with water, but if it is a problem with the durabis, as you suspect, that is very good to know.

 

[Vincent_P]

I'm pretty certain it was the anti-scratch layer, as it was literally buckling and peeling off the discs, as well.
Vincent

 

[BJQ1972]

I'm pretty certain it was the anti-scratch layer, as it was literally buckling and peeling off the discs, as well.
Vincent

It certainly sounds like the anti-scratch layer if they've gone cloudy. The single layer of PC compared to the double layer of PC in a DVD should make water ingress less likely.