How To Dry a Wet Cell Phone
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Please welcome my husband, Randy, again. He’s here to share about a mini excursion from this past weekend, PLUS a handy dandy tip.
It was a lovely spring Saturday morning. After my usual weekend routine of green tea with honey, black coffee and toast with almond butter, I decided to take the canoe along with a fishing rod out for a 3-hour tour. The weather was perfect. I paddled a short distance spying bass and bluegill, catching one occasionally.
I was having such a grand time that I was trying to ignore that nagging little voice … my bladder. I tried to ignore it, but the voice kept getting louder. Too lazy to paddle back to the dock, and after some careful consideration I decided to beach the canoe in a secluded cove and find a porta potty or reasonable facsimile thereof. As clumsy as I am, I managed to disembark without incident and locate a chestnut oak that served the purpose. Sweet relief.
With a twinge of guilt after what seemed like an eternity I walked back to the water’s edge, waded knee deep and gracefully lifted myself back into the vessel. Mindful of my relief and also my malfeasance against the oak I gently balanced myself and attempted to push off the bank. As I did some vengeful force from the forest rocked the canoe to and fro until I could balance no longer, landing me in 3 feet of lake water. With my iPhone where it always is, in my left pants pocket. I was overboard for about 15 seconds.
Once I gathered my wits about me I tried to enter my pass code. Lights flickered for a moment then black screen. I thought it was hopeless so I clambered back into the canoe and stayed out 3 more hours or so. When I returned home and attempted to charge it: nothing. I told the family about my dead, wet cell phone. My wife, Amy, and our daughter insisted that I put the phone in rice. So I did, leaving it to dry overnight. The next morning the phone seemed to take a charge but the screen was quite blotchy. I powered down, put it back in the rice and left it another 24 hours. Now, two days later, the phone is fully charged and I’ve used it all day without incident, and the remaining blotchy-ness is gradually going away.
You can imagine how very grateful I am for the timely advice and healed phone. I checked some websites and learned that rice is a righteous moisture absorber, and if a phone gets wet, it’s best to power it down immediately, dry it off as much as possible, then put it in rice immediately and let it sit for about 24 hours before checking.
Hopefully you won’t do anything as clumsy as me and take your phone for a swim, but if you do find yourself one day with a wet cell phone, maybe these tips will come in handy.
I’ve done this successfully with my flip phone, too. Such a sinking feeling when you realize your phone is wet!
I dropped my phone in the snow this last winter and quickly picked it up. It stopped working. This trick worked for me too, and it was good to go after 24 hours. Amazing!
A similar thing happened to me a couple weeks back. I heard about putting my phone in rice, but thought it was a joke. It looks like the joke’s on me! I do have one question, though. Do you have to do it within a certain amount of time for it to actually work?
I think it would depend on how wet the phone is. From what we have read and heard from others is that a minimum of 24 hours is the norm, plus more time if needed.
We’ve been lucky enough not to have this issue, even with a swimmer in the family. However, it’s good to know that sometimes the rice is just right. You know, in case…someday…probably.
My smartphone was dropped in a toilet two days ago and it is still not working. Any ideas?
it has been in rice in a Ziploc bag for two days. It will not do anything.
This technique for drying out a wet cell phone will only help it dry out. Drying out a wet cell phone does not guarantee that the phone will work.