Droid DOES drowning!

[megaera]

So yep, I was using one of those awful hard cases from Verizon, and I was giving my old, decrepit dog more water in her bowl. She bumped into me, and in the torquing I did to avoid breaking her aged spine, danged if that Droid didn't jump out of my pocket like the case was coated in Crisco. Moving at the speed of light, I yoinked the phone out of the water (and doesn't this always happen in the dead of night?). Dried what I could, took it into a repair shop, and bar 3 tiny little white dots that are slowly fading, it's as good as new. The repair was cheaper than my deductible, and I am once again with a functional, incredibly tough phone. Although I am now thinking that something to cover up the USB and headphone ports might not be entirely amiss...

 

[regulatre]

Great end to a suspenseful ordeal!

When a phone gets submerged or very wet the best thing to do is
* immediately remove the battery, SD card
* leave battery cover off slide out the keyboard if applicable.
* put it on a heater register or fan or warm (not hot) surface.

There are little paper things inside the phone and on the battery that change color (from stripes to solid color?) when the phone is exposed to water so they know if it had a mishap.

 

[megaera]

That's what I did, but I took it to the repair place ASAP, as stuff in Houston corrodes much faster than it dries. I have insurance that covers water damage, but this repair (taking all of it apart and a smidge of soldering) was actually cheaper than my deductible and faster, too. Thanks a ton for wanting to help!

 

[Graz]

Great end to a suspenseful ordeal!

When a phone gets submerged or very wet the best thing to do is
* immediately remove the battery, SD card
* leave battery cover off slide out the keyboard if applicable.
* put it on a heater register or fan or warm (not hot) surface.

There are little paper things inside the phone and on the battery that change color (from stripes to solid color?) when the phone is exposed to water so they know if it had a mishap.

Take out battery and SD card
Slide out keyboard
Put in a bowl of uncooked rice

 

[thetomlin2]

Put in a bowl of uncooked rice

Exactly ... nothing will pull the moisture out of it faster than plain old uncooked rice. My son took his iPod outside with him in the rain and got it wet ... I did this and after a day or so the iPod worked again.

 

[gabe23]

Exactly ... nothing will pull the moisture out of it faster than plain old uncooked rice. My son took his iPod outside with him in the rain and got it wet ... I did this and after a day or so the iPod worked again.

The rice does work OK & it's definitely cheap & easy. But it's sometimes dusty and can harbor bacteria, so I'd prefer not to immerse my electronics in it unless it's the only option. A more effective method is to seal the device in a ziploc bag with as many desiccant packs as you can find. It keeps any moisture in the air from preventing the drying process, and the silica material is the fastest way to remove moisture without using damaging heat. The larger desiccant capsules from medicine bottles work very well, so I always save them for future use. I'm a scuba diver and watch collector, so it's always just a matter of time before I have a flooded device of some sort that needs a quick dry.