It doesn’t matter which type of phone you have. If you drop it in water, it will need to dry out before it operates correctly. And while some phones claim to be waterproof, most of them are only waterproof in three feet of water or less. Still, all hope is not lost.
If you’ve dropped your phone in water, it’s important to follow these steps to help ensure you don’t lose any pertinent data, and more importantly, that your phone continues to work.
What to Do If Your Phone Falls in Water
Once a phone has been dropped in water, the most important step is to remove it from the water as quickly as possible. The longer it stays submerged, the more extensive the damage will likely be. Getting water in your phone is just as serious as getting water in your computer: it will fry all of the electrical components. Fortunately, with so many applications being cloud-based these days, having your phone damaged by water won’t necessarily cause a loss of data. Still, you should do your best to dry out your wet cell phone by first putting your phone in rice. In fact, you’ll want to take the phone apart if you can — this voids the warranty, but so does getting it wet in the first place — and then put all the parts in a bag of rice. The rice will help soak up any water that may be in the phone.
Although putting your phone in a bag of rice is the most common way to help prevent lasting water damage, there are several other tips you can follow. For starters, if you can remove the battery, make sure you do so. Also, you’ll want to turn the phone off for a minimum of an hour before trying to power it back on. This may also help minimize damage to the internal components.
Knowing how to fix a wet phone can save you hundreds of dollars. If you drop your phone in water and follow the tips above, there’s a good chance that the damage will be minimal. Still, if the damage seems to be extensive, you’ll want to take the phone to a repair specialist to see if any of the damage can be reversed.