How to Fix a Wet/Damaged Cell Phone?

| Updated: Monday, March 4, 2013, 11:25 [IST]

Have you accidentally drenched your phone in water or damaged it in some other way? Don’t get panic and discard it as useless. There is still a chance that you will be able to save it. You just have to follow these simple 8 steps.

Step 1: The first and most important thing to remember when you have a wet phone is to resist your temptation to press the buttons in the phone to check whether they are working. Doing so, you will cause the water to spread over the internal circuitry.

Step 2: Next step is to take out the battery immediately out of the wet phone. This will prevent short circuit in the phone’s board. If you have a phone with non-replaceable battery like iPhone or Nokia Lumia, then turn off the device immediately to minimize the power supply.

Step 3: Remove the case of the phone. If the keypad panel is detachable then remove it also.

Step 4: Remove SIM cards and SD cards. Ensure that there is enough air circulation in the ports.

Step 5: Dry up the phone’s exterior using a towel to prevent water from draining into openings in the phone.Step 6: After the exterior is dried off, the next step will be to remove any latent moisture in the device. To do this, immerse the phone in a bowl of rice. Rice will absorb moisture retained in the device. Silica gel packs perform even better when it comes to absorbing moisture. If you have silica gel packs with you, use it instead of rice.

Step 7: Next step is to ensure that all the retained moisture is dried off. For this, keep the phone in an air tight container for 24 hours, covering it up with a desiccant of your choice.

Step 8: Once you are completely sure that the phone has been dried completely, re-insert the battery and check whether the phone is working or not.

Please Note:There is a common tendency to use hairdryers to dry off the phone. Although this technique might help in faster moisture removal, there is risk of the components in phone getting damaged due to excessive heat. Hence this method is not recommended.

There is also a common practice of placing the phone in freezer after wrapping it with a towel to prevent frost damage. This method supposedly prevents short circuit by reducing the conductivity of water. However this is not a long term solution and practicing this method will affect the display screen of the phone.