S6 Phone dropped in hot tub... screen issues.

[AC Question]

So the phone fell in a hot tub... and no one noticed for about a full minute.
Taking it out it was still on and responsive but had the over heating warning.

Powered it off for the day and let it sit.
Tried powering it on today and it went to the download OS screen. Held the volume and power button til it went off.... but now the screen never comes back on.

Can see a blue line at the top when it boots but its black otherwise. The phone comes on fine and connects to wifi. I know this because I can teamviewer into it from my PC. The touch screen even works fine. Just black display. The return button and the show tasks button seem to be broken right now nad the finger print reader returns an error but I think it might be a different mode. because my wallpaper is missing, but that could actually be teamviwer optimizing for speed.... so might also disable the touch buttons.. im not sure though.

Anyway.. is the display just toast? Its weird that it was showing the download screen fine and on a reboot.. that was it... Its charging.. at 13% now from nothing.

Any tests I can do at all?
It might still be under warranty, but not sure if it'll be declined cuz of water. of if its even possible to tell it was water since the phone powers on and functions ok other than the display.

 

[Aquila]

Water damage isn't covered by warranty. Heat and water are obviously not good for it, but it might be salvageable. I'd definitely recommend letting it dry for a few days without charging and see how it fares after that. If it's still screwed, then replacing the display might be the only option.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Review this guide: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...ow-s/477140-guide-oh-no-my-phone-got-wet.html. Be aware that water damage can be unpredictable, widespread, and progressive, so if you fix one thing, you might very well become aware of another problem, and then more problems might crop up days to weeks later.

 

[carverstone1]

OP here. Thanks guys. So the phone is in an odd state. I'm thoroughly annoyed that many websites including my carriers state that the S6 can be submerged for up to 30 mins. Considering it was under for a minute... it should be fine if thats true. Ridiculous. Anyway.... its been on for the last day. havent found a way to shut it down without being able to see the screen and I lost remote access. Its on since my alarms are going off.

Today I got an S7 under contract... it was free. The S6 was mine. But anyway, I took the S6 and held the vol down and power button til it was off. I could tell because tapping the screen gave no vibrations. I filled a small tupperware container with 70% isopropyl for about 30 mins. I took it out...dried it off. Then I shook the hell out of it for 5 mins and alcohol was coming out still. Blow dried it for 5 mins (not too close). Then put in a baggy of rice and shook it some more. Then I powered it on.

Screen came on right away... wow.
Booted up fine. Wifi was off... turned it on and got remote access again. Screen flickered slightly. Backed all stuff up and transferred to new phone.

Screen went off again but would probably come back on if i booted it up, it stayed on for a few hours. The bottom left and right buttons still dont work but the fingerprint reader and home button are working again. Seems to have trouble holding a charge though.

Once I got the new phone up, I tossed it back into a bag of rice OFF and will leave it for a few days and see what happens. Looks somewhat promising so far.... hopefully this helps someone else with similar problem. I can definitely confirm that submerging it in alcohol... definitely does work.

Oh when i put it in the alcohol while powered... phone intact, didnt dismantle at all. No pixel damage, butthe phone started up when i dipped it. I took it out and it shut off... did this twice before it stayed off. Weird....

 

[ColbyJvonBrown]

OP here. Thanks guys. So the phone is in an odd state. I'm thoroughly annoyed that many websites including my carriers state that the S6 can be submerged for up to 30 mins. Considering it was under for a minute... it should be fine if thats true. Ridiculous. Anyway.... its been on for the last day. havent found a way to shut it down without being able to see the screen and I lost remote access. Its on since my alarms are going off.

Today I got an S7 under contract... it was free. The S6 was mine. But anyway, I took the S6 and held the vol down and power button til it was off. I could tell because tapping the screen gave no vibrations. I filled a small tupperware container with 70% isopropyl for about 30 mins. I took it out...dried it off. Then I shook the hell out of it for 5 mins and alcohol was coming out still. Blow dried it for 5 mins (not too close). Then put in a baggy of rice and shook it some more. Then I powered it on.

Screen came on right away... wow.
Booted up fine. Wifi was off... turned it on and got remote access again. Screen flickered slightly. Backed all stuff up and transferred to new phone.

Screen went off again but would probably come back on if i booted it up, it stayed on for a few hours. The bottom left and right buttons still dont work but the fingerprint reader and home button are working again. Seems to have trouble holding a charge though.

