[GUIDE] Oh, no! My Phone got Wet!

[Rukbat]

Any sugar, dissolved in almost any liquid, will carbonize when current flows through the liquid, causing shorts. Sugar-free drinks have other chemicals that will cause shorts or eat through copper. Carbonic acid, created when water is carbonized, is a weak etchant, but over enough time, it'll eat through enough copper that the board will fail. Even just carbonized de-ionized, absolutely pure water is slightly acidic.

Anything that gets into the phone should be washed out fast. (It's like crossing a busy highway blindfolded - it might work, but you also might get killed. Just drying the phone may let it last for years, and you trade it on another phone in 6 months, so you'll never know that it would have gone bad. Or it could go bad in 2 weeks. I only gamble on sure things. Will the sun rise tomorrow morning? Sure, I'll take that bet. [If it doesn't, I won't be around to have to pay anyway.] Will my wet phone keep working if I just put it into a bag of rice? I won't try that unless I was planning on tossing the phone anyway - and the only phones I'd toss are those not worth fixing. Even a Nokia 5110 with a decent battery can be used to call 911, so I donate any working phone to battered women's shelters. And if it's already not working, I can't tell if dipping it into maple syrup would have killed it.)

 

[ejcrossl]

Will the alcohol set off the water indicators?

 

[Rukbat]

Why would it? It's not water. If it does, the indicators are defective. Humid air should set them off easier than alcohol should. (Alcohol will suck all the water out of them.)

 

[yy_0160]

I got a little water in my phone and I charged it as I didn't know with the battery.It wasn't charging although it indicated that it was charging,and after 3 hours it turned off.Now it won't turn on.Now there is no way I can save my phone?

 

[Golfdriver97]

I got a little water in my phone and I charged it as I didn't know with the battery.It wasn't charging although it indicated that it was charging,and after 3 hours it turned off.Now it won't turn on.Now there is no way I can save my phone?

Welcome to Android Central. I am not entirely sure, but it is very likely that the phone may have shorted out. I think the only thing that can bring it back to life is replacing all the boards and the battery, but by the time you do that, it is probably just as cost effective to get a new device or use your insurance.

 

[sollyazrak]

hello i have a samsung s 5 mini that should be water resistant i took it to shower and maybe a bit of water went in the charging dock when i tried charging my phone the phone started like its on fire and it was smelling like its burning you can also hear it

now i cannot charge my phone i don't know what to do i don't understand the phone should be water resistant

please help

 

[Rukbat]

Water resistance depends on water pressure. The pressure at 1 meter (the rating on the phone - IP67) is 16psi. The pressure of most domestic water systems is 30psi - almost twice the pressure the phone is rated for. So your phone got wet.

Charging it electrocuted anything left.

If your insurance covers water damage, have the phone replaced. Otherwise, buy a new phone and, if you must have it in the shower, seal it in a plastic baggie.

And NEVER charge a wet phone. Never turn it on. Never even leave the battery in it. Read Oh, no! My Phone got Wet! so you'll know what to do when your next phone gets wet. (There's no waterproof phone on the market, and none in the works for 2015 or 2016. Nextel stopped having Motorola make them about 10 years ago.)

 

[sollyazrak]

I think the problem is that the s 5 mini does not have a protector on the charging dock and water must off gone in i did not exposed the phone to show I put it in a stand inside the shower maybe little water touched the phone and the heat also could affected i don't understand if the phone didn't make direct contact with water why this happened

 

[Rukbat]

All that water vapor and steam gets into the phone. When you bring it back into a cooler room, it all condenses and causes water damage. It's worse than leaving the charging port cover open on an S5. The vapor gets into every little air space inside the phone, no matter how small, it's just humid air. You really need an airtight phone to bring into a hot humid environment like that.

I don't think it's the heat itself - if the room was hot enough to affect the phone, either you're in a sauna, a steam lodge or you're risking death. It's the fact that the warmer the air, the more moisture it holds. When the phone (and the air inside it) cools off, that moisture condenses, and you have water damage all over the inside of the phone.

 

[sollyazrak]

so in conclusion you cannot take the samsung s 5 mini in to the shower even if it doesn't make direct contact with water

 

[Rukbat]

The last phone you could probably take into the shower without worrying about it was the Nextel i580 - as long as it didn't come into contact with the hot water. I wouldn't even take an S5 protected by 2 plastic bags into the shower. Or even into the bathroom when I'm taking a shower. Even with the power vent running.

 

[sollyazrak]

oh tnx this phone is a lie it said water resistant and that even you can put the phone in the water

 

[Rukbat]

Water resistant to 3 feet (actually 1 meter) with no additional pressure, with all ports securely sealed. There's a spec in the claim (IP67), and it's not guaranteed to exceed the spec. It's not guaranteed against steam or the pressure of a residential shower. It's also not guaranteed to work if you're charging it with a wet charging port.

They didn't lie - you failed to research the fine print.

 

[anon8380037]

Question too Professor : Did you mean any battery can be unplugged either with a screwdriver or a bit of force after force opening the back.
There's a question today about a Samsung Galaxy S6 edge where a light is flashing after trying to dry it.



It would be helpful to have a list of phones, compiled in a forum or such, that cannot be opened or disengaged from the battery, so are definitely done for if dropped in water.

 

[anon8380037]

http://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=554658

(Darn, could not get back in to my post in these guides)

 

[Rukbat]

Question too Professor : Did you mean any battery can be unplugged either with a screwdriver or a bit of force after force opening the back.
There's a question today about a Samsung Galaxy S6 edge where a light is flashing after trying to dry it.

Answered by belodion and myself. Thanks.

It would be helpful to have a list of phones, compiled in a forum or such, that cannot be opened or disengaged from the battery, so are definitely done for if dropped in water.

It would have to be updated for every new phone, and it would soon get too large to be manageable.

People know their own phones. If you can't pull the back off (the carrier can tell you that when you activate it), you can't pull the battery. If you can pull the back off, you pull it off and see if the battery is sitting there, ready to be removed with a fingernail. If it's not, the phone has to be disassembled to remove the battery, and I don't recommend that anyone but a cellphone repairman do that. (Just bending the motherboard up 1/16" can keep the phone from working after it's reassembled.)

But it's one reason I wouldn't keep an S6, even if someone gave me a new one in the box. I'd sell it unopened. Removable battery, SD card and a case that can take a beating are three deal breakers for me.

 

[Steve Kiefer1]

To be clear on the alcohol bath, what exactly needs to be removed prior to bath/cleaning from Note 3. Can you submerge after removing just the back, battery, sim card and s-pen? Or should it be dismantled further?

Thank you

 

[Rukbat]

Remove the battery and wipe it down with alcohol separately. Remove the pen and the SIM and SD cards and bathe them. Then bathe the whole phone. The idea is to both absorb all the water and to dissolve all the impurities that were in the water and wash them out into the alcohol.

If you know how to disassemble the phone, soak each part in alcohol for a minute or two, then wipe each one down with a clean alcohol swab (the kind they wipe your arm with before giving you a shot).

 

[Arlene619]

Believe it or not I must have the best luck... I was at the beach, left my phone on the sand... far from shore.. a huge wave hit and water hit the shore where my phone was, it got carried away by the wave.. I grabbed it, removed the battery. As soon as I got home left it in a bag of rice.. the next day it was working fine. Lol. Idk which one helped but I can say that the rice trick didn't mess up my phone.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Rukbat]

The rice won't - if the phone didn't get wet inside, which is probably what happened. Removing the water but leaving the impurities - which is what putting a wet phone into rice does - is what causes the damage.