Help HELP! Cell Phone Water Damaged

[DoctorEyeSight]

Hi,

I ALWAYS take my GNexus with me to the gym and for over a year into the sauna room! I always leave phone inside my pocket and have had no issues.

However, today, I did something different, and so stupid of me - I was in the sauna room, and I was laying there on the bench (Shirt off) - Then I placed the GNexus on my stomach! My stomach was sweaty and I am assuming the phone got some of my sweat! Afterwards I got out of sauna room, and started working out and was listening to my music - No problem!

As I was driving and made a phone call to my mom, I could not hear the phone ringing, nor did my mom hear me nor did I hear her! Then I switched to the speakerphone and the speakerphone was working fine.

The speaker where you listen to music does not work. When I make phone calls, the speaker does not work - The recipient cannot hear me and I cannot hear them. I cannot hear my phone ring either. However, the speakerphone does work and when I received text messages I can hear the alert tone!

They say to place phone with battery out in a bag of rice...Has anyone else experienced the same issue and solved it?

Too bad, my phones warranty is expired.

 

[iTzKPanda]

Putting your phone in a bag of rice would help since the rice would absorb the water out of your phone.

I've had water damage on an iPhone 3G (terrible phone btw..) and the sticking it in a bag of rice got most of the water out.

 

[gtbarry]

Battery out! And put it in rice for as long as you can - the longer the better!

Battery out:
The biggest problem you will have is a charge from your battery hitting a wet motherboard. It will fry the board and the phone is 100% useless

In rice:
Rice is a dessicant. Like the little bags that say "do not eat" in shoe boxes. If you have a lot of those laying around those are better than rice as there is no powder associated with them like you will find in rice. THE LONGER YOU HAVE IT IN DESSICANT THE BETTER. (My friend dumped a cup of coffee on his Macbook Air and it went completely dead. Dropped it in a bag of rice and bought a new laptop via his credit card insurance. Then two weeks later the damaged one was working again.)

 

[DoctorEyeSight]

Battery out! And put it in rice for as long as you can - the longer the better!

Battery out:
The biggest problem you will have is a charge from your battery hitting a wet motherboard. It will fry the board and the phone is 100% useless

In rice:
Rice is a dessicant. Like the little bags that say "do not eat" in shoe boxes. If you have a lot of those laying around those are better than rice as there is no powder associated with them like you will find in rice. THE LONGER YOU HAVE IT IN DESSICANT THE BETTER. (My friend dumped a cup of coffee on his Macbook Air and it went completely dead. Dropped it in a bag of rice and bought a new laptop via his credit card insurance. Then two weeks later the damaged one was working again.)

Hey!

Thanks for your response.

I grabbed a ziploc bag, took Gnexus back cover out, battery out and placed battery and GNexus inside the bag of rice and covered it all up! The sim card is still in the phone, that's okay?

Hey! I think I have a couple of those "Do not eat" packets from my multivitamins & shoe boxes, should I throw those inside the bag of rice as well?

 

[Frisco]

Yes dry uncooked rice draws moisture from the device over 24 hours.

You should have powered it down immediately and put it in the rice.

Next step, after the rice, is to use rubbing alcohol with cotton swabs all over the thing, in every crevice and hole you can get to with battery out and cover off. That will displace remaining moisture and evaporate quickly.

Please don't take a smartphone into a sauna again, pocket or not. I cringed when I saw that in your post.

 

[joesixpack]

Thanks for your response.

I grabbed a ziploc bag, took Gnexus back cover out, battery out and placed battery and GNexus inside the bag of rice and covered it all up! The sim card is still in the phone, that's okay?



Get the SIM card out of there! You could have water under the contacts that can't escape if the card's in there. Put the loose SIM card in the rice bag with the phone and battery (removed from phone as well). Leave them in there for at least a couple days to be safe.

My wife's S3 took a swim last week and this worked great. Don't try to pull a fast one and return it for service 'cause they'll know that the phone got wet (sticker inside tips them off). When you take it out, try to blow some of the dust out (if the rice leaves some behind) before you try firing that bad boy up.

 

[DoctorEyeSight]

Yes dry uncooked rice draws moisture from the device over 24 hours.

You should have powered it down immediately and put it in the rice.

Next step, after the rice, is to use rubbing alcohol with cotton swabs all over the thing, in every crevice and hole you can get to with battery out and cover off. That will displace remaining moisture and evaporate quickly.

Please don't take a smartphone into a sauna again, pocket or not. I cringed when I saw that in your post.

Hey!

Thanks for your response.

I grabbed a ziploc bag, took Gnexus back cover out, battery out and placed battery and GNexus inside the bag of rice and covered it all up! The sim card is still in the phone, that's okay?

Hey! I think I have a couple of those "Do not eat" packets from my multivitamins & shoe boxes, should I throw those inside the bag of rice as well?

 

[joesixpack]

Hey!

Thanks for your response.

I grabbed a ziploc bag, took Gnexus back cover out, battery out and placed battery and GNexus inside the bag of rice and covered it all up! The sim card is still in the phone, that's okay?

Hey! I think I have a couple of those "Do not eat" packets from my multivitamins & shoe boxes, should I throw those inside the bag of rice as well?

