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Wet Phone

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I'm sure everyone has had this happened at some point or another. I've read a lot of different ideas about what the best fix for a wet phone is I'm not really sure what the best thing to do is. Recently I had my HTC Desire get wet (I was standing out in the rain [so relaxing! :D] and forgot it was still in my pocket). When I got inside it was totally dead. I took it completely apart and allowed all the parts to dry overnight. It seems to work now minus the camera. Would I have been better to clean it with something? Dry it artificially? Or just let it dry as I did?

Post here how your phone got wet and what you did to fix it, successful or not. :D
 





I once forgot my phone in a bag with a water bottle:o It was completely underwater when I took it out, I immediately pulled out the battery and I just let it sit in a lot of rice for one or two days (rice absorbs the water very good). Amazingly, everything was fine afterwards! Just remember if you dry it with something like a hair dryer to not blow the water further inside the phone!
 
Don't dry it with heat, whatever you do! Keep it away from the sun, and put it in a container with some rice or silica gel, or just sit it on a shelf somewhere. If you heat it up, the water will evaporate and seep further into the phone. It will also cause slight expansion, and if there is water in the LCD, it may de-laminate it.
 
Cube777 said:
I immediately pulled out the battery and I just let it sit in a lot of rice for one or two days (rice absorbs the water very good). Amazingly, everything was fine afterwards! Just remember if you dry it with something like a hair dryer to not blow the water further inside the phone!
Click to expand...

Things said:
Don't dry it with heat, whatever you do! Keep it away from the sun, and put it in a container with some rice or silica gel, or just sit it on a shelf somewhere. If you heat it up, the water will evaporate and seep further into the phone. It will also cause slight expansion, and if there is water in the LCD, it may de-laminate it.
Click to expand...

Next time something like this happens to you do this. ^^^
Do not turn on the device (it could possibly fry something) just pull out the battery and set it in a bag of rice or silica gel for a few days. Most of the time this works. I had an HTC Desire also and it was a really good phone to me. Right now, I would recommend rice for a few days. I know you turned it on, but this might make the camera work again. My sisters ipod went through the wash and worked after she did that.

Good luck!
 
Speaking as someone who repaired mobile's for a living for the last 12 years (or Cell's if you prefer) and having repaired hundreds of liquid damaged mobiles I can tell you this.

In the early days mobiles were a lot simpler, and we used a ultrasonic jewelry cleaner with alcohol, that fixed 99% of phones.

Nowadays phones are a lot more complicated and that doesn't work. What we do now is immediately strip the phone down and hammer it with this stuff Servisol Electronic cleaning solvent 400ML aerosol can miscible with water for efficient removal of moisture (Isopropyl)Isopropyl Alchohol - Consumable: Amazon.co.uk: Grocery It drives the moisture out , then immediately hit it with quite a high heat from a hot air source. We've had good success using this method. But the LCD's rarely survive liquid damage.

The bowl of rice thing is codswallop . Anyone who "fixes" liquid damage this way has simply been lucky, and the phone was probably going to work anyway if left to naturally dry.
 
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I agree that the rice method won't work if the liquid has got into the LCD, once you get a bit of liquid between the layers, it's done for. It might work again, but it'll never look good again.

Though, if it has avoided the LCD and just seeped into the electronics, then I have had success with the rice method before.

The main reason for this is I live in the tropics, the humidity is so high that leaving something wet out to sit won't do anything, too much moisture in the air already for it to evaporate. Putting it in a container with rice provides a dry environment and it'll dry out MUCH faster, possibly avoiding corrosion.
 
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You'd probably have more luck with a proper desiccant no?
 
Heh,

Was driving our boat around in slightly choppy conditions. The sound of waves hitting the hull as well as the outboard meant I also couldn't hear anything so when my phone slipped out of my pocket, across the carpet and to the bottom of the boat, I didn't notice until a few minutes later.

My phone (Galaxy s3) had been sitting in a puddle of salt water the whole time. When we got home I removed the rear portion of the phone and spent about 2 hours scrubbing away with spirits and a toothbrush. Miraculously, my phone turned back on even after having salt caked on to the circuit board. Still need to replace my camera's and LED though. Unfortunately the led requires the whole motherboard to be replaced as it is soldered on :(

Imo, placing my phone under the sun for a while stopped the salt from spreading further in to the phone, but I was lucky.
 
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Woah. I feel lucky now mine was only rainwater. :eek: I'm probably just going to leave it as-is. I don't really use the camera or LED, so not having those isn't a big deal. Everything else seems to work. Although for some reason a HUGE crack opened in the screen. As the phone was just sitting on my desk not being touched...
 
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