Galaxy s4 went through the wash - can it be saved?

[1o951o8]

This morning I put in a load of laundry, forgot about it, went to get my phone, couldn't find it, and with an ominous feeling, looked inside the washing machine and found it at the bottom. My phone was powered on when it went into the wash. By the time i pulled it out, it was already in the rinse or spin cycle (I was too freaked out to be able to say exactly).

The screen was black, but the notification light was blinking green. It was also making a buzzing noise. I did not press any buttons or try to see if it was working. I immediately googled what to do and took the battery and sim out, dried it with paper towels (at this point I did accidentally press the power button while drying it off) and put it in a bag of white basmati rice. I plan to keep it in there for 3-5 days, but I'm still worried, since most of the people who said rice worked for them did NOT have their phone in the washing machine for 30 mins....

I read about submerging it in alcohol but I'm not sure about that?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. I know it's an an older phone, but I've only had it for a couple weeks and my parents bought it for me, so I really don't want to have screwed up.

thanks

 

[srkmagnus]

It's likely to have problems, and possibly not work properly (if at all). You didn't good by removing it and putting it in rice - only time will tell if it will work. Don't turn it on for the next couple of days. Give it time to fully dry.

 

[Rukbat]

Submerging the phone in alcohol (and swishing it vigorously, so the alcohol is forced into all the little spaces inside the phone), using about 4 alcohol baths, one after the other, will work if you remove the battery immediately after the phone gets wet. (The way I phrase it is that if your pants fall down at the same time your phone falls in the water, take the battery out of the phone before you pull your pants up.) What you want to do is wash all the impurities out of the phone. (Pure H[SUP]2[/SUP]O doesn't cause much damage - if the battery is out of the phone.)

Your phone? From the sound of it, you need a new motherboard and screen, at least. Since replacing the phone isn't cheap, it may pay to fix it. Bring it in, get an estimate and compare that to the price of a phone you can get on a site like Swappa (don't buy cellphones from Craig's List or eBay). Then you'll know whether to repair, replace with used or buy a new phone.

BTW, putting a wet phone in rice only dries it (and wastes the time you could be soaking it in alcohol). All the impurities, salts, metals, etc., are still there to damage the phone the next time the humidity gets above 5% (which means that the phone is steadily being eaten away inside). Read Wet Phone.