If you drop your iPhone in a sink or swimming pool, you will immediately panic. Rescuing a wet phone may or may not work, but there are a few tricks that can help. With luck, you can dry your phone and get it back to working normally.
Step
Part 1 of 2: Knowing What to Do Immediately
Step 1. Take the phone out of the water
While this is perfectly logical, you might panic when you drop your phone in water. Calm down, then get the phone out of the water as quickly as possible.
Step 2. Unplug the cable plugged into the phone
If it turns out that the phone is in a plugged position, then unplug the cable as quickly as possible from the cellphone. Be careful when unplugging the cord so you don't get electrocuted.
Make sure that your finger is not near where the end of the cable and the phone's power port meet. Hold the phone with one hand, then unplug the charging cable by pulling the wire part of the cable about a few centimeters below where the end of the cable meets the phone's power port. Under normal circumstances, it is not recommended that you pull the cable from the wire section as this can cause the ends of the cable to fray, but in this case, you should do this to avoid electrocution
Step 3. Turn off the phone
Ideally, you should unplug the battery first. Since you can't do that on an iPhone, the best thing you can do next is turn off the phone as soon as possible.
Step 4. Remove the SIM card
You will need a paperclip or a SIM card eject tool to do this.
- Locate the SIM card tray on the iPhone. The SIM card tray is usually on the right side of the iPhone. You will see a small hole.
- Insert a paperclip or SIM card eject tool into the hole. The SIM card will pop out. Leave the SIM card tray unlocked for now.
Step 5. Wipe the phone with a towel
Wipe the phone with a towel to dry the exterior as soon as possible.
You can also wipe a towel over the phone's ports to get water out of the ports
Part 2 of 2: Taking Further Action
Step 1. Remove the water from inside the port
Try shaking the phone to remove water trapped in the port. You can also blow the port with high pressure air to let the water out. However, make sure that you don't blow until the water gets back into the inside of the phone, so be careful.
To use high-pressure air, position the air can on one side of the port, not in the middle of the port. Spray the air, then the water should come out the other side of the port
Step 2. Choose a type of drying agent
Some people use plain rice to dry their phones, but plain rice is not the best choice. Instant rice is slightly better than regular rice, but it will slip into the port. An even better option is silica gel. Silica gel is usually packaged in small packages and is usually placed with many types of electronics. Silica gel absorbs water better than rice. You can try to collect silica gel at home, or you can also buy it from a craft supply store. You need a fair amount of silica gel to surround the phone. The last option you have is to use a dryer bag, which is a bag specifically designed to dry a wet phone. You can buy it online or at an electronics store.
- If you can't find enough silica gel packs, you can try using crystallized cat litter, which basically does the same thing.
- Some tests have shown that it may be better to leave the phone in the open air than to immerse it in a drying agent.
Step 3. Soak the phone in the drying agent
If you're using rice, protect your phone from rice by wrapping it in a tissue first before soaking it in rice. Soak the phone in a bowl of rice. If using silica gel, try to surround your phone with as many silica gel packs as you have available. For the dryer bag, just put the phone in the pocket, then close the bag tightly.
Step 4. Allow the phone to dry
Let the phone dry for at least 2 days. Make sure that the components inside the phone are dry. Otherwise, the phone will be short-circuited when trying to turn it on.
Step 5. Reinstall the SIM card
Reinsert the SIM card tray into the phone. Make sure that you insert it in the same direction as when the card was removed.
Step 6. Try turning on the phone
Once the phone is completely dry, you can try turning it back on. If you're lucky, your phone will turn on and function normally, and you can continue using your phone as usual.
Tips
- Try a waterproof phone case to anticipate incidents like this.
- If you can, order a cell phone drying kit ahead of time and keep the kit handy when you need it.
Warning
- Do not use a hairdryer or other heat source to dry the phone. The heat generated can make the phone more damaged.
- While phones are best dried open, the warranty will be void if you do so. Also, if you don't understand what you're doing, the phone will get even more damaged if you open it. However, water damage usually voids the phone's warranty as well, so it's probably nothing to worry about.
- Even if the phone is successfully made to work again, the damage caused by water may be permanent, especially to the phone's battery. The battery may fail within a few months or may even become very hot.
