How to Rescue a Wet Phone

In this tutorial, I will tell you and show you how to save your iphone from the depths of the deep, whether it be a pool, the sink, the ocean, or some other water reservoir, this should help. If you find that you can't save your phone, I'm sorry for your loss. About a month ago, I dropped my iPhone, well I fell into the pool with my iPhone, but thats pretty much the same thing. Anyway, when this happened, I figured,"Oh, why don't I just set it on the table and let it dry off, it should turn out fine!". Don't do that! Whatever you do, don't do that! I let it set, and two days later I found myself looking up ideas for phone replacements. When I went online to find out what to do if this happened, I couldn't find anything that was particularly helpful, but then i realized that each article or blog told to do something, but left out other things. Even the other instructables didn't do the best job explaining it. This brings them all together, plus some tips I learned, all to help you and your phone make it through the tough moments after you drop it in water or any liquid. This technique should work for all phones and not just the iPhone, even though the phone that I dropped in water was an iPhone, and the pictures I'm using are of an iPhone.

Disclaimer:  I do not guarantee that your phone can be saved. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Step 1: Turn Off Your Phone

Yes, I know it sounds silly and basic, but this is the very first thing you want to do before anything else. If you decide, oh, my phone will be fine if i leave it on, don't come crying to me about how your life is ruined because you can't text or call anyone. Turning off your phone stops the battery from frying the phone, and prevents the phone from trying to restart over and over again.

Step 2: Dry Off the Exterior

This is another basic step, but it all helps in the end. Just use your shirt or a paper towel or anything that can get rid of the water just on the exterior. Feel free to shake some water out, but do it gently, so as not to damage the phone any more. Also DO NOT USE A HAIRDRYER. This seems like a good idea at first, but heat damages electronics just as much as water does, so unless you want to wreck your phone twice, don't use any sort of heat, and that includes the sun.

Step 3: Remove the Battery

If possible, get the battery out of the phone as soon as possible. For the iPhone, this requires unscrewing the bottom and sliding off the back, and other phones work the same way. Some phones just have pop off backs though, which can help a lot in this situation. Removing the battery helps to prevent the phone from being fried, and if you can get it out, the chances of your phone surviving for years to come is greatly increased.

Step 4: Remove the SIM Card

The SIM card, for those of you who don't know, is a little card in your phone that allows you to call people and text them. It is important that you take this out so as to make sure that you don't damage it any further, and also so that if your phone doesn't survive, it will at least be easier to set up your new one, being able to have all you contacts synced.

Step 5: Dry Off the Interior

If you were one of the lucky people who got the back of your phone off in time, be sure to dry off the inside with your tshirt or paper towel or whatever you used to dry off the exterior. This helps to stop the water from frying the phone anymore than it already has.

Step 6: Place Your Phone in Rice

Yeah yeah, this sounds silly, but it works! Many a cellular device have escaped death by being placed into a bag of rice. Any type of rice should work, but I used jasmine rice. Be sure to leave it in the rice for at least 24 hours, maybe longer if you have lots of patience. Whatever you do though, dont take your phone out and try to turn it on before that 24 hours, it significantly reduces the chance of your phone being used for its phone-like purposes again. The rice is meant to soak up any of that water you may have missed, and it dries out your phone extremely well. If you don't happen to have any rice, silica gel packets also tend to do the trick. Make sure that you are putting your phone into the rice without the battery and SIM card though, because you want to keep those out to dry separately.

Step 7: Wait

This is the most difficult part, but chances are that after going through the stages of panic after getting your phone wet, you have calmed down. If it has been 24 hours, feel free to check if your phone and see if it is working ok. If it has been 23 hours and 59 minutes, sorry, but youll just have to wait that extra minute. Just remember that a phone worth a few hundred dollars is worth sitting around those extra minutes. I wish you the best and hope everything turns out alright between you and your LCD friend.