Cell Phones and Water Damage Prevention
I love my cell phone as much as anyone else loves theirs and I know how painful an experience it can be to drop it into a bathtub of water or into a sink full of dishes. Accidents happen whether we like it or not and many times we think that once that electronic device gets dropped into the water, it is irreparably water damaged. While this may or may not be true, allowing your cell phone to come into contact with water is something that you should do your very best to avoid.
Avoiding letting your cell phone come into risky situations is more difficult than some people may think, but hope is not lost. There are a few things that you can do to keep your phone away from water sources it can be dropped into. A few drops here and there of dishwater is not likely to do a lot of damage to the phone, but do you really need to hold it with your ear to your shoulder while you are washing dishes? If this is the only phone that you have, you may want to consider purchasing a headset and belt holster for your phone so you can talk on the phone easily without risking the safety of your phone.
If you do accidentally drop your phone into the dish water or the pool, you can salvage it by making sure you do not let the phone stay in the water more than 20 seconds. Water takes about this long or even up to 30 seconds to seep into the inside of the phone and reach the circuit board. If the phone was connected to the A/C adapter when you dropped it, unplug the phone from the wall first! If you do not, you could be seriously electrocuted. After you get the phone out, dry the exterior very quickly, remove the battery, and remove the A/C adapter from the phone.
If your phone contains a SIM card that holds all your contact data on it, remove this.
Place the phone in a bowl of uncooked rice overnight so the moisture will be drawn out of the phone. Do not attempt to turn your phone back on until it is completely dried out. Running electricity through the phone before it is dry is what will kill your phone. After the phone is dry, replace the SIM card and battery. Attempt to power it on. If it does not work, try the A/C adapter. If this works, then all you need to do is replace your battery.
