Somehow, mostly due to stupidity and forgetfulness, my cell phone ended up in the washing machine this Saturday. It was totally submerged for at least 5 minutes. However, after doing some quick research, a few normal shop supplies, and a little patience, I was able to use it without any noticable difference tonight.
Step by step, here is what I did.
1. Slap myself in the head for being so stupid.
2. Carefully remove the back, battery, and sim card as soon as possible. Wipe the sim card off, they are pretty durable, and I was able to put it in my old phone immediatly and use it.
3. Shake rattle and roll. Shake as much of the moisture out as possible.
4. Immerse and briefly soak the phone in denatured alcohol. The alcohol helps dissipate the water, and more importantly the dissolved salts in the the water.
5. Shake it out again, and allow it to dry for a few minutes before moving on.
6. I then created a drying chamber of sorts by using my Black and Decker work mate as a base. I opened it up about 4 inches and spread a folded piece of aluminum foil over the gap. I placed my magnetic shop light underneath of the surface, with a 40 watt appliance bulb in it. This created a constant heat source, sort of like a low temp version of jiffy pop pop corn. I placed the phone on top of the foil and placed the table in front of my dehumidifier.
7. Wait, make sure that all of the fogginess and droplets are totally gone beofre replacing the battery. Mine took about 60 hours.
8. Test phone by placing battery back in. Be sure to do this without the Sim Card the first time just in case. Mine powered up fine, so I replaced the sim and made some test calls.
Water in an of itself is not detrimental to electronics, as long as they do not short out. The salts that remain after the water is what is detrimental. The alcohol rinse helps dissapate the disolved salts. Be sure to use denatured alcohol and not just isopropyl or rubbing alcohol.
Hopefully this will never be useful to you, but it worked for me and saved me about $300 for replacing my phone.
Brandon
Step by step, here is what I did.
1. Slap myself in the head for being so stupid.
2. Carefully remove the back, battery, and sim card as soon as possible. Wipe the sim card off, they are pretty durable, and I was able to put it in my old phone immediatly and use it.
3. Shake rattle and roll. Shake as much of the moisture out as possible.
4. Immerse and briefly soak the phone in denatured alcohol. The alcohol helps dissipate the water, and more importantly the dissolved salts in the the water.
5. Shake it out again, and allow it to dry for a few minutes before moving on.
6. I then created a drying chamber of sorts by using my Black and Decker work mate as a base. I opened it up about 4 inches and spread a folded piece of aluminum foil over the gap. I placed my magnetic shop light underneath of the surface, with a 40 watt appliance bulb in it. This created a constant heat source, sort of like a low temp version of jiffy pop pop corn. I placed the phone on top of the foil and placed the table in front of my dehumidifier.
7. Wait, make sure that all of the fogginess and droplets are totally gone beofre replacing the battery. Mine took about 60 hours.
8. Test phone by placing battery back in. Be sure to do this without the Sim Card the first time just in case. Mine powered up fine, so I replaced the sim and made some test calls.
Water in an of itself is not detrimental to electronics, as long as they do not short out. The salts that remain after the water is what is detrimental. The alcohol rinse helps dissapate the disolved salts. Be sure to use denatured alcohol and not just isopropyl or rubbing alcohol.
Hopefully this will never be useful to you, but it worked for me and saved me about $300 for replacing my phone.
Brandon
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