How to save your IPhone if liquid gets inside.

After dropping my brand new IPhone into a bed pan, I googled what to do in hopes of being able to salvage my phone. Because there's so much inaccurate information on what to do in this situation, I've decided to tell you the exact steps I took to get my phone dried out and working again, same as new.

Step 1. TURN OFF YOUR PHONE IMMEDIATELY AND DO NOT POWER IT BACK ON UNTIL THE FINAL STEP HAS BEEN COMPLETED. This is extremely important. Any power to your phone while it is wet will short it out.


Step 2. If you have one, remove your sim card/tray. Let dry.


Step 3. Place the phone in a bag of uncooked rice and leave it there for at least 2 days. Make sure you remove any air from the bag. Rice is used to remove moisture from many things, such as your IPhone. Don't worry about rice getting stuck in the openings of your phone. It can be removed easily. I also added a product in the rice bag called Super Dri Aid Hearing Aid Dehumidifier. These tiny beads are designed to remove moisture fast, and work very well.


Step 4. Day 3, blow dry your phone on HIGH. I did this for an hour using WARM heat. Regardless of what you've read online, heat will not make your phone corrode worse, make the connectors break loose, or do more harm to the phone. It's going to speed up the drying process. RESIST THE TEMPTATION TO POWER ON YOUR PHONE. Again, any power to the phone before it's fully dried can/will short your phone out.


Step 5. Place your phone back into the bag of rice, where it will stay for 2 more days.


Step 6. It's now day 5. IF you have the option of leaving your phone outside in the hot sun, do so for about an hour. Afterwards, place it in a warm shady area where it will spend the full day drying. If you are in a cold climate, or it's not Summertime, wrap a heating blanket or a heating pad around the phone for 1 full day. It's fine if the phone gets hot.


Step 7. Check your phone for rice that may have gotten into any openings. Power your phone on. If your phone powers on but isn't working properly, reset your phone through ITunes. At this time you should have your phone running the same as it did before. Although my phone was working fine, I took it to a repair shop where I insisted they open it up to see if it was fully dried (which it was), and to clean off any corrosion left behind from it being submerged. There was no corrosion, and the 4 sensors that are in the IPhone which are designed to turn from white to pink when the phone is in contact with water were still white, which we didn't understand. That the phone works perfectly after taking this kind of damage really is amazing. I hope this helps others!

Posted on Jul 22, 2011 2:25 PM

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Posted on Jul 22, 2011 5:02 PM

No, unless you left it lying in the bedpan for a couple of hours or so the drier would do exactly that. The tolerances are very tight on an iPhone and moisture can only enter through the heaphone jack and the dock. No matter what the moisture using the hair dryer on high risks blowing the moisture further into the device via the two openings. Again, it is an unnecessary step in your otherwise will laid out post and will not help the situation at all.


Second point, I hope the person with the bedpan was on a low salt diet. If not the salt within the urine has already done damage and will cause premature failure of a number of components within the phone. Best scenario when the iPhone has been exposed to corrosive liquids is to open it, remove the battery, rinse it in distilled water and then dry the parts with silica gel packets. Better than that: do an out-of-warranty replacement of the iPhone.

22 replies

Mar 18, 2017 7:30 PM in response to Abdulrahman Mutwia

Abdulrahman Mutwia wrote:


What would happen if i charge the phone or turned it on ?

If there is any moisture still in the phone, turning it on will cause additional corrosion. The fact that you turned it on after only about a day of letting it dry means that you've already doe the damage. Putting it in rice now is rather pointless. Your phone is not going to get better.

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How to save your IPhone if liquid gets inside.

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