Sooner or later, this happens to all of us, and the panic that ensues can be horrific. However, all may not be lost. Believe it or not, water does not really harm electronics. It is not the mix of the electronics and water that does damage, but add power, and then you have another problem…..namely Short Circuits. Dropping a powered down cell phone in water has a much better chance of surviving than one that is powered up. However, in either occasion, there are things that can save the phone and your data. OK, first the disclaimer…..none of these recommendations are a guarantee that your water logged cell phone will come back to life. OK that is done!!! Now first off, if you drop a powered up cell phone into a clean bowl of water, immediately remove the battery, do not try to use the phone, just get the power source out of the phone. Chances are that it is too late, but you still need to try. If the phone was powered off, you have a much better chance of getting that phone to come back to life. By all means, if the phone was turned off, do NOT try to turn it on, which is probably going to be your first reaction, but it will just short the phone out.
In either case, if you are using a GSM phone (T-Mobile or AT&T), immediately remove the SIM Card as even if the phone is fried, the SIM card may still work and your data may survive. Next, pat the phone dry with a towel and blow out as much water as possible. You can use compressed air to do this. Just do not use too much pressure, just enough to remove the water. Now this may sound crazy, but insert the phone into a bowl of white rice. White rice will absorb any water that may be remaining in the phone. You will see the rice become bloated as the water is absorbed. Change the rice when it becomes wet. This may take several days. Make sure that the phone is completely dry before you try to power it back up.
Now once you are sure that the phone is completely dry, you can try to re-insert the battery and turn it on but I have to say, your battery is probably done. So before replacing the phone, I would try to borrow a battery from a working phone and see if it powers up, and if it does, then all you need to do is replace the battery.
OK, but I dropped my phone into a muddy puddle of water, or a chlorinated swimming pool…..now what do I do?
Solids can be a real problem here, any water that leaves a residue on the circuitry on your phone will tend to short it out. So this is a little different and it may sound counter intuitive but this is what you need to do. First off, as before, do not try to turn on or use the phone. Get the battery and SIM card out of the phone. Now what you need to do is get a couple of bottles of rubbing alcohol. What??? Yup, and soak the phone in the alcohol. Make sure that it is the purest form of isopropyl alcohol that you can find. They tend to water it down, and you certainly do not need any more water. But isopropyl alcohol will work as a solvent, and will remove the solids, plus it evaborates fast. This will not hurt a cell phone that is not powered. Just gently swish the phone around in the rubbing alcohol until all of the contaminates are removed. Do not worry about liquid at this point. Get the dirt, chlorine, or whatever other solids may be in the water out of the phone. Once the phone is clean, albeit wet, do the rice thing as stated above and make sure the phone is completely dry. You can even use a hair dryer to get it dried, but do not use too much heat as you may wind up with a phone that is not short circuited, but melted…..heat is just as deadly as water to a phone.
Like I said, this is not a sure fix, but it just may save your water logged phone. The key is not to apply any power to the phone.
Does anyone have another way……I would love to hear it……Leave a comment….
My Edible Earth 