No water, but detector is red - why?

Somehow some type of liquid got into your iPhone. It doesn't have to be water. Regardless, Apple will consider this liquid damage which is not covered under their standard 1-year hardware warranty ... unless an Apple Technician determines that the liquid got in due to a manufacturing defect. I suggest that you make a Genius Bar appointment at your local Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider to have them take a look and provide you with your options.

Also, water resistant is NOT the same as water proof. Those tests were run under controlled conditions.

It is not affected by humidity, but can be triggered by condensing moisture such as fog (or a steamy bathroom).

Measurements are made under ideal conditions, and must be more rigorous than every day use. If you took a new phone right out of the box and submerged it in distilled water as specified in IP67 it would pass. But once it has been used it will most likely no longer pass that test. In addition, steam has more penetrating power than water because it has lower surface tension.

As far as your 1000 iPhone example, based on the number of posts about water damage in these forums if 1000 phones were dropped in a toilet most likely all of them would fail.

Just curious -

Is the indicator affected by humidity levels &/or weather changes?

Thanks!

You’re welcome! Keep well.

As you clearly already know, water and other liquid damage is not covered by the warranty. (Although as noted in that article, you may, depending on where you are, have recourse to consumer protection laws.). That said, what have you got to lose by having the phone examined by Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider to determine whether, as you speculate, the moisture detector is not working correctly and/or whether there is any other evidence inside the iPhone that corroborates your position that it never got wet (or there's the detector's position that it did).

If the only alternative would be to get a replacement phone, seems like it's worth a closer exam. Also, depending on how you paid for the device, you may have recourse to your credit card or other payment-based purchase protection, since you're only 6 months into ownership. Some cut off after only 90 days, but there are other cards that offer to extend the warranty by as long as the original warranty, up to one year. Some cover damage, some only cover theft. It varies. And then, there's insurance. Some policies cover effects of certain kinds, some do not.

Good luck!

-- JDee

LARD1 wrote:

My 6 month old iPhone 11 moisture indicator is red, but the phone has not been in water.

The indicator is exceedingly dumb. It’s a chemical that turns red when it gets wet. So if it is red it got wet. The phone is not waterproof, and the warranty does not cover water damage.