If you've ever dropped your iPhone in water, spilled something on it or accidentally put it through the washing machine, chances are you were immediately stricken with grief or panic. Today's smartphones contain so many important parts of our lives that when any damage occurs, it can be easy to stress out about it. However, a wet phone doesn't necessarily mean the device is destroyed forever, and as Reader's Digest recently shared, the key in these situations is to act quickly. But what sort of action is it that we should be quick about? In a recent ArsTechnica article, writer Casey Johnston outlined a few of the best ways to dry out a wet iPhone.
“Cell phones and moisture are, to put it in the nicest of terms, sworn mortal enemies,” Johnston wrote. “Folklore and actual science have offered solutions to the problem of the wet cell phone over the last couple of decades, from toasting it gently in the over to burying it in some rice to buying special drying environments for it.”
Drying test results
Johnston performed a series of tests using four different phone models for each drying environment under the assumption that different designs will take on water and dry out differently. No specific time frame for drying out was set, but Johnston noted that it is generally a good idea to give your device as much time as possible to dry.
After each phone was soaked in a basin of water, four drying methods were tested. These methods included placing the phone in a container full of silica gel packets, putting it in rice, air-drying and using a specially designed product called a Bheestie Bag, which, according to its developers, is 700 percent more effective than rice. The results of the ArsTechnica experiments showed that rice, silica gel packets and plain air were all able to get the phone back to at least a temporary working state.
“Even if your phone appears to be working again after cooling its heels in a desert-dry place, that doesn't mean water isn't still in there working its long-term magic to corrode the various parts of the phone,” Johnston wrote. “Above all things, give it time, make sure it's dry and maybe never feel completely safe that there isn't some lingering moisture intent on ruining your phones after a few weeks or months.”
While the experiment demonstrated that these methods of drying a phone could all produce sufficient results, Johnston's point about lingering water holds true. When your phone has become water-damaged turning to iResQ's iPhone repair services can be a wise decision as our skilled technicians can verify there is no lingering water wreaking havoc on your favorite device.