Water Damage: What Does It Do?

[phonebuddy]

Brief background: I'm a writer for a cell phone repair site. I'm not a tech, so some of this stuff confuses me, haha.

So what EXACTLY does water damage do to a phone? I've heard that it doesn't fry a phone because electricity still conducts in water.

Is my thinking off? I've also read through some water damage posts and everyone talks about the rice thing, but from my understanding, that's only good for the short-term but does nothing for long-term effects like corrosion.

So what does cause all of the instant problems that occur when electronics and water combine? Does the electricity just have too many places to go so the phone is permanently confused now?

 

[funkylogik]

I think the instant damage is caused by the liquid conducting electricity and "frying" chips. thats why its really important to pull the battery straight away and not replace it until your sure the device is dry. You can still get problems long-term caused by corrosion if it wasnt completely pure water it was soaked in. Aparently putting the phone in very pure alcohol removes the other liquid and then dries faster :thumbup:

 

[gtbarry]

You can sum it up as water is conductive and thus allows parts of the phone to be short-circuited.

Many components in your phone are designed to only connect to a finite amount of components in defined ways. Introducing water, as it will take the path of least resistance, will fill those gaps. And, being conductive, creates a connection between pieces that are not meant to come into contact with one another. This creates what is called a trace. A trace is a connection - i.e. a copper trace or wire trace is supposed to connect two devices.

A short circuit is caused, is when a trace is a established where there is not supposed to be one and there are no safeguards in place for the trace (which was never supposed to occur to begin with).

 

[phonebuddy]

Ahhhhh that makes sense! Thanks guys! I appreciate you clearing that up.

 

[funkylogik]

remember to quote your sources as Phandroid Android Forums

 

[phonebuddy]

lol touche, just say "phonebuddy" referred you if you ever visit the site, haha

 

[funkylogik]

You havent gave us a link man

 

[phonebuddy]

Cell Phone Repair | Wireless FxR Cell Phone Repair Specialists

We're based out of Waukesha, WI (Milwaukee area), so we set up this site to provide repair services nationwide.

Sorry I forgot the link! I posted a link once already to see what would happen (to a water damage posting, go figure) and was warned about spamming. They're quick here! Good forum

 

[funkylogik]

I wouldnt call it spamming since i asked for the link
How much do u charge for replacing just the glass on galaxy s3? Theres a dude on G+ broke his

 

[gtbarry]

Your Nokia repair page is a trip down memory lane

 

[phonebuddy]

I wouldnt call it spamming since i asked for the link
How much do u charge for replacing just the glass on galaxy s3? Theres a dude on G+ broke his

Hahaha touche again, sir :five:

Well here's our repair page for AT&T's version of the S3 (even though there's an option on the service menu to specify your carrier anyways): Samsung Galaxy S III I747 Repair | Cell Phone Repair Specialists

It looks like the screen replacement goes for $299.99. It's a lot because the glass, LCD, and digitizer are all fused together on this phone.

They can't repair the pieces separately. Since the glass, LCD and digitizer aren't designed to come apart, trying to do so and then putting it all back together again could make it look really messed up, or more than likely cause some future problems.

Sorry it took a while to reply! I called our techs to make sure I'm giving out the correct info. The techs also said to tell your friend to be careful of shops that do offer to replace the glass separately.

What other quotes has he gotten? Just curious, I haven't looked into pricing much myself. I'm a newb to this cell phone game, haha.

Also, the site I work for offers free repair estimates, but I think it's safe to say it would be a full screen replacement.

 

[phonebuddy]

Your Nokia repair page is a trip down memory lane

Right?! Some of the BlackBerry's really threw me back too. I was waiting to see the original BlackBerry page pop up haha.

I posted this page on our Twitter and Facebook feeds:
The Evolution of the Cell Phone

 

[funkylogik]

He hasnt had a quote yet and is thinking about doing it himself because the glass is really cheap compared to buying the whole unit. Ive seen youtube vids of how to do it but it seems really messy and ive read a lot of horror stories on the s3 forum about people damaging the digitizer or a ribon wire down at the bottom right of the phone :thumbup:

Why dont you get your company to offer to sponsor these forums if theyre any good? (Just a suggestion lol, i dont know how things like that work)