How to Rescue a Wet Phone - Comments Page 1

Remove battery. Dry every wet part. Put in fridge for three days. I spilled an entire cup of coffee on my HP laptop at a restaurant. I immediately removed the battery, drained the cup of coffee out of the keyboard (and every crevice into which it went) and dried the unit. As soon as I got home, it went into the fridge for three days. Other than working out a few sticky keys (literally), that laptop worked for seven years post-spill. Since then, dropped phone in clean (thank goodness) toilet. Repeat above instructions. Phone still works great.

Best practical article I have read for a while. I always have cat litter around for our fuzzy guys; I think I will bag some of the unused portion in a gallon baggie and throw it in the tech service bag that I keep in the car for emergencies.

And now I'm wondering if I could build a suitable vacuum chamber out of a glass jar, some plastic tubing, and a little air pump (like an aquarium pump hooked up backwards). Possibly also the vacuum cleaner would work, but the whine would drive me crazy after a few minutes. (The vacuum cleaner's whine, not the phone owner's.)

Excellent article. I've tried the rice method and it did not work. I wonder if anybody has ever tried a vacuum sealing system.

Am wondering how one of those vacuum sealers would work. One could use either a bag, or a jar to remove the air. That's what came to my mind when you talked about a "hermetically sealed ... pressure device."

I used a food vacuum sealer bag and rice with good results once. I think the same apparatus with a jar and silica would work better but I just used what I had available. I also think it would be good to replace whatever absorbent you use at least daily in case it becomes saturated.

Forget the vacuum sealers. A continuous vacuum is required for a period of time. Use the air-dry method and blow-out all parts with Refrigerant-11. R-11 is what is in the so-called compressed-air cans used to blow-out computers. Refrigerants love water and should help remove the water blown out of your device. Make sure you use the gas, as the liquid refrigerant is extremely cold and will give you a freezer burn if you get it on your skin. Now, if only TekDry would expand its stores to the rest of the country.

As usual, Bob, great advice. As in any disaster recovery scenario, Patience IS the primary virtue. I've only had two "dunking" incidents in the many years of having personal cell phones; once when I was caught outdoors in a torrential downpour, and once following my unintentional and unexpected entry into a pond. Both times, the phone I had apparently turned itself off, nor did I try to turn it back on. Instead, I simply put it on a shelf for a (very peaceful) week. Each time, when I finally tried it, it came on and worked until replaced a year or so later. Granted, I live in Arizona. Don't know if this method would work in a humid area. What do you think?

Although apparently not recommended, I have used a hair dryer with the heat on. Stopping when the phone would get heated up, letting it cool down a bit, them back with the heated air. Very effective. I have also used a warm oven set below 150. Also effective for me. In one of those instances I also dipped the phone in rubbing alcohol before the drying process. Never had success with rice.Again, my ways are not recommended, but worked for me.

Water evaporates quickly in a vacuum but it has to be a greater vacuum then a vacuum cleaner can produce. The R-11 is a good idea but like Mike said it has to be air not liquid. Best idea here is the hairdryer with not heat but it will take days not minutes to get your phone dry. I would just send it to TecDry. That is your best chance.

All the solutions I have seen seem to presuppose you walk around with your phone shut off. They never say to power it off, which would have the effect of running current through the device to send that signal anyway one assumes. Seems to me I would get a message, alert or phone call before I could carry out any of these plans. iPhone 6 batteries are not easily removed. So my question is, what is the first step?

About 18 months ago I had a Samsung which wasn't directly exposed to rain still got wet, it was in a jacket pocket and the moisture, which was great, found its way to it. It didn't work so I tried the rice method and it brought it back to life however a few months later it died. I tried to get it covered under warranty but Samsung said there was water damage. Perhaps Samsung should make a better phone in the future.

I don't use loose silica gel, I save the little packets that come in pill bottles, shoes, purses, etc. and keep them in a zip lock bag for just such emergencies. This way, there is no damage from the silica dust, and the packets give a little (very little) airspace around them. people need to be aware that if you keep the phone in the bathroom while showering,even if it doesn't get wet, it can still can suffer water damage. This applies to ALL cell phones, not just one manufacturer. It is recommended to dry the cell phone for at least 3 days to be on the safeside.

