What to do if your phone get wet or drop inside water

First Things TO DO

1. Make sure the phone is off or that you turn off the phone. Most phones die because they short circuit due to the fact that the electronics inside are still being powered. Water and electricity don’t mix at all
2. Take out the battery if you have a phone that allows you to access the battery. For something like the iPhone, you can only turn it off, but if you can get to the battery, go ahead and take it out quickly.
3. Next, take out the SIM card if you can access that. If you have important data saved on the SIM card, it might be worth the few seconds to take it out. If you can’t figure it out or it’s taking too long, just forget about it and move on.  However, the iPhone doesn’t store much of anything on the SIM card, so it’s not a huge worry if the card goes bad.
4. Remove all cases or covers or anything else that might be attached or covering the phone. You basically want it to be bare so that you can start the process of getting all the water out of it.

Initial Drying

One of the first mistakes people made when their phone got wet was that they started shaking the  it. Thinking that hard  shaking  could force all the water out of the open ports and holes at the top and bottom. Big mistake! Shaking your phone really hard will only allow the water to find it’s way to the other dry parts of your phone. SO, DO NOT SHAKE!

 Try  to keep the phone flat and horizontal as that will prevent the water from moving around inside the phone. If you are able to open the battery compartment, go ahead and wipe the inside also.

If you have an iPhone or device that cannot be opened at all, you’ll have to wipe the outside and then try some of the methods mentioned below.

The two important things for initial drying are:
1. Do not shake the phone
2. Do not  move it around . Keep it horizontal as much as possible.

Drying method

Fans, Blowers & hair dryer
Obviously, using air in some form is not bad. What you can do is put your phone in front of a fan or in front of a heater where the air is warm. If you have a  heater that can blow air, place up your phone on something and let it sit in front of the blast for a few hours at least.

You can use a hair dryer, but it should be  warm  and also should be a decent distance away from the phone.

NOTE : Avoid excess heat on the device when using hair dryer

Uncooked Rice
 This will naturally soak up the moisture, but it is a fairly slow process. The downside is that it’s really slow. You should only use the bowl of rice if your phone got only a small amount of water inside. If there is a large amount of water that is in the phone, you’ll need a faster method to get the water out otherwise it will damage the phone.


NOTE : The other thing to note about using uncooked rice is that you should use rice that is from a sealed pack. If you use rice that’s been exposed to air for weeks, it probably won’t be able to absorb much . If it’s sealed and hasn’t been exposed to air for a long time, it will soak up more of the moisture from your phone.

Other Methods

There are other methods of drying that you should be  avoided like placing your phone in the sun, using a microwave or using an oven.

 The sun might be ok, but you have to do it properly. That is placing it on a towel to avoid excessive heat from the ground and leave it out for no more than 20 to 25 mins.

Some people have tried putting their phones in freezers and though it could work.

NOTE : Excessive heat or excessive cold can harm the components in your phone, so its best to avoid those extremes.