How to save a wet cell phone

Tuesday, Oct. 31 2006 | Author: Griffith

WikiHow made a nice article today explaining how you can possibly save a wet cellphone by following a few simple steps. Here are the first, and most important, steps that will help to determine how good the chances are for your cellphone to survive:

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.

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.

Another thing that is required is a lot of patience. You have to wait for 3 days at least before trying to turn on your cellphone, and until then, you won’t know if it will work or not. But considering how expensive some cellphones are nowadays, I think it’s preferable to wait 3 days than work for almost a month in order to purchase yourself a new one.

My girlfriend accidentally dropped her cellphone in water once and was able to recover it by following most of the steps mentioned above. The only thing she had to replace was the battery. So this isn’t just an “urban legend”, it’s ForeverGeek-editor confirmed. But be sure to read the other tips and warnings on the site before attempting to do anything.

Share and Enjoy

PowerPod – Portable Cell Phone Charger
Cell Phone Finder
Forwarding GMail To Your Cell Phone
iPod Cell Phone
Apple a Cell Phone Carrier?

Hope you like that post!

Forever Geek is a resource for all things geek. You can stay tuned by having the latest FG news delivered to you for free via RSS.

Category: Uncategorized
Tags:

7 Responses for "How to save a wet cell phone"

Rowan Lewis

October 31st, 2006 at 7:05 pm
1

Electricity and vodka don’t mix either.
Bernie Zimmermann

November 1st, 2006 at 2:26 am
2

I’ve also heard that putting the phone in your refrigerator’s crisper will help dehydrate it as well.
Doug

November 1st, 2006 at 11:21 pm
3

At my bachelor party, strippers poured beer down my pants. I happened to have my fiance’s phone in my pocket (yes, I was trying to be the good little bachelor), and it got a pretty good dousing of beer. Being drunk at the time I kept it in my pocket not thinking at thing was wrong. I realized later that night that the phone was totally dead, but didnt have the foresight to remove the battery.

Believe it or not, the dang thing still worked the next day after a slight recharge. However, the battery ended up being “damaged” (there’s a little strip of colored paper on the inside of the battery to tell you if it’s had water damage – it had), so we got a replacement. Since then, the phone has been working just fine. Pretty sturdy things if you ask me.

Then again, it could have just been the beer…
Tawny

November 14th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
4

dont let soda get inside it, it will never get out, (sticky) also try a blow dryer that normally works when getting the liquid out, too.
ja

November 14th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
5

also try placing it in a dessicant…
(the little “do not eat” packets that you find in new shoes, pill bottles, etc)
you can buy rechargable dessicant packs from camping supply, and photography supply stores
i put my ipod nano into a tupperware with some dessicant, after i had dropped it in the cooler of beer.
it works perfectly now.
Eric

December 13th, 2006 at 5:04 am
6

i was at a party and i had my cell on me. i completely forgot about it and jumped in the pool, and completely forgot about the phone until 15 minutes later. it still works perfectly except for the backlight in the screen
darby

December 16th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
7

i just accidently kept my phone in my pants pocket and i took out the battery and it is laying out…when i put the battery back in there was either just a plain white ssreen or a black sceen with the sprint sign on it.
HELP ME!!!
what can i do???