You stand up from the toilet when plunk! Your phone falls out of your pocket and lands in the bowl. You’re fast to pull the phone out but you’re worried that it might have sustained some kind of water damage.
You’re not sure how to tell if your phone has water damage but your device is acting kind of weird since the incident. The touch screen isn’t responsive and the speaker is acting a little strange.
These are indeed two obvious signs that something’s wrong. Keep reading to learn what all the signs are and how to fix your phone if it’s undergone some water damage.
How to Tell If Your Phone Has Water Damage
If you’ve dropped your iPhone in the toilet take off the case right away and find your SIM tray. Most of the time it’s going to be on the right side of the phone somewhere.
Once you’ve found it, use a SIM removal tool to press into the hole on the bottom of the tray and pull it out. If you don’t own a SIM removal tool, a straight paper clip will work as well.
Take a flashlight and shine it into the SIM slot. If you see red in the slot this is a bad sign. It means that it’s taken on quite a bit of water damage.
Checking your Android phone for water damage is pretty much the same process unless it has a removable battery. If this is the case, the water damage indicator will be somewhere on the battery.
Other signs of water damage on a phone include a wide array of hardware issues. The touch screen may act strangely and even open apps.
The microphone or speaker might not work as it should. You could have problems opening up web browsers and other applications. Sometimes the phone displays an actual error message.
What to Do About it?
Now that you know for sure that your phone has water damage, what can you do about it? Before you take it to your local repair shop, there are a few things you can try to dry out your phone.
Take the Phone Apart
When we say take the phone apart, we don’t mean take a screwdriver to it and dismember the phone. What we mean is that you should take out anything that’s removable.
Remove the battery if you’re able to along with the SIM card and SD card. Lay them on a paper towel to dry off.
Dry the Exterior
While the removable parts of your phone are sitting out to dry, take a dry cloth to the rest of your phone. You want to be a little gentle about this.
If you move the device around too much while you’re drying it out, you may push the water deeper into the phone.
Try a Vacuum
Speaking of water deep in the phone, there are places where a paper towel isn’t going to be able to reach. For these stubborn areas, you can actually use a vacuum cleaner.
The vacuum can suck little droplets of water out of the phone without doing any real damage to the device. Make sure that you use one of the smaller attachments on your vacuum cleaner for this purpose and again, try not to move it around too much.
Dry it Out
There are quite a few methods you could use to absorb the remaining moisture in the phone. You could just leave it out on a counter but that’s not as effective as putting it into a bag full of rice.
Rice is something that you probably have up in your cabinet and if you don’t it will be pretty cheap for you to pick some up. Leave your phone in the bag of rice for two to three days so it can do its job of absorbing moisture.
If you don’t have rice on hand, silica gel packets will work as well. Once your phone has been sitting in either rice or silica gel packets for a few days take it out, put it back together, and try turning it on.
What Not to Do!
It’s important to also know what you shouldn’t do when your phone is exposed to water. First of all, don’t attempt to turn it on or plug it in. This might fry some of the electrical components.
Don’t push any keys. If you do, it might force the water deeper into the phone. You don’t want to blow into the phone or jostle it too much for the same reason.
You shouldn’t expose your phone to excessive amounts of heat so avoid using a blow dryer to dry it out.
How to Avoid Water Damage in the Future
Of course, the best way to avoid water damage is to prevent it from happening in the first place. No matter how waterproof a phone claims to be, prolonged exposure to water will damage it.
Give the phone a little boost by investing in a waterproof case. If all else fails, make sure that you always back up your data. This way, if your phone does take a plunge into a toilet and can’t be fixed, you still have all your data.
Save Your Phone from Water Damage
Not sure how to tell if your phone has water damage? You’ll know when you take the SIM card out. The red indicator will inform you.
If you can’t find the indicator, your phone will tell you in other ways in the form of hardware issues. If you act fast enough and follow this guide, you’ll be able to save your device.
Have your repair efforts proven ineffective? Let us take a look at it. Go here to schedule your phone repair today.
