Reading Time: 4 minutes What to do When Your Smartphone Gets Wet
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Oh no! Your iPhone just fell into the toilet, pool, sink, or other body of water. What now? How do you dry a wet iPhone or save other smartphones from water damage? It’s a common problem. Many people want to know what to do when your smartphone gets wet.
I was in a cell phone store once and a woman was insisting her phone never got wet. Well, guess what? They can tell. When a cell phone technician opens up the phone, there a wet sensor that will show whether the phone has had any water damage. I watched the sales tech opened the phone and showed the water damage indicator to the woman. She finally admitted that she dropped her phone into the toilet.
If you are on this blog post, it’s probably because you are looking for a way to dry your smartphone. Thankfully, there are some ways to save your iPhone from water damage. This post is all about how to dry a wet iPhone or other smartphone and save it from water damage.
How to Dry a Wet Smartphone
The CNET Way To Save a Wet Smartphone
Discover the secret to drying out a wet smartphone, and get tips on how to prevent future accidents with the video below.
Here are some things you’ll need on hand to use this method for drying a wet iPhone and get in order to prevent the water damage from happening in the first place.
Silica Gel Packets for Drying Your iPhone
Don’t throw out those little silica packets in medicine bottles or snack foods. Collect them and keep the around in times of need. If you do not have any on hand, you can buy silica gel packets here or buy a Bheestie Bag invented for the sole purpose of drying wet smartphones.
Large Ziplock Bags
Lifeproof Smartphone Case to Protect Your Phone from Water Damage
If you want to protect your phone, then check out the Lifeproof Smartphone Cases here. These smartphone cases are both waterproof and snow proof, fully submergible to 6.6’/2 m for 1 hour!
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Waterproof Smartphone Pouches
When we went to Schlitterbahn over the summer, I saw a ton of these waterproof smartphone pouches. You can bring them to the pool, beach, and waterpark. In addition, you can even take pictures and video underwater!
What does MacWorld Recommend for iPhone or iPad and Fix iPhone water damage?
1. First, get the phone out of the water. Duh! Remove the case, SIM card, battery, and wipe it down.
2. Since you don’t want to short any circuits, use the phone as little as possible. Choose to either power down or leave it in sleep mode. Although neither is a great option, MacWorld believes the better option is to wake the iPhone briefly in order to completely power down.
3. To completely remove all moisture from the inside of the phone you’ll need a desiccant or drying agent. The most popular is uncooked rice. You can read more about the method to rescue a soaked iPhone with the rice trick. But, the best, is to use silica packets, as mentioned previously.
4. As a last resort, if you are really feeling adventurous, not recommended is the Dismantling your iPhone or iPad route.
How to Save a Wet Smartphone without Rice
If you want to rescue a wet iPhone and either don’t have rice or don’t want to use rice, then there are a few options. In one example, you can use silica packets, as mentioned earlier.
First, dry your phone, carefully, with a can of compressed air or an air compressor set to a low psi. As a last resort, use a wet/dry Shop Vac.
Hopefully, those will give you some options on what to do when you drop your phone in water. If you have any other suggestions on ways to dry a wet iPhone and rescue smartphones from water damage, please leave a comment.
Rachel is an Austin blogger, educator, mom, wife, young breast cancer survivor writing about health, saving money, and living a happy life in Austin, Texas.
Rachel has written for HuffPost and Hometalk and has been featured on KXAN, Studio 512, Fox 7 Austin, and CBS Austin.