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View Full Version : Advice needed after dropping phone in water


ryams27
04-06-2009, 04:10 PM
Hey guys,

I am currently going through this myself, and was hoping you guys could offer some advice about how best to proceed.

On Saturday afternoon (two days ago), I dropped my iPhone 3G in the toilet (which, thankfully, was spotless at the time). Although it was completely submersed momentarily, I retrieved it almost instantly and began shaking the water from it, blowing in the headphone jack and dock connector, and drying with a towel/hair dryer.

While it initially acted a little screwed up (I think it gave me the Emergency Call screen briefly), it quickly rebounded and appeared to be functioning fine. Within a matter of 10 minutes or so, however, the touchscreen lost all functionality. I also began getting the "airplane mode" prompt repeatedly. The buttons on the phone, however, still worked perfectly.

Since that time, the phone has been sitting idle, although the power has been on (reset it a few times, but didn't know how to power it off with the touchscreen not working). During that time, I received several calls/texts that could not be answered/responded to due to the touchscreen. Finally, this morning, the battery ran out of power, and the phone turned off.

After being off for about an hour or two, I plugged the phone back into my computer, as I was planning to try a restore, etc. Well, what do you know--after powering back, everything is apparently working perfectly.

While things appear to be fine for now, I'm concerned that this is merely a temporary revival, and I want to be sure that it keeps working properly (and many people warn not to use the device after being exposed to water).

Do you guys have any advice as to what to do? Should I power it down and keep it off for a while? Try the rice trick? Or do you think I'm in the clear?

As a risk averse person, I would just power it down for several days to be extra safe, but I rely on my phone quite heavily on a daily basis for my job, so I don't want to be without it unless others think using it right now is a bad policy.

Thoughts?

psylichon
04-06-2009, 04:13 PM
Using it now is the worst thing you can do to it. Keep it powered off and in a dark plastic bag filled with uncooked rice. Keep it under a lamp or in a warm spot to speed up the process. But whatever you do, do not turn it on for at least a couple days to a couple weeks sometimes! You should find a backup phone to use in the meantime.

PepeRB29
04-06-2009, 04:19 PM
take your sim out and go buy a gsm phone from walmart (20 bucks). follow what psy said and just use that phone for the time being.







oh and don't drop it in the toilet again

ryams27
04-06-2009, 04:22 PM
Thanks so much for the quick responses, guys. Very helpful and much appreciated.

Just out of curiosity, why a dark plastic bag? And probably a very stupid question, but it matters not whether it is brown or white rice, correct?

psylichon
04-06-2009, 04:45 PM
A dark bag will absorb more heat and speed up the process. The color of rice doesn't matter as long as it's dry and uncooked. Good luck!

newleacher22
04-06-2009, 04:49 PM
Thanks so much for the quick responses, guys. Very helpful and much appreciated.

Just out of curiosity, why a dark plastic bag? And probably a very stupid question, but it matters not whether it is brown or white rice, correct?

use this phrase on google

"why dark colors absorb more heat"

ryams27
04-06-2009, 04:52 PM
A dark bag will absorb more heat and speed up the process. The color of rice doesn't matter as long as it's dry and uncooked. Good luck!

Thank again. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

MrEous
04-06-2009, 08:16 PM
Only out of curiosity...but did the headphone jack turn red at the bottom?

ryams27
04-06-2009, 08:29 PM
Only out of curiosity...but did the headphone jack turn red at the bottom?

It sure did. Initially, it looked like it had somehow managed to remain completely white, but after purchasing and using a lighted magnifying glass, I could see that half the indicator had turned pink/red.

CootShooter
04-09-2009, 11:39 PM
I dropped my iPhone 3G in the toilet... I could see that half the indicator had turned pink/red.

Just be glad it wasn't brown! :eek:

jptolife
04-10-2009, 08:13 AM
I'm not recommending that you do this but I had a similar situation. What I did was blow dry it for like 30 minutes and after it was completely dry, I turned it back on and is still working to this day like nothing happened. This happened months ago. The water indicator turned red though :( Now I can't take to back to apple.

jerni
04-10-2009, 09:58 AM
Wow good luck with that, my husbands iPhone was dropped in butter victim to a crab leg dinner. And my resolution to that was, going to Best Buy opening another line and buying another one. Hope you don't have to come to that.

P.S. Butter stains...iphones

surfacerising
04-16-2009, 08:10 PM
I've had problems with phones it water, and I found that after awhile they kind of just.. slowly start working again. Probably doesn't help you, but should give you some hope that it will work again.

Pimpboy51
04-19-2009, 03:17 AM
Man I swear I'll cry like a baby if I dropped mines in water. Just be glad it wasn't a pool! If your phone fell into a pool then lord jesus can protect it, because it will most likely be it's trip to heaven. And again, lucky your toilet was clean because pee and poo are acidy and iPhones would die in a matter of seconds if it were some type of acid. Water just takes time to dry, and sylicon's instructions are very good. Usually prepaid phones run around 8-13 at Wal Mart. Good luck and post as soon as you get the results.

E_Dub
04-21-2009, 12:45 PM
I knocked mine off the counter into the toilet at the beginning of winter. After removing the SIM, shaking what water out I could. I simply wrapped it in a towel and laid it on the vent over night. The heat from the vent worked wonders for me. Haven't had an issue with it yet.