*warning: don't try any of this at home... I may have just been lucky*
Ok... so without going into details the other day my HTC Incredible went through the washer... soak, wash, spin, rince...everything. Found it after the fact at the bottom of the washer. I immediately disassembled it and placed it in a bag of rice for a few hours and went on my my way, contemplating my loss and being thankful I had the full replacement policy.
So after about 3 hours in the rice back I return and decide to try turning it on. (Note: this was dumb... if there were still wet contacts and components this would almost certainly add to the damage... leave it in the bag!). My battery (that had been through the wash too of course) didn't work so I tried my wife's battery, hit the power button and voila! Booting! I immediately took the battery back out and put the phone back in the bag of rice for a few more hours. At this point, my curiosity exceeded my caution and I thought I would try it again. My battery still didn't work, nor did the phone work when plugged into a charger (with or without my battery) but it did turn on with my wife's battery. Did a full boot up this time and did a quick check... display worked, all buttons seemed to work, touch screen surface worked, mobile data worked, speaker worked, camera worked, sd card mounted and pics were still there! I did notice some fogging under the glass in all four corners though that hadn't been visible until the display was on and backlit... after googling "wet iphone" (apparently lots of iphones have been dropped in toilets by the way...) I see a lot of comments about using a hair drier to help dry out the phone... I have a physics and engineering background and agreed that I needed to do something to help the water evaporate out of the nooks and crannies but don't think holding a hair drier to it for 20 minutes seems very efficient. I decide to set my oven to its lowest setting, 150 deg F... probably a bit hotter than I'd like so I crack the door thinking that will keep the ambient temp in there closer to 130. Placed the phone in there for 20 min (resting on an oven mit as the rack gets hot).
After the oven treatment...back in the bag for another day... the next time I try booting it up I notice that the display is no longer fogged at all! I ran through all the peripherals and functions I could think of (GPS, WiFi, camera in both still and video mode, etc...) made voice calls and verified everything seems to be working fine! (minus the original battery). The only thing I forgot to check was audio via wired headset and bluetooth.
After playing with it for about 5 min, phone went back in the bag of rice for another half day, then back in the oven for another 20 min at ~130 deg F, then back on rice again.
So it appears I may just be one very lucky camper!!! Planning on getting a new battery tomorrow and starting to use it again...does anyone have any suggestions on other things I can do to increase odds of it making a full recovery? Thanks!
Ok... so without going into details the other day my HTC Incredible went through the washer... soak, wash, spin, rince...everything. Found it after the fact at the bottom of the washer. I immediately disassembled it and placed it in a bag of rice for a few hours and went on my my way, contemplating my loss and being thankful I had the full replacement policy.
So after about 3 hours in the rice back I return and decide to try turning it on. (Note: this was dumb... if there were still wet contacts and components this would almost certainly add to the damage... leave it in the bag!). My battery (that had been through the wash too of course) didn't work so I tried my wife's battery, hit the power button and voila! Booting! I immediately took the battery back out and put the phone back in the bag of rice for a few more hours. At this point, my curiosity exceeded my caution and I thought I would try it again. My battery still didn't work, nor did the phone work when plugged into a charger (with or without my battery) but it did turn on with my wife's battery. Did a full boot up this time and did a quick check... display worked, all buttons seemed to work, touch screen surface worked, mobile data worked, speaker worked, camera worked, sd card mounted and pics were still there! I did notice some fogging under the glass in all four corners though that hadn't been visible until the display was on and backlit... after googling "wet iphone" (apparently lots of iphones have been dropped in toilets by the way...) I see a lot of comments about using a hair drier to help dry out the phone... I have a physics and engineering background and agreed that I needed to do something to help the water evaporate out of the nooks and crannies but don't think holding a hair drier to it for 20 minutes seems very efficient. I decide to set my oven to its lowest setting, 150 deg F... probably a bit hotter than I'd like so I crack the door thinking that will keep the ambient temp in there closer to 130. Placed the phone in there for 20 min (resting on an oven mit as the rack gets hot).
After the oven treatment...back in the bag for another day... the next time I try booting it up I notice that the display is no longer fogged at all! I ran through all the peripherals and functions I could think of (GPS, WiFi, camera in both still and video mode, etc...) made voice calls and verified everything seems to be working fine! (minus the original battery). The only thing I forgot to check was audio via wired headset and bluetooth.
After playing with it for about 5 min, phone went back in the bag of rice for another half day, then back in the oven for another 20 min at ~130 deg F, then back on rice again.
So it appears I may just be one very lucky camper!!! Planning on getting a new battery tomorrow and starting to use it again...does anyone have any suggestions on other things I can do to increase odds of it making a full recovery? Thanks!
I will so be getting insurance this time and a case!
