Water damage indicator - Page 10

Spikey911 · 11-07-2008, 04:56 PM

If you take the Iphone apart, you will see that the water damage indicator is actually in back of the headphone jack.
So its not actually inside of the jack itself, its at the back and shows through clear plastic.

Technically, if a drop gets into the headphone jack, it won't affect the indicator.
However if water gets inside the phone, of course it will trigger it.

All this is a reason why we don't have a removeable battery, and why we don't have external flash card memory...

The more holes, the more ways water can get in..

dlaidlaw · 11-07-2008, 06:10 PM

I did take it apart. There was no evidence of water damage, although the indicator was pink. The volume switch has what seems to be a mechanical problem, but because of the pink indicator, Apple won't repair it...

jsntrenkler · 11-10-2008, 12:34 AM

Count me in if for a Class Action.

zanoii · 12-09-2008, 02:11 AM

So.. none of you bothered to search for an official document?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3302

You can tell if the Liquid Submersion Indicator has been triggered by looking directly down into the headphone jack. Either use a lighted magnifying glass, or angle the iPhone or iPod so light shines down the headphone jack. At the base of the headphone jack, you should see what is normally a white dot. Half of the dot becomes red (or a pinkish color) when the device has been submerged in liquid. iPhone 3G models also have an Liquid Submersion Indicator located on the bottom of the connector housing, just under the 30-Pin dock connector.

There you go.

CaptainCarl · 02-03-2009, 02:09 AM

my iphone was returned to an apple store because of the silent toggle breaking off. another common problem with the design.

the genius took out his little micro light thing and peeked down into the headphone jack. without even looking at the broken toggle, he handed me back my phone and said; "sorry man, your phone has water damage, so the warrantee is void". excuse me sir? there is nothing wrong with my phone, besides the broken toggle i said. he replies, "this is the part of my job that i hate the most. ive had to turn away lots of pissed off customers because of water damage". i asked him what could be done to keep water from entering (my phone has never been exposed to water directly, only walking down the street in rainy Oregon and maybe while sitting on the shelf in the bathroom while i shower). he says to me, "well, what i do, is keep a finger over the headphone socket in order to keep any moisture from entering".

absolutely brilliant! nice job Apple! very clever way to void the warrantee just as the customer leaves the controlled environment of the Apple Store.

count me in for a class action if it ever gets filed.

TKiwi · 02-10-2009, 03:38 AM

Originally Posted by CaptainCarl

my iphone was returned to an apple store because of the silent toggle breaking off. another common problem with the design.

the genius took out his little micro light thing and peeked down into the headphone jack. without even looking at the broken toggle, he handed me back my phone and said; "sorry man, your phone has water damage, so the warrantee is void". excuse me sir? there is nothing wrong with my phone, besides the broken toggle i said. he replies, "this is the part of my job that i hate the most. ive had to turn away lots of pissed off customers because of water damage". i asked him what could be done to keep water from entering (my phone has never been exposed to water directly, only walking down the street in rainy Oregon and maybe while sitting on the shelf in the bathroom while i shower). he says to me, "well, what i do, is keep a finger over the headphone socket in order to keep any moisture from entering".

absolutely brilliant! nice job Apple! very clever way to void the warrantee just as the customer leaves the controlled environment of the Apple Store.

This is exactly what just happened to me, except I can not recall ever exposing my iPhone to liquid at all. The indicator under my headphone jack has not been triggered and is still pristine white but somehow the indicator under the 30 Pin Connector has been triggered to a pink/red colour.

I am not that concerned about the Silent Button being broken, I could glue that on myself. What I am concerned about is that despite me taking good care of my phone (a lot more care than I have ever taken with a phone) if I have a problem with my iPhone that really stops the phone from working due to a genuine fault it wont be covered by the warranty. It is a bit of a scam if you ask me, who’s to say that the indicator was not triggered before I bought it? How sensitive is this indicator? If spit from me talking into the end of the phone triggers it then that is ridiculous. This could certainly be the case and if it is I have in effect voided the warranty by talking into the phone. BS if you ask me.

Has anyone got any ideas on how I can validate my warranty so that if something really goes wrong I will be able to return the phone?

Rkilbane20 · 02-10-2009, 04:29 PM

I got a nice water damage story. I left my slvr in my pants pocket and washed and dried the phone. After finally finding it still in my pocket it worked fine no problem.

Another one, my brother spilled a cup of water on his phone trying to turn his alarm off and his dot is still white.

cattyski · 06-28-2009, 02:22 AM

Sign me up for a class action!

I dropped my iphone (for the umpteenth time) and this time, my plastic casing didn't take the blow, and my screen cracked. I quickly made an appt at the Genius bar, and was relieved to learn that a single crack is covered under my Applecare, but a few seconds later was FLOORED to learn that my warranty was voided due to water damage!!!

Now, I readily admitted to dropping my phone - well - more times than I care to mention, but water damage?!?!?! My phone has never been submerged in water - EVER! Like an earlier poster mentioned, the closest would be having it sit on the counter in the bathroom while I showered. I asked it condensation could've triggered the sensor? They said no - that it would take a heck of a lot more water than that - that not even a few rain drops would trigger the sensor to turn pink.

At least two others at the counter were being told they same thing as me.

Apple Scam?

Ramesh · 06-28-2009, 02:27 AM

Originally Posted by cattyski

Sign me up for a class action!

I dropped my iphone (for the umpteenth time) and this time, my plastic casing didn't take the blow, and my screen cracked. I quickly made an appt at the Genius bar, and was relieved to learn that a single crack is covered under my Applecare, but a few seconds later was FLOORED to learn that my warranty was voided due to water damage!!!

Now, I readily admitted to dropping my phone - well - more times than I care to mention, but water damage?!?!?! My phone has never been submerged in water - EVER! Like an earlier poster mentioned, the closest would be having it sit on the counter in the bathroom while I showered. I asked it condensation could've triggered the sensor? They said no - that it would take a heck of a lot more water than that - that not even a few rain drops would trigger the sensor to turn pink.

At least two others at the counter were being told they same thing as me.

Apple Scam?

Get a flashlight and look into the headphone jack. If it's not white, then something triggered it.

cattyski · 06-28-2009, 02:31 AM

re: "Get a flashlight and look into the headphone jack. If it's not white, then something triggered it."

Yeah - they showed me that it was no longer white, but I honestly have NO recollection of it EVER being exposed to liquid. Not even a little bit!