• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Wife says, what is the noise in the washing machine?

bwthor

Member
Mar 8, 2010
83
31
As soon as she said it, I realized I left my phone in my pants pocket when I put them in the washer. Pulled the clothes out of the washer, and found it sitting in the bottom.

I disassembled the phone, rinsed it with clean water to get the detergent off of it. I dumped some alcohol on the parts, then blew it out with compressed air, and left it dry overnight on the vent.

This AM I put the battery in, crossed my fingers and hit the power button...

SUCCESS!!!
 
Congrats on the salvage.

I probably would have been paranoid and let it dry longer (in rice or food dehydrator), but at least you did the right things.

If it starts acting up later and you want to claim on insurance, be aware that some insurances require that you report withing X (30?) days of the incident. Ran into an issue once with sprint where they gave me hard time because I mentioned the 'incident' that broke it happened 2 months ago, but the phone was sort of working so I let it be for a while, but eventually started acting up. To their delight, the next day I called with a different problem - the night before I 'accidentally' left the phone on a balcony ledge and it fell, cracking the screen and the hinge...
 
Upvote 0
Congrats on the salvage.

I probably would have been paranoid and let it dry longer (in rice or food dehydrator), but at least you did the right things.

If it starts acting up later and you want to claim on insurance, be aware that some insurances require that you report withing X (30?) days of the incident. Ran into an issue once with sprint where they gave me hard time because I mentioned the 'incident' that broke it happened 2 months ago, but the phone was sort of working so I let it be for a while, but eventually started acting up. To their delight, the next day I called with a different problem - the night before I 'accidentally' left the phone on a balcony ledge and it fell, cracking the screen and the hinge...

Just tell them it happened a week before.
 
Upvote 0
I wonder if you're going to get rust, and if the internal parts will get nasty from being moist and eventually die. Are you going to replace it with insurance ?

I don't plan to replace it unless some issues start to crop up. I don't mind spending the money on the deductible, I just didn't want the hassle. I'll give it a few weeks then see how I feel about it. I know any random reboot, or weird issue, I'll be thinking about some lingering side effect. So yeah, some day maybe I'll replace it.
 
Upvote 0
Even though it turned on, you were wrong to turn it on after just an overnight of drying. When this happens you really need to wait AT LEAST 2 full days after being buried in a bowl of rice. I thought this has been covered enough times here for people to know by now. You got lucky, it doesn't happen everytime.
 
Upvote 0
Also the water stickers will be a dead give away if you ever need it replaced under warranty. Resale value will also take a hit. If you have insurance you may want to get it replaced anyway.


Are the water detection stickers solid red now? they were white with red hatch marks.

you can replace the battery with another new HTC battey to get that sticker fixed.
 
Upvote 0
One day is perfectly fine since he did the correct thing and rinsed it out with alcohol, alcohol will displace all the water and corrosion, and evaporates at a lower temperature than water. If you want pour some rubbing alcohol on your counter and some water come back in an hour to see which one has evaporated. Also since he used alcohol he has no worries about the long term of rust and corrosion building up.
 
Upvote 0
we dont have to be so rude about it guys, he was simply telling us his story. He didnt "have" to do anything, he could have tried to turn it on 2 hours later, or just got it replaced. I dropped my blackberry in the bowl while i was peeing on it, i would have kept it, but lets just say the smell wasnt all flowers and perfume when it dried up. and besides, all the internal parts were rusted and slowly disintegrating
 
  • Like
Reactions: bwthor
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones