Water Damage - Is it all or nothing?

[joewilly1]

I have a Droid with Verizon service.
Firmware: 2.1 update1
Baseband: C_01_3E.03P
Kernel: 2.6.29-omap1-g7fa8788 android-build@apa26#1
Build: ESE81

I got caught in the rain and my phone quit working. I got a replacement under the insurance program. In the meantime, after the original phone dried out, it started working. However, it seems sluggish. And some apps force close that didn't in the past. Unfortunately I updated a lot of apps so it could also be that the new build of the apps is causing the FC.

I'm not an electronics expert so my question is this: Can a phone partially recover from water damage? Or since it started working does that mean that it's good as new? I need to decide whether to keep the replacement or return it and get a refund. Thanks. I'm sure someone will know the answer.

 

[yrls]

You cannot economically repair wet cell phones. A quality shop will not work on them or recommend their use for safety reasons. I have seen several melt weeks after drying out due to electrical shorts within the charge circuit. Without tracing all circuits and replacing batteries, LCDs, flex circuits, the possibility of failure is extremely high.

Very few computer repair shops repair wet devices for a reason. When they do, the cost is high. Most cell phone repair shops will 'repair' them since it is easy money and they offer no guarantee after charging as much as $75 or more. To me that is just unethical.

Now, we WILL work on a wet phone in an attempt to salvage data and then caution against further use for safety reasons.

Water damage is INSTANTLY damaging.

I have couple of blog posts detailing why for further reading.

Wet cell phones CANNOT be (economically) repaired… Blue Ridge Wireless
Why Wet Cell Phones Cannot be Repaired (Part 2) Blue Ridge Wireless