How to survive an iPhone liquid submersion (hint: it's not rice)
Summary: It's possible to recover a liquid submerged iPhone but a few things have to go exactly right and timing is everything. Your iPhone is in cardiac arrest and you only have a few minutes.
Ever drop your iPhone in the toilet? Sink? Bathtub? All is not lost.
It's very possible to recover a liquid submerged iPhone and bring it back to its full glory. But first, a few things have to go exactly right. Second, timing is everything. Your iPhone is in cardiac arrest and you only have a few minutes to save her.
The following is a true story about how a reader completely submerged his iPhone 4 in a sink and returned it to its original glory. Here's how to rescue your iPhone from an unintended liquid submersion (sometimes called the "toilet baptism").
1) You must turn the iPhone off and this part is critical. After submersion, dry the surfaces immediately and press and hold the power button. Use the slider to turn off your iPhone -- as soon as possible. Seconds count here and depending on how fast you recovered it from the water, the touchscreen may or may not work. If you can't slide to power off, you're probably dead in the water (pardon the pun). If you can't turn it off chances are that the water will soon cross a critical connection and short the device, meaning certain death. If you can turn it off, congratulations you went from a zero percent chance of recovery to a 50 percent chance of recovery. (If it won't slide, keep trying. Mine didn't work immediately but eventually slid to power off on the ninth or tenth try.)
2) Find the nearest hardware store to you that carries DampRid. This may be a challenge without your iPhone, but a local hardware store is your best friend right now.
3) Wrap your iPhone in a towel and get to a hardware store ASAP. Bonus points if it's extra hot in your car. In fact, hotter is better. Put the iPhone on the dashboard in your hot car and leave the air conditioning off. Throw caution to the wind and leave it on your dash while at the hardware store.
4) Get a Ziploc bag, thicker, "freezer" bags are better, but not required.
5) Option: If you don't have a hardware store that's drivable (or you're at home) use the rice trick. Throw your iPhone into a Ziploc bag surrounded by rice. Store it in a warm, dry place for 24 hours and cross your fingers. It doesn't hurt to throw your iPhone into rice while driving to the hardware store to get DampRid.
6) Purchase some DampRid, a commercial desiccant that removes moisture from the air (like the little packets of silica that come in the box with a new pair of leather shoes). DampRid is your best friend in times like this and is probably three to four times more effective than rice. It comes in many form factors and I recommend the Sachet (FG40) version which costs around $5 for a twin-pack. If your store only has DampRid in the pail, buy that. Timing is the most important factor right now.
7) Sandwich your iPhone between two DampRid sachet packets (porous side in).
8) Put the iPhone/DampRid sandwich into a heavy Ziploc bag and store it in a warm dry place. Don't keep it on your car's dashboard in direct sunlight or anything crazy, but keeping it in a warm-to-hot car is fine.
9) Leave your iPhone in the DampRid zip lock bag for a full 24 hours, not less. Use this non-iPhone time to reflect upon your stupidity and to atone for your sins. Make a pact that no Twitter or Facebook update is so important that you need to be using your phone in the loo. This is also a good time to remember that purchasing a non-subsidized replacement iPhone costs between $500 and $700.
After a full 24 hours have expired, cross your fingers and power it up. There's no guarantee that it will come back to life, but if you a) recovered it fast enough, b) turned it off in time and c) got it into a desiccant within the first 10 minutes or so, your odds are fairly good that your iPhone will come back to life -- good as new. Mine sure did.
Note: Sometimes your device will only partially work after 24 hours "in the bag." Don't panic. Another time I did this my iPhone worked fine except for the microphone, but that too came back to life about 24 hours later.
Have you ever submerged your device? How did you bring it back to life?
Toilet image: OnsecaShow.com
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Talkback
RE: How to survive an iPhone liquid submersion (hint: it's not rice)
I took the motherboard out of the case and literally hosed it off in my back yard. I then blow dried it with a hair drier on low. For caution's sake he didn't fire it back up for a day, but when he did it worked like a champ for quite a few years thereafter.
As you say, normally the key is speed and powering off as soon as possible. In my friend's case the old IIci's motherboard was pretty rugged.
RE: How to survive an iPhone liquid submersion (hint: it's not rice)
When I used to work on point-of-sale equipment, it was standard servicing practice to take mainboards and wash them with some good 'ol Comet cleanser and water from the tap. Then we'd use an air compressor to dry the component off beffore putting it back in service. Worked everytime.
It's just important to remember that mainboards frequently have batteries that need removal prior to washing.
