So you've finally gone and dropped your phone in the worst place possible, a watery grave. It won't come as a shock to find out that phones, just like cats, don't like water. Except cats have the ability to defy gravity and logic to exit the water whereas your phone will just sit there, powerless. Literally.
We've put some steps together to help you out in case you've fumbled your phone right into the unwelcome pit of watery demise. The glistening hole of watery death. The life-giving, phone-taking element of bank balance destruction. Can we think of any more needless things to describe a water based phone death? Yep.
What you will need:
- Your phone.
- Dry towels.
- A hoover.
- Rice.
- An air-tight tub.
- Isopropyl alcohol.
- Luck.
Step 1
Submerge phone. Possibilities are: Toilet Texting; Getting pushed into a swimming pool by drunken friends; Your iron-man suit failing over the pacific ocean.
Note: This part is optional. Don't put your phone in water just because we told you to. This is not a time for "challenge accepted".
Just a word of warning. Salt water will destroy your phone and sim card because it corrodes metals, and it’s likely you won't have everything you need to save the day. If you're finishing your Nokia out of the sea, just follow the steps as much as you can – good luck!
Step 2
Retrieve phone, Pull out the battery, SIM card, memory card and any other accessories like the weird little loop nobody uses to wrap it around your wrist. Although we’re pretty sure if you do use that loop, you won’t be reading this because you're a super safe kinda guy.
Get rid of anything you can to avoid those individual components getting worse, as well as dislodging any water trapped in and around them. Lie them down on a dry surface. The battery might be a bit FUBAR’d at this point but we’ll find out tomorrow!
Step 3
Dry your phone using a towel, or if you were doing your business in the WC, grab some paper towels. Try not to move your phone and just rub the towelling around the phone instead. Don’t let bits of the paper towel get into the little areas inside of the phone or you’ve got a whole new issue.
If you pulled your battery out in time, or you’re lucky enough not to own an iPhone or HTC ONE X, give the inside of the phone case a wipe too!
Step 4
Hoover your phone. Once you’ve given your phone a good drying with a towel, stick a hoover nozzle close* to the phone at critical openings like the keypad, headphone jack, charging port, the SIM card tray, memory card slot and battery connectors.
*Close, not against. You could risk a static shock from the hoover that'll fry those components inside the phone.
Recommended hoovering times can vary, but you should clear your diary for 20-30 minutes.
Step 5
Grab your rice and a plastic or metal tupperware box (+10 points if it’s air tight) and rotate the phone hourly (that’s face down/face up, not on its horizontal axis) until you go to bed. Leave the whole thing in a dry cupboard overnight.
DO NOT use a hair dryer! Two things will go wrong here:
- The hot setting will nuke the phone components;
- The air (either hot or cold) will blast water further into the phone!
Step 6
Nearly there. Lie the phone face up on a towel for a couple of hours, check if there’s any moisture, if there is then check again in a couple more hours.
If you're still getting leakage, repeat step 5, if not, head off to step 7 and hope the magic rice didn’t let you down.
Step 7
Put the battery back in and power the phone on. Not working? Take the battery out, plug the phone charger in and try again. If your phone works this time then your battery is very much dead. You should be able to find a new one on eBay.
Don't mess about with that battery, Lithium Ion batteries are pretty sensitive to heat and can explode if you mess about with them. If it's gone then say your goodbyes and throw it into one of the recycle points we spoke about in our other blog here.
Step 8
Phone still won’t turn on? If you've got mad skillz then take the phone apart and dry each bit individually. Bonus points if you’ve got isopropyl alcohol (97%, because anything else just won’t do).
If you're even cooler, you'll have a can of compressed air lying around. Line that bad boy up and BLAST YOUR PHONE. Keep the can upright though or you'll eject freezing liquid all over the place.
We have absolutely no intention of elaborating any further on these two points. If you know you know, if you don't, you don't, and you probably don't want to...
...Or you could just ring your insurance company and tell them you've been a bit silly and you need a new phone.
Don't bother lying to them about dunking it in the bath though, there's little water reactive stickers all over the inside that'll be nice and red for the technician to see. Your battery might have one too so have a look for a white (or red) sticker, that's the evil little thing right there.
There's also the little issue of some insurance policies not covering for water damage, as some people have found out when they've sent in a phone they haven't even submerged in water, just to be knocked back because the indicators changed colour. Moisture from a steamy shower room or your gym pocket can set those things off, they're that sensitive.
Many thanks go out to wikihow for their genius picture ideas.
