Do you have a Water damaged phone? and How do you feel when the device that you bought with lots of money suddenly falls into a pool of water? It seems that the world is about to end right? You are not alone, it has happened to me too and it is quite terrifying especially when you know that the phone has a slim chance of working unless you are using one of the water resistant phone.
Whether it’s a pool of water, toilet, a bucket of water or river, no one prays that his or her phone should fall into the water or end up as Water damaged phone. In an attempt to reduce the incidence of water damaged phones, smartphone manufacturers are doing all they could to at least make their flagship devices water proof.
Not all of us can afford a waterproof phone, hence we need to be extra careful with our devices. It is already part of the advice from the manufacturers that we should take precaution like using a waterproof pouch if you know you will be dealing with water.
However, it is good to know that even non-water-resistant phones these days are not really bad as regards water compared to phones from the past. So we have listed below some tips that can help you save a phone that falls inside water or a Water damaged phone but you should as well know that they are not bullet-proof methods-they are tips that could help you save a water damaged phone.
8 EASY STEPS ON HOW TO FIX A WATER DAMAGED PHONE
- Take it out of the water and make sure it’s off! I know it’s hard to react quickly when such an event takes place, but you must snap out of it fast! The longer your device stays underwater, the lower its chances of survival. You must dig in there and take that phone out of the water right away. Yes… even if it’s in the toilet!
- Once the phone is out of the water, make sure it’s off and stays off. Even if it looks fine… it is important to switch it off just in case. Take the battery out if you can. Then put it in a safe place, preferably on a flat surface over some paper towels.
- Disassemble the water drenched phone. Don’t mistake this step with “take the whole darn phone apart”! What I mean is that you should remove everything that is user-removable e.g. If your back cover is removable, take it off. Also, try to remove the battery (if you can), SIM card and SD card. Lay it all out on the paper towel.
- Now, if you are an experienced tech specialist that knows the ins and outs of a phone, and don’t mind risking voiding your warranty, you can go ahead and take the whole phone apart too. It might help with drying up every single piece faster. Just be careful, if you don’t know what you’re doing this could cause more harm than good.
- Try to dry the exterior with a paper towel/Water Absorbing Material. We first have to try to get rid of all the excess water found in the exterior of your phone. Use the paper towel or any water absorbing material to dry out every component. Just make sure you don’t mess with the phone too much. Gently dry everything out without moving things around too much.
- You could try a vacuum cleaner. Of course, there are areas the paper towel can’t access. And while we told you not to blow anything into the phone, we didn’t tell you not to suction the water out. In fact, a vacuum cleaner can suck off bits of water from the phone without too much risk. Just make sure the suctioning doesn’t make the phone move around excessively.
- Time to dry it out. This is the hardest part because it involves leaving the phone untouched for an extended period of time. This means you can’t use your smartphone! If you have another phone you can borrow, just make sure the SIM card is completely dried out and stick it into the working handset. Otherwise, just resort to public phones or any other alternative.
- So how do you dry your phone out? You could just leave the phone on top of the counter or inside a drawer, but some people like giving it a little help. The idea is to put it in an environment that will ease its drying process.
A very common practice is to put the phone in a bag full of rice and let it rest there for about 2-3 days. But why rice? Rice available in most homes and is very good at absorbing humidity in the air, making the phone’s environment drier and hence helping dry out the device. But there are alternatives that could be better.
What Not To Do After Dropping Your Phone In Water
The following actions can mean the difference between a totaled phone or a survival phone. You better be careful what you do. Before we jump into finding a solution, let’s try to prevent major failures you could cause.
- Do not turn on the Water damaged phone, as we already mentioned. Electrical components don’t play well with water when operating at all.
- Don’t plug it in either! Dumb move. This can result in a fried board.
- Don’t press any keys. This can push water further into the phone. It’s best to try to mess with the phone as little as possible.
- Don’t shake or blow air into the device. This could also push water into deeper areas of the phone. Especially try to avoid blow driers – not only because of the blowing part but also because of the following point.
- Do not apply any heat to the phone. Remember excessive heat can also damage the phone. You don’t want to add more damage!
- Don’t move Water damaged phone around too much. Same deal; you don’t want the water moving around inside the phone.
If your efforts paid off after have done everything explained here good luck but if the phone still does work, you may have to take it to professionals that will help you to check on it. Has your phone fallen into water before and how were you able to fix the phone? Let’s know in the comment session below.
