We all love our smartphones, they’re one of the most important things in our pockets. We take them everywhere with us- to work, to shops, to the bathroom. It is quite normal for them to sometimes end up being dropped in water. Whether it’s a pool or the toilet, the way of bringing your gadget back to life is pretty much the same. You shouldn’t keep soaking your phone, but if it does happen, there’s no reason to say goodbye to it so soon.
The rice or the repair shop?
If your phone ended up in the water, take it out as fast as possible. It seems like a pretty intuitive thing to do, doesn’t it? The longer it stays in the water, the more likely the water is to ruin it. However, once you get it out, do not try to turn it on and check if it’s working, as that may cause further damage to the phone. If it’s still on once you got it out of the water, make sure to turn it off fast. You should take out your battery (yeah, this is not something you’re going to be able to do with newer smartphones), your SIM card and the memory card.
Repair shops like phoneix.se are where you can take your phone if you want your battery removed safely. Phone repair shops have seen numerous cases of phones being dropped in water for sure, so it’s quite possible that they will be experienced enough to give you best advice for your phone model and your situation. In case you’re super worried about your phone, you can take it to them, but keep in mind that by the time you get there, your phone will already have suffered some damage.
So, prior to taking your phone to the professionals, fill a bowl with rice and drop your phone in there. You can now either take it to the repair shop or just leave it to dry for around 48 hours. After that, you can take it out and check if there’s any rice left in some of the sockets and ports. You can take out the residue with tweezers, switch your phone on, and keep your fingers crossed! If it works, back up your data in case it, for some reason, stops working in the future. Or you drop it in the water again.
Silica bags
You know those little silica bags that you get with anything you buy? These are put there in order to suck up water and prevent the moisture from damaging the product. It can help you with your wet phone as well. Simply put your phone in the bowl or a bag filled with silica packets and leave your phone in there for two or three days. This solution might even be superior to the rice method as rice can sometimes leave starch inside your phone and muck it up.
No blow drying!
Don’t try to dry your phone using a blow dryer. The heat from the drier could damage it further, and it could send the water deeper in the phone, damaging the components that would in other case stay dry. Also, once your phone is out of the water, do not shake it, tap it, and don’t try to plug it in to charge it. You can gently dab it with a clean towel in order to remove the water from the phone.
