How To Save A Wet iPhone – Dropped In Water

By
On June 26, 2013

What you need to know if you dropped your iPhone or any other electronic device in water.

For starters I know that this also happened to me back when I had an iPhone 3GS and I dropped it in a pool and yes I managed to save it without any negative consequences.

The first thing you must know and most importantly:

Do not try to start your device after you’ve removed it from the water and if it is still on close it immediately.  The next step is to clean it with an absorbent material, to hitch it a little as an idea of removing some water and then clean it again.

Don’t, caution, do not use heat to dry the iPhone. Although it may not work if the water reached the electronics, there is a risk of permanently destroying the device. I made this mistake with a camera and the result was the complete destruction of it.

The correct method of drying is to introduce the iPhone in a closed bag with Silica Gel but how this solution is quite difficult there is another almost as efficient and handy solution. RICE, yes you read right rice, iPhone or any electronic device after it fell in water needs to be closed and quickly cleaned, it needs to be inserted into a bag of rice to surround all the device’s surface. Grain of rice is rated very high absorption of liquids and is very effective. As I wrote above I tried this method and it works.

Another thing worth mentioning is the time that the device stays in rice. If the object was removed from the water very quickly for 1-2 seconds probably mention that 24 hours should be sufficient. If the subject fell into the water and stayed there for a longer time from 10 seconds to a few minutes, it is recommended that the device to be left in rice between 3 days and 2 weeks. The more the better as if you try to restart your device when there is still water in it we risk frying it. In my case for 5 to 10 seconds in the water it took 6 days in rice.