Once I got the new phone up, I tossed it back into a bag of rice OFF and will leave it for a few days and see what happens. Looks somewhat promising so far.... hopefully this helps someone else with similar problem. I can definitely confirm that submerging it in alcohol... definitely does work.

Oh when i put it in the alcohol while powered... phone intact, didnt dismantle at all. No pixel damage, butthe phone started up when i dipped it. I took it out and it shut off... did this twice before it stayed off. Weird....

Rice really isn't the best solution!! I've been told that the starch gets into the phone and can even worsen the problem. I've seen it first hand to. (I work on phones for people who can't afford to go to the shop). You should dry it off, and get isopropyl alcohol that is at least 90% or more. Soak the phone for about 20 minutes. Take the phone out again dry it out as best as possible. With these cases you're supposed to open the phone up (clean any corrosion off of the board and other components), but since it's an S6 that would be very hard to do. Either way I hope your phone becomes usable again.

 

[Aquila]

The water resistance thing kinda gets blown away by a hot tub, which has steam, jets, chlorine, heat, etc.

 

[carverstone1]

@Aquila Does it? If the phone is built to withstand water entering it (for up to 30 mins submerged). Water mixed with chlorine shouldn't magically seep through the metal. Same goes for steam. Not within the minute it was in there. It wasn't near the jets either. Just fell in from the middle due to the rumble of the jets. The heat also shouldn't kill it. Pool at at 37.5 C or about 100 F.... which is warm sure, I'd think 45-60 C would be the dangerous to operate range. Having been in there for a minute or less just chilling calmly on the floor, I can't imagine the temperature would cause any permanent damage. I'm also kind of annoyed that once it felt the temp it didnt just shut down anyway then. Might have saved itself in inadvertently.

I understand chemicals and sea water can cause problems with sediment and minerals etc.. but is the phone built to keep water out? Or its built to take water on and just survive? If its the second thats ridiculous and they need to stop saying it can be submerged for up toe 30 mins. Rare people will ever fall into or drop their phone into perfectly distilled filtered, magical fantasy land clean water. Despite this, a short is a short, so I don't see how allowing the phone to take on water and saying it will be fine for 30 mins makes sense.

Which means logically theyd build it to keep water out. Whether its chlorine mixed water or otherwise, when the phone hits the water, the interior should not start to fill up so quick. Embarrassingly I ONLY took it out with me BECAUSE I read that it could be wet for up to 30 mins. I knew if i dropped it it wouldn't be in for longer than a few seconds so no biggie....

feels like false advertising to me. Its not water resistant nor is it water proof. Its as fragile as any phone before it.. or more so to be honest and they should simply remove that "up to 30 mins" bullcrap. Especially if they have water indicator in the sim slot to reject your wrranty claim.

 

[Aquila]

The S6 is rated IP67, so the important number here is the 7. Basically it means you could put the S6 in standing (still), room temperature tap water and it can resist the pressure in up to 1 meter of depth for a few minutes. The addition of jets (motion and additional pressure), heat, steam and chemicals, etc. would introduce factors that it is not tested or certified against. The certification level needed to be resistant to "powerful high temperature water jets" is IP69K.

Regardless of the certification level, Samsung knows that resistant isn't the same as proof and that's why they don't warranty water damage... they have no idea whether their rating was incorrect or if other factors were involved to cause damage, etc.

IP67 can be done in two ways, it can be done by fully preventing the ingress of water or by simply preventing the ingress of water in harmful quantities. The S6 does the latter; water is getting in, but it's supposed to be in a quantity to where under the test conditions it will resist harmful effects.

 

[carverstone1]

Final report.
Soaking in 70% isopropyl for half hour
drying it and shaking it dry, then blow drying it for 5 mins
then letting it sit in a bag of rice for 2 days
then sitting on a table alone for a day and a bit
I turned it on today.

All buttons work. Touch screen works. Camera is clear and works on both sides.
Everything appears to work perfectly EXCEPT the screen flickers a bit when adjusting the brightness. Hopefully this helps anyone else out there.

 

[Aquila]

That's great progress

 

[B. Diddy]

Definitely good progress. But just be aware that water damage can be insidiously progressive, so problems might crop up later. If you continue using this as your main phone, keep it regularly synced or backed up, to avoid losing any valuable data in case it suddenly fails at some point.