So, your phone got wet

By Joseph Hanlon on 22 May 2009

Now pray.
(Credit: Wired.com)

Picture this: you've queued up at midnight for the latest iPhone release, taken it home and have been met by irresistible dual urges — to brag to your friends via SMS and to use the bathroom. The result is a wet phone and a broken heart. So what can you do after your phone takes a swim?

Our colleague in the US Ina Fried faced this dilemma recently and luckily her BlackBerry lives to email the tale to its cohorts. What follows is entirely anecdotal, sadly there is no proven course of action and no guarantees, just common sense and blind luck.

Ina fished her phone out of a (reportedly clean) toilet bowl almost as soon as she heard the dreaded splash. She notes that the next step, according to numerous sources, is to remove the battery and make sure as much of the phone that is exposed is as dry as can be. There is a myth that placing the phone in a cup of rice, cooked or dry, can help absorb the moisture you can't see, but as far as we know this is yet to be proven — best to stick to absorbent paper towels.

Now here is the interesting part; under certain circumstances the phone may begin working again after it dries, though this could take a few days. Ina left her BlackBerry alone and in time it returned to normal, first displaying unusual characters on screen, followed by a complete recovery. Another story I heard through a friend was about a phone presumed dead that resumed functionality after several months unused and unattended in a desk drawer.

This mobile phone struggle may seem familiar to anyone who saw Michael Haneke's Americanised remake of his film Funny Games released in 2008, where a wet handset was used as a major plot point in the film. Paul, an intruder, drops a phone belonging to the family he plans to victimise in dishwater so that when he and his friend return the family has no contact with the outside world. Later in the film we see Naomi Watts, playing a young mother, drying the phone's internals with a hair dryer. To reveal whether this works or not would be to spoil an important part of the movie, and needless to say, the result is but Hollywood fancy.

It's also worth noting that mobile phones have a hidden indicator to alert support teams of a trip to the toilet or kitchen sink, though it's apparently very sensitive and may not take for the phone to be submerged in water to trip this security measure. A colleague here at CNET Australia recently took a faulty iPhone 3G back to his mobile operator, and after the assistant inspected the charging port of the phone he was told that his warranty had been void due to water damage.

So the lesson, if you didn't already know it, was unless you have a waterproof phone like Samsung's B2700 or the "indestructible" Sonim XP3 Enduro, your phone probably doesn't know how to swim and is best left well away from water. There's another lesson in there as well, something about not using your spare hand to text while in the bathroom, because logic suggests your phone would, like your hands, need a wash, and we've already established that phones hate water.

Have you had any luck resurrecting a wet phone? Leave your comments below or drop us a line on the forums and let us know how you handled the situation.

Topics: broken, mobile phone, water, wet, phone, dry

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Comments (36)

  • baboo commented on 22/08/2009 03:23 Report abuse

    My brother put his phone through the wash it wont work i need help any one

  • Yu. commented on 12/07/2009 18:33 Report abuse

    Yesterday before i went to my school's concert , i placed my Samsung F480 phone on the dinning table.I cook the cup noodles and accidentally tip it over it spilled and the water spread to my phone i immediately take it up but it kept showing the PC Connection i off it i tried to on but i turned blue and red.Then after a few hours i place the battery back it auto on my phone but i thought it was alright i off it and now i am still unable to on it. Any suggestions ?? I really need help i use this phone not more than 1 month!

  • tsnq commented on 27/05/2009 20:26 Report abuse

    phone left in rain
    pulled apart and dun dried all day
    works fine

  • george commented on 27/05/2009 17:11 Report abuse

    My old motorola v70 went through a wash cycle in a pair of jeans. Came out fine. In the end it died because of too much sand in the swivel.

  • Jim commented on 27/05/2009 15:03 Report abuse

    My son accidently drowned my Motorola V6 in Coca Cola. I Rinsed it under the tap, removed the battery, dried everything thoroughly, and discovered that nothing worked.
    Then, and (here's the real tricky bit) I sealed it in a zip lock bag, with a cup of DampRid moisture absorbent crystals, (you can buy them in any supermarket or hardware store) for three days. When I took it out and reconnected the battrey, it worked perfectly.