I'll vouch for this method...
RE: How to survive an iPhone liquid submersion (hint: it's not rice)
RE: How to survive an iPhone liquid submersion (hint: it's not rice)
Yeah, I guess the tips mentioned will work in any device.
Brought Blackberry back...
Surviving iPhone Immersion
After the phone went into the water, I turned it off ASAP. I shook it violently to get any water I could out of it. I went to the hardware store across the street from the hotel, and got a set of small screw drivers. The store was kind enough to let me remove the back of the phone, disconnect and remove the battery, and use compressed air to blow any water out of the phone.
I returned to the hotel, and asked if I there was a small oven I could use. When I explained I was trying to recover my phone, the desk agent quickly let me have access to the small kitchen in the breakfast area.
I preheated the oven to 175 degrees, and turned it off. I placed the phone with the rear cover and battery removed into the extinguished oven laying on a cotton towel. I set my watch timer for an hour.
An hour later, I returned and repeated the process of warming the oven and turning it off.
After the second drying cycle, I let the phone cool to room temperature.
Approximately 3 hours after my iPhone went for a swim, I re-installed the battery and anxiously powered it on. The phone came to life. For the first day there appeared to be an issue with the backlight control, but that problem quickly disappeared.
Be careful out there!!!
RE: How to survive an iPhone liquid submersion (hint: it's not rice)
- Jason
Android Lives Again
24 hours later, still wet. Another 24. Next, just a thin film of condensation remained under the screen, so I inserted the battery and turned it on... it powered up!
I yanked the battery again before it could finish booting up, and set it all back in there for another 24.
When I powered it up it was a little slow (Rip Van Android) but made a phone call after a
s l o w s e a r c h thru the address book. I had half-batt life left. I plugged it in to charge-- our handi-scooter's instrux say that to leave it out in the rain or winter, just keep it charging and it will be fine.
The fone has worked all, day, which has given me time to copy off all the photos on it and make a back-up plan-- I can just tough it out with a TrakFone if it dies, till our cell plan allows an affordable replacement!
THANKS, ALL!
RE: How to survive an iPhone liquid submersion (hint: it's not rice)
I was able to snatch it up immediately as it hit the water but it was pretty wet. I powered it down, took it out of it's case and wrapped it in paper towels inside. 24 hours later I turned it on and it worked fine. Weeks later however, the black home button ceased functioning and when I brought it to the Apple store, they said it had water damage and was off warranty and would cost a few hundred to fix. Later, that day as I was weighing what to do, the button started working again and has worked ever since. Orange water tab and all.
RE: How to survive an iPhone liquid submersion (hint: it's not rice)
I Did Nothing Useful
I turned it off and waited for about eighteen hours. I didn't clean it, didn't wrap it in anything, didn't cook it, and, honestly, figured with the amount of time it had been on and in the wash it must certainly be dead.
When I powered it back up, there was a thin film of moisture showing in the display but everything worked just fine. I assumed it would die. I assumed the battery would fail. I assumed something would go wrong--and I shopped around for my next phone, preparing for the inevitable.
Except that didn't happen. The thing is still running like a champ and the only lasting negative effect is that the vibrating motor barely functions. Everything else still works just fine.
Go figure.
RE: How to survive an iPhone liquid submersion (hint: it's not rice)
RE: How to survive an iPhone liquid submersion (hint: it's not rice)
I've used mine after several water incidents, in general following the procedure:
* mop off obvious water immediately with a towel, shake,
* power down, remove batteries if possible,
* if it was in salt water, bathe thoroughly with distilled water, and
* drop into the dehydrator for 24 hours.
RE: How to survive an iPhone liquid submersion (hint: it's not rice)
RE: How to survive an iPhone liquid submersion (hint: it's not rice)
surviving the washing machine
I got on the net, read about how to take the phone apart and partially dismantled it until I felt that my tech skills were maximized. I then use a hair drier a number of times during the day on the pieces (but never got them hot, rather just slightly warm) and then that night I placed the parts under a small lamp in my office. Of course, I fully expected that it would never work and began trying to figure out how to tell my wife I needed a new phone.
In the morning, I without enthusiasm put it back together and turned it on....
Yahoo, it worked and has continued to work just fine, now pushing three months. I now have a very clean iPhone 4....
RE: How to survive an iPhone liquid submersion (hint: it's not rice)
RE: How to survive an iPhone liquid submersion (hint: it's not rice)
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RE: How to survive an iPhone liquid submersion (hint: it's not rice)