Save a Soaked Cell Phone

by Jon Chase on November 10, 2009 at 06:40 AM

All is not necessarily lost if your cell phone ends up in the drink. If your phone gets doused, do the following as quickly as possible:

First off, do not try to turn on the phone if it's already off, or if it's acting funky.
Pop out the battery.
Dry off the outside as much as possible. Some sources recommend not shaking the phone, as that can actually cause water to travel inside the phone. However, we've heard the opposite, as well. (But don't do it too violently as you don't want to chuck it.) Don't bother trying to disassemble the phone to sponge out any water, as you'd just risk causing further damaging.
Put both your phone and the battery in a bowl of dried rice, which, like the rice in salt shakers at restaurants, will slowly draw out the moisture and humidity. You'll have to leave it there for a day or two before testing it. Alternatively, you can put the phone near a source of heat (e.g., on a shelf above or near a heater), and let it sit overnight.
Cross your fingers, put the battery back in, and test your luck.

Tags: soaked, solution, techtip, top, water, wet cell phone, wet cellphone, WetCellphone

Comments

P CostNov 10th 2009 8:29AM

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I recall Alton Brown in his Food Network Good Eats program saying rice is not a good desiccant. That is rice does not absorb excess water like a salt. The effect in salt shakers being an to break up clumps of salt not to absorb any water.

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ksdconstNov 10th 2009 9:23AM

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Sorry guys, doesn't work. If the phone is on when it hits the drink, it's toast. Opening the back and pulling the battery without touching the keypad does not protect the boards from sending elec charges before removal. After three phones in the drink while on const sites, I just go bite the bullett for a new phone and switch out the sim card with all info saved.

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MikeeNov 10th 2009 11:08AM

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Uh.. okay. I dropped my phone into a glass of wine, it was completely submerged. It wouldn't power up for days afterwards.

I pulled the battery and let the phone sit for months after I got a new upgrade. When the upgrade died after I dropped it into a vat of soup, I got the old wine phone out, and it works fine.

The particular model you use may not be able to be saved after getting wet, but that doesn't mean every phone has the same deficiency.

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RVNov 10th 2009 11:07AM

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Although this hasn't happened to me yet, but what about (with) smart phones? (i.e. Blackberry, iPhone, Droid)?

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manderlou2Nov 10th 2009 12:53PM

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This works! I have done this with two cell phones that fell into water and an IPOD that went through the whole washing machine cycle and it does work. It takes more like 2 to 3 days, and you can not use minute rice, it has be to a normal rice, but it DOES work!

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m3cosmosNov 10th 2009 12:45PM

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I have been witness to this working two times, both with blackberries (one storm, one bold). I know it can't work in every case, but it certainly can't hurt.

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srk_neeleyNov 11th 2009 7:58PM

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I just came in the house from walking in hell/ rain and found my cell phone "ON" and a little wet so i dry it off but didn't open the back of it and put it near the heater,(my cell was working when i put it by the heater) well after i got undress i went back to check on my cell and notice that it wouldn't come back on :'( so i open the back to take a look to see what could be the issues -_o come to find out there was a LOT of water in it O_O well i recall hearing from a friend of mine who told me that all you need is "RICE" to save a wet cell so i took it a part and dry it off the best i could and than took all the pieces out of the cell and put them along with the cell phone in a bag of rice and let it sit for 20 min after that i check it again about 30 min later so to say ...who would and though it came back on so now as i write this to you my cell phone has been siting in a bag of rice for the past 1-2 hours just to be on the save side...now i'm not say that this well work for everyone that try's it but hell it did for me and this is the first time i was able to save my cell phone from a LOT OF WATER !
PS. luck has a lot to do with saving your cell phone XD so good luck and move fast.

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AdamNov 24th 2009 4:30PM

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One IMPORTANT step was left out!

IF your phone was dropped in anything but clean pure water, you need to RINSE the phone off with clean pure or better yet, distilled water.

If the liquid was a drink, beer, wine, muddy water, SALT water. You phone is probably toast anyway. Salt water especially is very corrosive. I dropped my Nextel into some soapy water in a sink, and immediately proceeded to completely rinse it off with clean flowing water. Of course turning it off and removing the battery is very important.

The tricky items on the phone are the moving parts, keyboards, switches, contacts, and also the radio transmitter. The circuit boards and chips survive ok. However if the liquid is corrosive at all, it might dry out work for a while, but then die later. Hence the reason for a clean water rinse.

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