  • Murcie commented on 26/05/2009 19:30 Report abuse

    Yeah this is the problem that broke my MotoROKR Z6 that I had only had for a few months...Basically, phone was on the bed but not realising that it was there I picked it up along with my school uniform and unknowingly chucked it in the washing machine...gulp...Luckily not even the freezer at McDonalds has broken my G800 as of yet. I miss my Z6 though as I thought it was actually quite a good phone.

  • Jay-Oh commented on 26/05/2009 02:28 Report abuse

    Since i do work for one of the main mobile phone carriers this is how it basically works for water damaged phones.

    1) Manufacturers warranty only lasts for 12months. Most mobile phone contracts in Aus last 2yrs. It may be a good idea to have mobile phones included in your home and contents insurance since warranty doesn't cover loss, theft, water damage or physical damage (ie any cracks on the display).

    2) Nearly all mobile phones have water indicators either in the phone (in battery compartment) and/or on the battery. They look like tiny white stickers and when they get wet they do turn red or pink.

    3) Dont try and get smart and peel off the water indicators. Most or all authorised mobile phone repair places are equipped with powerful microscopes. Even without the water indicators on the phone technicians can and will find signs of corrosion and rust inside the phone = VOIDED by warranty.

    4) Some phones have copper bits and connections for the charging points such as the sony ericssons. If they have turned green...... it can mean that warranty is voided around those ports.

    5) If you have water damaged your phone, but it works fine after drying it out doesnt mean that your phone is in the clear. Water damage can build over time as the corrosion and rust builds in the phone. Since it has been wet, it is likely that the water indicators would of also turned red.

    Suggestions:
    Check your phone and see if you can find the indicators. If they are white it is likely that its fine. Maybe you just need to reflash the software in the phone to get it up and running. But if they are red, manufacturers are highly unlikely to be willing to fix the phone with a warranty repair. However if the phone still works, keep using it as usual, but dont get disappointed if it does stop working after a few months. Also keep your phone away from moister environments such as showers or rain and dont keep your phone in a bag that has bottled water or drinks. Condensation
    from drinking containers can drop on phones. Look into home and contents insurance that can cover phone damage and loss, but keep an eye on the excess.

  • merc4ever88 commented on 26/05/2009 00:55 Report abuse

    i dropped my iPhone to a water feature. It was switching on and off for few hours. So i let the battery to run flat and leave it for a day. Put it where the sun will shine towards it so it will be warm. It does the trick because it works flawlessly until now

  • Kevin Lim commented on 25/05/2009 23:01 Report abuse

    I assume this method can work for most eletronic devices. A while ago while out surveying the Hawkesbury for Uni, my partner an I managed to roll our canoe. Back then these GPS devices were super expensive so we were pretty worried about telling our lecturer.

    Being young eager scientist we thought about how we could fix the device. Now, I don't know much about electronic devices but we assumed that rust would be a major issue with devices failing. We considered methods of removing water effectivly and quickly.

    We thought to chemistry and histology in first year and remembered that alcohol is great at removing water from cells that you needed to dry out. So we removed the battery and dumped the whole device in 100% ethanol. It is my understanding that the ethanol and water form hydrogen bonds which will take water away from the actual device if you do it several times and because ethanol dries quickly there should be no moisture left.

    Anyway, it worked and we eventually told our lecturer what had happened after we fixed it. So, if you can get your hands on 100% ethanol (prob. not) and I assume any other alcohol (methanol, propanol not vodka or gin), it may be possible to repeat the same procedure.

    NB: it may also work if you have water in your fuel tank.

  • ruzkin commented on 25/05/2009 19:17 Report abuse

    I fell in Sydney Darling Harbour with my ericsson c902 in my pocket. I thought it was dead and gone but a friend of mine pried out the battery and cleaned out all the crevices with cloths and buds from his RC racing set. I started it up a day later, no joy, put it away... 6 months later I tried it again and it worked perfectly. No idea why or how.

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