iPhone in water....remedy?

Your only hope is this: Make sure phone is turned OFF, put phone in a zip lock bag of dried rice for 3-4 days. You can keep the zip lock bag by a window with sun shining on the bag. Remove the phone, plug into an AC outlet, let it charge, see if it powers on. If it does, you're lucky. If not, Apple has an out of warranty replacement program, cost is $199. Water damage is not covered by warranty.

Hi. My 2 year old daughter dropped my iPhone in the toilet (clean water thankfully!). Anyway, like an idiot I tried to use it while it was wet and the screen shorted out, blinked erratically a few times and the light stopped working. I let it dry out a little and the screen turned on and flickered, but still no backlight. At this point it would only work in speakerphone mode and not very well. Also, there was visible water behind the camera window.

I use my phone for work (i'm on call 24/7) so I needed to get a new one (so I thought). I rushed to the Apple store and got a 3gs after the genius verified that one (the bottom) water indicator was red and I thought it was hopeless to think the phone would be usable again. New iPhone purchased and activated I went home and thought of something.

Just for the heck of it, and with nothing to lose, I placed the still wet iPhone in two socks, put the socks in a towel and put a bungee cord around the whole thing. I put it on low heat for about 30 mins and took the phone out. It looked dry and the water behind the lens was gone. I turned it on...

it worked perfectly. The screen, the backlight, the microphone, the speaker, the camera..everything worked flawlessly. I went back to the Apple store 5 days later to return the 3gs and we swapped sim cards (according to AT&T rep's instructions). There was no restocking fee, no activation fee imposed, etc.

That was a month ago. The phone is STILL like it's brand new out of the box, save for the tripped water indicator and no more warranty.

Just thought I'd share that with you.

Good Luck!!

Rob

My wife did this with her Blackberry. The bag of rice is a great idea. BUT: It may take longer than 3-4 days. Hers started working only after about 8-9 days. be patient. If it ain't workin' by then, I'd say your phone gave up the ghost. Time to pay up and get a new one. (Hopefully it works out for you.)

Well, you never specified dryer or oven. I went with oven and did the same thing you did. It worked! I had dropped my phone in the sink while I was washing my hands. Whew! The universe is back in harmony. Aaaahhhhh...

This happened to me yesterday. Sadly, I can't blame it on a 2-year-old.... I thought I would just check here before heading to the Apple store. But guess what, all on its own, with no rice, in about 12 hours, my iPhone righted itself, and all is working -- except, the settings say "no wifi." What's up with that?

Theres not really much you can do besides let it sit for a few days and dry out. I once fully submerged mine in a pot of boiling spagetti noodles.. yes...I actually managed to do that. Anyways it spazzed out once I got it out and the screen was jumping around to different things and opening apps and all kinds of stuff so I just turned it off. It would only show the apple symbol for days and I figured it was ruined but about a week later I turned it on again to see what would happen and it told me to connect it to itunes. I did and it said I needed to restore it and after that its worked fine, except for the off button on the top doesnt work anymore so my phone loses charge a lot faster but it's better than have no iphone at all. So good luck and hopefully it will work after a few days.

the "best" thing to do is (if u have the skillset) is dismantle the phone and allow the circuitboard to sit in an alcohol solution for a few hours to wash it of all impurities. I would say thats what apple does with its phones during the refurb process (that and test everything is functional on the board via some sort of JTAG port)
That said i dont think everyone would have the skillset to do so, and the most successful course of action is to cough up 200 benjy's up @ the cr-apple store and make mr jobs just that little bit richer for your misfortune 🙂 Least u get a phone that works with some warranty, without digging out the bags of rice and voodoo dolls and prayers to the iphone gods.

The Pink Furby wrote:
the "best" thing to do is (if u have the skillset) is dismantle the phone and allow the circuitboard to sit in an alcohol solution for a few hours to wash it of all impurities. I would say thats what apple does with its phones during the refurb process (that and test everything is functional on the board via some sort of JTAG port)
That said i dont think everyone would have the skillset to do so, and the most successful course of action is to cough up 200 benjy's up @ the cr-apple store and make mr jobs just that little bit richer for your misfortune 🙂 Least u get a phone that works with some warranty, without digging out the bags of rice and voodoo dolls and prayers to the iphone gods.

Come now. Prayers to the iPhone Gods are good even if your phone is working properly. (Preventive prayers and all that.)

Here's another wet-iPhone story. A friend who always keeps her iPhone next to her heart, literally, forgot to re-locate it before diving into a swimming pool. Swam for an hour. Got out of the pool, screamed once, and drove straight to the Apple Store, where she was given no hope -- but of course a new iPhone in return for two benjys. Love the Apple discussions. They have saved my bacon many times, but this is the first one that actually has entertained me.

Boiling spaghetti?!? Wow.

I got my husband the 3GS for Christmas, with my Amex card. Two plus months later, on Hawaii's
North Shore, he forgot he had it in his cargo pocket, nice waves- it got really hot, we called Amex (that
covered it for 3 mos under it's purchase protection program) and went to Honolulu Apple.
New phone for $199, which we'll be refunded.

On Sunday morning I not only washed my beloved iphone, but dried it too. In desparate search to revive my lovely little machine, I searched the blogs high and low. For three days and two nights I carefully submerged my friend in a sealed bag of dry white rice. The idea was that the rice ICU would draw the water out of the phone. At the end of the third day I carefully removed my phone – pressed the top button and held it for several seconds – and AMAZINGLY ENOUGH she’s alive!!!!! Hooray for the iphone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Works just fine! Amazing!!!!!!!!!! There appears to be a little damage to the screen - backlit a little odd - but most of the blogs say that disappears too - thank you bloggers!!!

I will take the advice from above and get the sim card switched out -

Well done iphone!!!

Did you put it in the dryer or the oven? HELP!!

You should never use any sort of heat source to dry out wet electronics. It just hastens how fast the connections will corrode.

"cough up 200 benjy's..."

Since a "Benjamin" is a $100 bill, I'd expect that two of them are enough.

zimbabwi benjy's then 😀
thou I hear that will only fetch you 1/2 dozen eggs in zimbabwe