How to Dry Out a Cell Phone

When dealing with a wet phone, it is important to act quickly. Few phone companies offer a warranty on wet phones and have gone as far as to place a "wet strip" on the phone that changes colors when it has gotten wet. What this means is that the wet strip will allow the company to know that the phone was damaged by water and therefore, they don't have to give you a new phone. Fortunately, if you act quick — which happens to be the first and most important step in drying out a cell phone — you can salvage it and use the phone in the future.

The very first thing that you should do if your phone gets wet is turn it off and disconnect the battery from it. While it is reassuring to turn the phone on and see if it is still working, refrain from doing this. By turning the phone on, electricity will flow through the phone and that runs the risk of causing a short circuit or frying a component in the phone. Therefore, assume that because it is wet, it doesn't work for the time being.

With the battery and the cell phone disconnected, it is time to get the water out. Before you do, ensure that any components are disconnected such as a SIM card or a charger. The fewer components you have to worry about, the better. Using a vacuum cleaner or an air compressor (set at a low psi), suck or blow the water off the phone. The goal here is to make the water leave the same way that it entered the phone. Doing this will get rid of a lot of the excess water.

Once most of the water is gone — despite your attempts, you'll not be able to get rid of it all — put the phone and battery into a bowl of uncooked rice. If you are a collector of those silicon packets that come with clothing, put the phone in a bowl of those; however, don't waste time looking for them. Rice will work just as well. Keep the battery and the phone in the rice overnight. The only downfall to using rice is that it will leave dust on the phone. That is why the silicon packets are more advantageous. But, don't waste time looking for them because, as mentioned above, time is the most important thing.

Stay away from heat while drying your phone. It might seem like a smart idea to put the phone in direct sunlight to allow the water to evaporate, but this runs the risk of burning certain components or melting other components. Heat is something to stay away from at all times, including heat generated from a microwave.

One thing to consider when dealing with your phone is the type of water it was dropped in. If it is fresh water, go through the steps listed above. However, if the phone was dropped in salt water, first give it a complete wash in fresh water. When salt water evaporates, it leaves salt crystals behind that can damage the phone. Therefore, you need to get rid of these crystals and only have fresh water. Once that is done, you can go about drying the phone off.