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Dahlquist DQ-10s underwater

EMtz

EMtz

New Member
5 days ago my house filled with 10" of water from a flash rainstorm. Got all the audio equipment up high enough except for these speakers. Finally have dried out the house and got the worst of the water drained out of the speaker cabinets through a bottom corner seam. Got the grill covers off and the masonite is water stained about 8" up as well as being soaking wet on the bottom. I'm sure the fiberglass inside is sopping wet, too. I suspect the fuses are toast (minor issue). I hope the other controls can be dried and properly lubricated.

The subwoofers feel dry to the touch on the outside. Inside? Who knows? A friend suggested turning the speakers on their backs so the woofers can dry face up in their original shape. Makes sense to me but is this going to kill the electronics mounted in the back of the cabinet?

Of course, the masonite cabinets are sealed. So how to get inside to the electrical components and to dry out the fiberglass short of using a prybar? Perhaps bite the bullet and remove the woofers, then pull out the fiberglass?

Cars are my thing, not audio equipment. This is all new to me and my learning curve already is straight up. Have been carting these babies around since I bought them secondhand in 1982. Hawthorne Stereo in Seattle reconed them in 2008. (Am going to call them for advice tomorrow.) Any advice that you might be inspired to offer also would be very welcome. I really, really like these speakers and it is my intention to rebuild them one way or another.
 
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As long as you don't run power through wet electronics, often there are no problems other than corrosion down the road.
Pull them apart to dry, including fuses, speaker contacts, etc, I'd spray inside any pots with deoxit to force out the water and coat the connection surfaces. You can do the same to the other connection surfaces being careful about the overspray or, if you have it, use deoxit gold or faderlube.
Fiberglass as an insulation is supposed to be junk if it gets wet, I don't know if that applies when it's used as acoustic baffling. It will take a long time to dry though. I'd dry it outside the cabs until I was sure it was dry and then give it another week if I didn't just replace it.
 
Thank you, teal'c. Fortunately, I live in a *very* dry climate which should slow down corrosion.

Since the cabinets are sealed, and not screwed together, best way in? Remove woofers? Pull the fiberglass through the hole, dry, spray connections etc, install new baffling and buy a kit to reinstall the woofers? Amazon.mx carries deoxit gold.

Never dealt with anything remotely like this before.
 
I'd pull woofers and place them face up to dry. Pull stuffing in cabinets and evaluate for drying/replacement. You will have access to the connections and tweeter pot which could use a shot of deoxit faderlube to clean it up. Get the cabinet dry so it doesn't distort. If you have subs, same thing.
 
After you get them sorted get them up on stands. They’ll sound even better and won’t get wet in 10” of water.
 
Great! Thank you, Blue Shadow. Ordered the faderlube earlier today. Carefully pulling the woofers tonight.

Have been reading in forums for much of today about using Acousta-stuf vs fiberglass if the current stuffing is toast. This all now is making sense.
 
elcoholic, was thinking about stands. These are on the original 3 peg-like feet. Thanks for the push.
 
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EMtz said:
elcoholic, was thinking about stands. These are on the original 3 peg-like feet. Thanks for the push.
Click to expand...
Glad to help. I made mine to put the tweeters at ear level which a couple inches taller that the Dahlquist stands.
 
Sorry about your house!
Make sure the grills are very dry. The cloth might hold moisture against the metal cage and lead to rust visible through the cloth. Also, if the woofers are bad, you can check eBay for Advent woofers. Both the DQ-10 and the early Advents used the same masonite-ringed woofer. That hardboard doesn't like to get wet and might swell up.
 
The finished wood comes off the grille frames, two screws.
The grille frames, make sure they don't warp or swell so they can go back on. Cloth is easy to replace, if needed.

If the box, that is the lower section of the speaker that the woofer is in survives all could be good. It has a vinyl wrap that might have saved them from serious damage.