(copied from other thread):

Get the SIM card out of there! You could have water under the contacts that can't escape if the card's in there. Put the loose SIM card in the rice bag with the phone and battery (removed from phone as well). Leave them in there for at least a couple days to be safe.

My wife's S3 took a swim last week and this worked great. Don't try to pull a fast one and return it for service 'cause they'll know that the phone got wet (sticker inside tips them off). When you take it out of the rice, try to blow some of the dust out (if the rice leaves some behind) before you try firing that bad boy up.

 

[DoctorEyeSight]

I just removed the sim card and placed it inside the bag of rice with the battery taken out separately and phone separately. The cover of the back of the phone is just a cover, that won't fit in my ziploc bag, that's not important and just left that on the floor.


I also inserted 3 bags of silica gel "do not eat" packets that I had inside my multivitamins/supplements. I think those packets are usually inside supplements because they help keep it dry? Thought it would not hurt the cell phone.

Crossing my fingers, giving it 48 hours!

 

[DoctorEyeSight]

I just removed the sim card and placed it inside the bag of rice with the battery taken out separately and phone separately. The cover of the back of the phone is just a cover, that won't fit in my ziploc bag, that's not important and just left that on the floor.


I also inserted 3 bags of silica gel "do not eat" packets that I had inside my multivitamins/supplements. I think those packets are usually inside supplements because they help keep it dry? Thought it would not hurt the cell phone.

Crossing my fingers, giving it 48 hours!

 

[gtbarry]

I just removed the sim card and placed it inside the bag of rice with the battery taken out separately and phone separately. The cover of the back of the phone is just a cover, that won't fit in my ziploc bag, that's not important and just left that on the floor.


I also inserted 3 bags of silica gel "do not eat" packets that I had inside my multivitamins/supplements. I think those packets are usually inside supplements because they help keep it dry? Thought it would not hurt the cell phone.

Crossing my fingers, giving it 48 hours!

Uncooked rice is a great desiccant, but it has the not so great property of rice dust/powder. So, as Frisco mentions above, give it all a thorough cleaning before reassemble.

I know a few people who toss all the "do not eat packets" they find in a jar for just such an occasion. You can also buy them I hear.

 

[DoctorEyeSight]

For how long should I leave the cell in the bag of rice? 72 hours?

 

[joesixpack]

For how long should I leave the cell in the bag of rice? 72 hours?

Depends on how wet it got. The longer you leave it in the better. I only had to rice-ify the wife's S3 for 24 hours cause it only went for a quick dunk.

Remember, water is the enemy of electronics. You want to make sure the unit is dried out before powering it back up. Don't want to short it out if there's still H2O in there! You'll probably be OK after three days, but I'll let you make the final call. Good Luck!

 

[DoctorEyeSight]

Depends on how wet it got. The longer you leave it in the better. I only had to rice-ify the wife's S3 for 24 hours cause it only went for a quick dunk.

Remember, water is the enemy of electronics. You want to make sure the unit is dried out before powering it back up. Don't want to short it out if there's still H2O in there! You'll probably be OK after three days, but I'll let you make the final call. Good Luck!

I think a little bit of water went inside it. But the only issue is that when the speaker wasn't working, I turned off the phone and back on like twice. Hopefully that doesn't affect anything. I think your right, I'll just wait until Saturday morning!

 

[DoctorEyeSight]

Hey!

So tomorrow morning will be the 72 hour mark in leaving my cell phone with the bag of rice + silica gels. Any tips before I place the sim card and battery back in its spots and reboot my cell phone?


I remember my battery was low, like 20% at the time when I turned it off and placed it in the bag of rice.

 

[DoctorEyeSight]

Anyone? Greatly appreciate it.

 

[gtbarry]

wipe all the rice dust/powder off of EVERYTHING. Don't think you want to use a wet or moist anything. Perhaps an air blower and dry, lint-free cloth. No moisture. No residue. No lint.

 

[DoctorEyeSight]

wipe all the rice dust/powder off of EVERYTHING. Don't think you want to use a wet or moist anything. Perhaps an air blower and dry, lint-free cloth. No moisture. No residue. No lint.

I'll use my dry lens cleaning cloth & then power it up, hopefully it works tomorrow morning, will keep you guys posted, thanks.

 

[joesixpack]

Dont despair if the phone doesn't fire up with the battery in. Sometimes the battery discharges or may not work. Try starting with the power cord plugged in if you can't get anything with just the battery.

Fingers crossed...

 

[DoctorEyeSight]

I cleaned the phone with my lens cleaning cloth, took off the rice dust!

Booted and it works!

Man, waiting 72 hours was worth it!

Thank you guys so much! I saved a ton of $.


Hey, I have another basic cell phone that it's been like 2 weeks that it has not been working. It got water damaged and my dad used the hair dryer on it and chances are the rice trick won't work since it's been too late now.

I was reading, people say to dip the phone in a pot of 99% alcohol for an hour and then place it in a bag of rice. Anyone have experience with this?

 

[joesixpack]

I'd give the rice a try anyway - waht do you have to lose? Never herard of the alcohol trick, but I never heard of rice before researching it.

Glad your phone works. Welcome back!

 

[colchiro]

I'd only use AOH as a last resort and probably only 15 minutes. It's a solvent and who knows what it'll eat up. Cautious use of a vacuum should quickly remove all traces.