Let me start from the beginning. In the early 90's, I had my first cell. I've dropped some cells in a puddle, snow bank, and the ocean. After learning from these "accidents, I buy my cells and carry them in a belt clip, plastic slide-in holster (won't fall out, and the screen is faced in to protect it). My cell is also wrapped in a 2 part cover, rubber and plastic, to protect it from "wet." Now, that being said, I remember years back when you drive through a street puddle, the distributor would get wet, and the car would stall. I always kept a can of ether in the car (learning from experience), because all you had to do was click open the distributor cap, spray ether in the cap, and replace it. The car would start, and off you went. Well, now there's no distributor caps, and I don't know if they sell ether any more.
Just another thought: WD-40 might dry out the moisture (I think I read that somewhere, but I wouldn't bet on it. Just a thought).

Bob says "If you dropped your phone in salty or dirty water, I recommend gently rinsing it in distilled water or isopropyl alcohol BEFORE attempting to dry it out. Distilled water does not conduct electricity and can safely be used for this purpose. Alcohol binds with water is very good at pulling moisture out of small spaces."

1) distilled water can be found a most pharmacies and some hardware stores and works GREAT.

2) when using isopropanol ("Alcohol") do NOT

My daughter used a compressor to blow out her phone then put it in rice and it works like new.

whoops! -- When using Alcohol make sure you have AT LEAST 70% or it can take forever and a day to dry your device out. (Literally, not figuratively). You can find 70% 'Alcohol' at any drug store. Your BEST bet is to go to a hardware store and get 90% denatured Ethanol or Methanol - the Ethanol is 'denatured' so you can't drink it without going blind, destroying your liver and kidneys and frying your eyes as well as your brain. The higher the percent (proof)and the better you soak your device the faster it will dry -- place in a warm spot, back off, battery et.al, OUT -- and you can bet on a dry device in a couple of hours -- add the absolutely lowest setting on a hair dryer, and you can be up and running in about half an hour -- just because it looks dry to your eye on the outside, doesn't mean the water or water-alcohol solution has left the premises -- let it sit for another half hour to be certain.

I've used this technique ever since the dawn of consumer transistors, and never had it fail once -- and that's been well close to 1000 times or so.

HIGH PERCENTAGE METHANOL, ETHANOL (hardware store in the paint department) PLUS HAIR DRYER ON LOW, AND REMEMBER HEAT IS NOT YOUR FRIEND HERE - USE IT **ONLY** TO GET THE ALCOHOL TO PULL THE WATER OUT - THEN SET THE DEVICE IN A WARM AREA, WITH SOME MOVING AIR - AND YOU WILL BE READY TO GO IN ABOUT AN HOUR -- WITHOUT ANY DAMAGE. If you can't get 'distilled' water, soak it in the very high percent alcohol - 80% is low so look for alcohol in the 90% range, and here heat can be your friend helping pull the water out of your device as the alcohol clings to it as IT evaporates; then to be sure, just let it sit in a warm air-moving environment for half an hour or more if you feel you need to - and you have saved your phone. But remember this is like CPR for your device - and unless you do the right things very fast and in the right order, you will have the same 'quality of life save' as CPR -- about 5 (as in FIVE) percent.

Recently bought 90% isopropyl at Walmart.

Lowering air pressure lowers the boiling point of water. As we go up a mountain, water boils at increasingly lower temperatures. Thus, putting a wet phone into a vacuum, or near vacuum, does not "suck" the water out, it is boiling it out -- that's steam rising from the wet surface, even though no heat beyond the ambient heat in the room is applied.

This is the method used when archival documents get wet. Except it is normal in that case to put them in a blast freezer first to arrest deterioration. the Frozen documents are then "Freeze Dried" with a vacuum chamber. The water will come out right from Ice to Vapor.

Contrary to previous post, vacuum sealers WILL
provide a long term vacuum if a proper container is used.