Pictures are good, drag and drop is easy, let us see em!
 
tyella said:
Sorry about your house!
Make sure the grills are very dry. The cloth might hold moisture against the metal cage and lead to rust visible through the cloth. Also, if the woofers are bad, you can check eBay for Advent woofers. Both the DQ-10 and the early Advents used the same masonite-ringed woofer. That hardboard doesn't like to get wet and might swell up.
Click to expand...

Took the frames off this morning. This climate usually(!) is so dry (Mexican altiplano) that just having the grill cover off overnight had everything dry to the touch before I removed the frames but I'm taking no chances....
 
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Blue Shadow said:
The finished wood comes off the grille frames, two screws.
The grille frames, make sure they don't warp or swell so they can go back on. Cloth is easy to replace, if needed.

If the box, that is the lower section of the speaker that the woofer is in survives all could be good. It has a vinyl wrap that might have saved them from serious damage.

Pictures are good, drag and drop is easy, let us see em!
Click to expand...

Let me do photos later. Right now, I'm also dealing with car stuff and water diversion via concrete. I rent this house but my landlord has been absolutely great. The woofers seem more damp than dry so fingers crossed. More later.
 
Thanks all of you for all of your help! More later. A little fragmented right now....
 
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No problem, get life back together. We'll work through the speaker issues as needed. Woofers are available on the bay since they are kinda like the Advent masonite woofers.
 
tyella said:
Sorry about your house!
Make sure the grills are very dry. The cloth might hold moisture against the metal cage and lead to rust visible through the cloth. Also, if the woofers are bad, you can check eBay for Advent woofers. Both the DQ-10 and the early Advents used the same masonite-ringed woofer. That hardboard doesn't like to get wet and might swell up.
Click to expand...

Thank you. House is built for this. Concrete block and stucco, tile roof. All easy to repair here.

Grills dried quickly in the Mexican sun. No trace of moisture or rust. The hardboard appears water-stained but not wet. I think I got lucky.
 
Blue Shadow said:
No problem, get life back together. We'll work through the speaker issues as needed. Woofers are available on the bay since they are kinda like the Advent masonite woofers.
Click to expand...

OK, now that the car's ABS sensor is fully dried out so the brakes don't keep wanting to apply themselves whenever they feel like it...here are some speaker photos.

The water wicked up a ways through the masonite. It wasn't as deep as the first image might make it appear. But there still was 1/2" of standing water inside when I opened it up. Some of the stuffing is ok. Some...will know after it sits outside in the sun and dry air for a couple of days.

DQ-10 1.jpg

Same inside. It wicked up but is already starting to dry out with the fan on overnight. The bottom of the cabinet is going to take awhile.

.DQ-10 2.jpg

The woofer is dry! Felt damp in back when I took it out last night but dry this morning. The ring has surface water staining but it feels dry.

DQ-10 3.jpg

This is the worst of the two speakers. I think they're are going to be ok. And I sure will take off the grill covers more than once every 11 years to clean them. Yuck.
 
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Put the woofers in upside down to even the stress on the cone suspension, surround on outside edge and spider on inside edge.

Are the surrounds in good shape? This foam crumbles in 23-1/2 years and needs replacement. Easy enough to do.
 
Blue Shadow said:
Put the woofers in upside down to even the stress on the cone suspension, surround on outside edge and spider on inside edge.

Are the surrounds in good shape? This foam crumbles in 23-1/2 years and needs replacement. Easy enough to do.
Click to expand...

Surrounds are good. Foam is not at all crumbly. Had everything reconed 11 years ago. It all looks surprisingly good!
 
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Questions. Use alcohol to remove old glue? Best new glue to use to reinstall the woofers after everything dries out? (Not in a rush!) Options for stuffing? Haven't seen this fiberglass in Mexico. To my surprise, I can obtain Acousta-stuf here without having to import it - 5# for the equivalent of just 40 USD.
 
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