How To Save A Wet Cellphone

[MOTOhooligan]

Saw this article on Yahoo! and figured it might come in handy.

How To Save A Wet Cellphone


Did you ever drop your cellphone in a puddle or even the toilet? I did. (Don’t ask how that happened…) It happens to be one of the most annoying things to happen to a cell freak like me. It usually means you have to replace your phone, which obviously sucks. But now - thanks to the experts at WikiHow - we learn that sometimes, if you’re fast enough, you can still save your baby in time.

Remove the Battery. This is one of the most important steps. Don’t take time to think about it, electricity and water do not mix. Cutting power to your phone is a crucial first step in saving it.

Dry your Phone. Obviously you need to remove as much of the water as soon as you can to prevent it from getting into the phone. Use a towel or a paper towel to remove as much of the water as possible.

Soak in _______. _______ is hygroscopic (attracts water), it will dissolve all the water in the phone, which will then pour out of the phone with the _______. Any remaining _______ will evaporate. _______ will not harm your phone but may mess up glue (from stickers and the like). Use 95% _______, not the regular 70% rubbing type. Do it outside!. If you use _______, do not follow the rest of the advice here, instead leave your phone outside for a day or two to dry.

Allow the phone to dry. Since you do not want to ruin your phone or lose all the numbers in your phone book, you need to allow the phone to dry. Don’t try putting the battery back on to see if it works as this would risk damaging the phone with a short circuit. Leaving your phone in a bowl of dry rice will help to expedite moisture evaporation.

Heat your Phone. Apply enough heat to your phone to cause the water to evaporate without waterlogging your digital screen. One of the best things you can do to save a cell phone is to set it on the back of your computer monitor or TV screen over the heat vents. This is usually the perfect amount of heat to fix your phone. The convection action of the heat vents will help carry away the moisture in your phone. Leave the phone on the heat for at least 2-3 days. Another option is to leave it overnight in the oven on warm (make sure to take off the battery first).

Test your Phone. After you have waited 3 days, make sure everything is clean and dry looking and re-attach the battery to the phone and see if it works. If your phone does not work repeat step 4. If it still won’t work, try taking your cell phone to an authorized dealer. Sometimes they can fix it.


TIPS:

Don’t put the battery on for at least 3 days or longer if your digital screen is foggy.

The best way to dry out your phone is to place it in front of an air conditioner or air conditioning vent. Cold air won’t damage your phone (hot air can warp or in extreme cases even melt plastic), and air from an air conditioner is dry, and so will evaporate water faster than you might think (which is why a car air conditioner will de-mist the windshield so effectively, even if the engine hasn’t warmed up yet). Warm air from a reverse-cycle air conditioner works even better, of course. If you dry your phone in this way overnight it should be fine by the morning.

Use a hairdryer set on warm; it won’t melt your head so your phone should be safe.

Use a food dehydrator.

Use the oven on the warm setting (make sure to take out the battery)


WARNINGS:
Don’t heat the battery or it could leak acid. If you use an oven or hairdryer, make sure to remove the battery first.

If you use _______ make sure to do so outside, and do not apply heat in any form, not even the gentle heat of a monitor. Do not hook up the bettery till the _______ smell dissipates.

Do not apply heat to your phone other than mentioned above. You don’t want to melt or burn your phone.

Even if all these steps are followed, minerals dissolved in the water can precipitate on solder and component pins, causing corrosion or shorting. Components pins are packed so closely together in a modern cell phone that even a small encrustation can create a short, rendering the phone inoperable.



There were also some tips about making it so the liquid damage indicator would not change if the phone was actually damaged but I removed them since that's immoral.

[nKrypteD1]

The biggest thing is, get the battery out as soon as you humanly can. Clean water does not disturb electronics (it only acts as a conductor,) you can do what you want after the fact but the battery is the first.

[larry]

My brother actually dropped his phone in a toilet one time. lol I think it's pretty common as I've heard of others doing that as well.

[nKrypteD1]

Originally Posted by larry My brother actually dropped his phone in a toilet one time. lol I think it's pretty common as I've heard of others doing that as well.

I would imagine toilet being the most common actually followed by dish water, bath water, rain puddles. At least on the common retrievable incidents.

[DarrylLeeOHS30]

How about a swimming pool? I was pushed into a pool with my phone in my hand.... it was an old nokia 5615... but it ended up being okay.

[MOTOhooligan]

I think toilet is probably most common. Personally, I've only ever destroyed one phone, ever, and beer (Moto v2397 does not react well to beer.) was the culprit, not water.

[bobolito]

Originally Posted by MOTOhooligan There were also some tips about making it so the liquid damage indicator would not change if the phone was actually damaged but I removed them since that's immoral.

Are you sure? On the contrary, all I read was something about not doing warranty fraud.


As for trying to get it dry, I would take an extra step and take it apart as much as I can and dry it with a hair dryer. Water can get inside small openings and become hard to remove and cause corrosion if you wait 3 days.

[MOTOhooligan]

Originally Posted by bobolito Are you sure? On the contrary, all I read was something about not doing warranty fraud.

Yeah, I PMed you about this.

[YourDream84]

I have dropped a countless number of Nokia's in water, and have managed to salvage every last one of them. I even ran one through the wash, and it still survived!

I think the most common mistake is trying to power them back on too quickly.

I also killed my (1st) SE Z520a in the toilet. I was grocery shopping and had the phone in my pockets. My jeans has incredibly shallow pockets, you do the math. There was NO hope for that phone.

I've never been a big fan of Nokia features, but after all the heck I put them through, I have no doubts of their durability.

~*Ash*~

[RJB]

Luckily I have never dropped my phone in water.

[boostrep]

yea ive saved a couple of my phones that got wet