You must have experienced it, your precious smartphone has had a nice bath, is looking new and clean, but you fear it’s ‘cleaned’ forever. Even if you have been lucky enough and have never experienced such a ‘dip’, read the article so that you know in advance what steps to take immediately when such an accident occurs, ’cause you gotta be quick!

However, if you are quick enough, you may save your wet cell phone. Follow the steps below to save your wet mobile or most other wet gadgets. I will be using a Nokia E71 for the tutorial:

• Get the phone out of water ASAP! Pull off the back cover and remove the battery.
  Just disconnect the battery because water being a great conductor may short the circuits inside if you don’t cut the power supply in time. This is the most crucial step and decides whether your mobile will be saved or buried.
• Remove all detachable accessories.
  Detach your memory card, SIM card, any external covers or peripherals to open up as many gaps as you can. Mostly the SIM & memory card will be alright, so just wipe dry them and keep them aside till we focus on the cell.
  
• Dry your mobile
  Even a drop of water can be lethal for your mobile by corroding it or shorting the circuit. You may use blotting paper, newspaper or tissue paper to dry the mobile, but take care the paper doesn’t get stuck in the gaps.
  
• Wipe with cleaning alcohol.
  Once you have removed the battery and wiped your phone dry from outside, you can dip an ear bud in cleaning alcohol and swipe it across the back cover (where the battery is placed). Alcohol will displace water.
  
• Use a vacuum cleaner.
  Suck out the moisture from your mobile with a vacuum cleaner. Keep turning & rotating the phone while using a vacuum cleaner to reach all areas, for at least 20-30 minutes. Don’t take the cleaner too near to the cell or it may build up static electricity which may harm your phone.
  
• Use Silica gel or Rice to absorb moisture
  If you have silica gel packs (found in water bottles, laptop cases, shoes), place your mobile with the packs in an air tight container overnight. Silica gel will absorb moisture from the cell. If you don’t have silica packs, dip your mobile in a bowl of raw, dry rice as it has high affinity for water & will absorb moisture like silica, when kept overnight. If you are using rice, you can keep the bowl with your mobile in front of an Air conditioner as the AC emits dry air.
  
• Testing time!
  Now that you have given your mobile a good night’s sleep (with silica or rice), its time to test your hard work. Make sure once again that there are simply no traces of moisture on your cell. Like, foggy screen shows moisture is still trapped inside. Attach the battery and try to switch on your phone.
  • Passed?? 
    Great. You have saved your mobile. Now take good care of your cell in the future. You can buy a wet cell phone emergency kit for future emergencies.
    
  • Failed?!?! :0
    Remove your battery, plug in the charger and start your phone (yup, without the battery).
    • Working?? 
      If it starts, your battery is damaged, not the cell, get a new battery.
    • Not working?? 
      If not, go to customer service center. No need hiding the fact that your cell was damaged from water, they’ll know it from the dedicated circular indicators on battery/back of phone that change color when water seeps in. Mine changed color from white to red.
      

Don’ts

Do not shake your phone.
Shaking may push the water through to the interiors, even where water may not have seeped in earlier. Also, you do not want your mobile crash landing on the floor.

Do not keep your cell in the sun for long.
Sunlight may heat up the mobile. Never place your phone in direct sunlight for long time.

Do not use a hair dryer. Not even the cold mode.
Hair dryer will force moisture further into the smaller components of the phone. Heating will leave behind salts & minerals that may oxidate and corrode the circuits or even worse, melt some internal components.

Do not put your cell inside a refrigerator/freezer
It’s so cold inside, you may end up damaging your LCD or cracking the circuits inside. This is a foolish step but dunno why, I have seen many people/sites recommending this.

Do not heat the battery
Never try to heat the battery in order to dry it. Lithium-ion batteries  are very sensitive to heat and may explode, leading to injuries.

Do not put your cell in a microwave oven
This is another foolish step but many people/sites recommend this.You may end up over-heating the circuits and LCD or it may burn altogether, damaging your oven as well, setting fire to your oven and mobile…and house too maybe. Okay, that’s enough. You got it no?

Do not switch on the mobile if screen is foggy
Foggy screen indicates that moisture is still trapped in the screen. Use vacuum cleaner and leave cell with silica packs overnight.

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Author: Ishaan Garg

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Ishaan Garg has written 115 article(s) at TrickVilla. Co-Founder, Admin at TrickVilla, am a tech geek. My areas of interest include multimedia editing, SEO, web-designing, gadgets & more.

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Author: Ishaan GargCategories: Mobile, Security
Tags: mobile Last Updated: March 30, 2012