Do you see your dropped phone in water? Take it out and make sure it’s off!
I know it’s hard to react quickly when such a devastating event takes place, but you must snap out of it! The longer your device stays underwater, the lower its chances of survival are. You must dig in there and take that phone out of the water right away. Yes… even if it’s in the toilet!
Once the phone is out of the water, make sure it’s off and stays that way. Even if it seems fine… it is important to shut it off just in case. If the phone is still on, just shut it down or take the battery out if you can. Then put it in a safe place, preferably on a flat surface over some paper towels.
The good news is that even non-waterproof phones these days are generally at least a little more resistant to water than phones from years past, and so there are a few things you can do — as well as shouldn’t do — if you want to make it through without too much damage.
What not to do after you see your dropped phone in water
The following actions can mean the difference between a totaled phone or a survival story. You better be careful what you do. Before we jump into finding a solution, let’s try to prevent major failures you could cause.
- Do not turn on the phone, as we already mentioned. Electrical components don’t play well with water when operating.
- Don’t plug it in either! For the same reason.
- Don’t press any keys. This can push water further into the phone. It’s best to try to mess with the phone as little as possible.
- Don’t shake or blow into the device. This could also push water into deeper areas of the phone. Especially try to avoid blow driers – not only because of the blowing part, but also because of the following point.
- Do not apply any heat to the phone. Remember excessive heat can also damage the phone. You don’t want to add more damage!
- Don’t move the phone around too much. Same deal; you don’t want the water moving around inside the phone.
Disassemble the water damaged phone
Don’t mistake this step with “take the whole darn phone apart”! What I mean is that you should remove everything that is user-removable. If you back cover is removable, take it off. Similarly, try to remove the battery (if you can), SIM card and SD card. Lay it all out in the paper towel.
Now, if you are an experienced tech specialist of sorts and know the ins and outs of a phone, and don’t mind risking voiding your warranty, you can go ahead and take the whole phone apart too. It might help with drying up every single piece faster. Just be careful, if you don’t know what you’re doing this could cause more harm than good.
Try to dry the exterior with a paper towel
We first have to try to get rid of all the excess water found in the exterior of your phone. Use the paper towel to dry out every component. Just make sure you don’t mess with the phone too much. Gently dry everything out without moving things around too much.
You could try a vacuum cleaner
Of course, there are areas the paper towel can’t access. And while we told you not to blow anything into the phone, we didn’t tell you not to suction the water out. In fact, a vacuum cleaner can suck off bits of water from the phone without too much risk. Just make sure the suctioning doesn’t make the phone move around excessively.
Time to dry it out
The hardest part is coming, because it involves leaving the phone untouched for an extended period of time. This means you can’t use your smartphone! If you have another phone you can borrow, just make sure the SIM card is completely dried out and stick it into the working handset. Otherwise, just resort to smoke signals, public phones and all that archaic stuff.
So how do you dry your phone out? You could just leave the phone on top of the counter or inside a drawer, but some people like giving it a little help. The idea is to put it in an environment that will ease its drying process. A very common practice is to put the phone in a Ziploc bag full of rice and let it rest there for about two or three days.
