Water Submersion Indicator - Void Warranty

Giving you the benefit of doubt that you honestly don't know of any moisture contact, the fact that you're unaware of it hardly rules it out. Sweat, leaving it in a bathroom when showing, blowing debris out of the jack with your mouth, sneezing/coughing near the phone, etc., etc, are all capable of both tripping the sensors and causing internal water damage.

People tend to be really fast to judge others here -- but the fact of the matter is, that there is no way that the water sensor can be tripped without actual water.

This includes water accidently spashed on if too close to the sink in the kitchen or bathroom; or condensation while in the shower; or any liquids you might use to clean your iPhone (including apple approved "Apple Polish" and the like); or the spray of a Seven-up or softdrink when opened; etc...

It's physically impossible for the sensor to be tripped without something like that...

If the humidity is only 10-20%, and it's above 80°F, then you are sweating a lot. You may not notice this, because at those humidity levels it will be evaporating too fast to generate noticeable wetness or stains on your clothing. However, it will mean that the humidity near your skin, especially in pockets, is above 80%. If that weren't the case you would have died of heat prostration by now. But since Apple chose to use a cheap & easily affected paper indicator there is no way to tell the difference between a toilet and your sweaty chest. After all, they're not in business to replace these things, so enjoy your void.

I got 2 iPhones 3G 16Gb, live in Portugal but i travel alot to countries like Angola (Africa) where humidity easily is at 80%.
I never used my phone under rain or even dropped any of them on water in any circunstances

One of them got the HOME button dead, so i took it to Vodafone in Portugal service (in here warranty for electronics is 2 years), since i came there they were already asking for a bt over 300usd for a replacement because i had wear marks on the back, but the screen is without any scratches or anything…on preliminary report they almost said my iPhone was hit by a truck.
I refused to pay up that ammount and demanded a technical report on the phone cause i wanted the home button replaced.
Next day they stated i had the port sensor red and i had it under water so they gave it back and sent me away…
If i had the phone on water both should be red , right? If it has 4 water sensors like some say shouldn't they be all red or pink?
i came home and got my other iPhone and the same red on the port and not on the hearjack
so i am sure those sensors are not reliable, and were placed to get Apple and carriers to the easy way out, and the word is void!!!

So if you need to be in tropical places, sweat, use the phone alot, and got it on Vodafone Portugal, beware cause they will frame you and better than that is to see you can't get a second opinion on those

but if you google a bit you will see like 7,550,000 for iphone sensor problems and 600,000 for iphone sensor issues...

And yes, some say they dropped it in the pool, in the toilet etc, however not everybody is a liar or want to cheat, i think the manufacturer should learn from the design mistakes, unless it find it nice to sell refurbished iphones at a lower price like they were Santa before time. But my guess is this is a scam.

I know what i did, and if i can't have a phone on my jeans pocket on summer, should i buy a iphone trailer or carry it on a plastic air bubble

"My case is different from the others.

First, I used my iPhone very carefully, and never dropped it to ground or water or anything like that"

Most everyone says this very same thing.

Sweat, raindrops, steam, etc that gets in the headphone jack can do this as well.

"isn't iPhone designed for worldwide distribution in the cities, like in East Coast, Oregon or SE Asia?"

Yes. I had my iphone in Oregon for a year and the indicator is not tripped, also Louisiana and the Gulf Coast of Florida with no issue.

Ziatron wrote:
It sounds like your phone has two problems.

Or:

1. Correctly sensed water exposure.

2. Home button not working smoothly due to corrosion from water exposure.

It's much less probable that there are 2 completely independent malfunctions, as you suggest, than 1 event that explains both.

Get a flashlight and look for yourself. This shows where they are: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3302

This topic has been discussed here countless times, in hundreds (thousands maybe) of threads which you can find with a forum search.

A tripped water exposure indicator defines water exposure and voids the warranty, unless you can prove otherwise. The water sensors can be tripped without immersion by condensation, inadvertently splashing/spraying, or exceeding the maximum rated relative humidity (95%).

but the fact of the matter is, that there is no way that the water sensor can be tripped without actual water

Including water at the Chinese factory, or any water along the transportation route.

Nobody here can do anything for you. Call Apple Customer Service and plead your case to them.

I dropped my original iPhone in the toilet ... yeah, the toilet 🙂 I've also dropped in lots of times on all kinds of surfaces.

After the toilet incident, it looked dead, but came back to life after plugging it into iTunes and re-initializing it. Kept working for almost a year with pretty much no problems. I took it to the Genius Bar and they noticed the water indicator, but the phone was way out of warranty anyway. BTW, I don't think the water caused the problem I was having that made me bring it in. But they did tell me that the water indicator does void the warranty.

This link is just another ranting blog with no verified documentation. You have to take the bloggers word for everything he claims happened and was said by Apple support.

Curiously, the link with the "proof" that the water sensors give false positive results was Blackberry forum!!! Even at that, if they are tripped by humidity exceeding 95%, this exceeds the iPhone operating range and does void the warranty regardless of immersion.