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People who believe the rice myth are clueless. Rice DOES NOT absorb water unless it is in direct contact with BOILING water!

Please stop advising people to put wet iPhones/iPods in uncooked rice! For starters, rice has a hull that will not absorb water unless it is BOILING. It's a stupid myth that needs to stop. People believe this nonsense because of putting rice in salt shakers but the rice doesn't absorb anything. It just keeps the salt from clumping. Pull a bag of rice out that's been sitting in your cupboard for a year and you'll see it's still hard. Hasn't absorbed a drop of moisture! Also, rice can get lodged in jacks and port connectors, possibly causing more damage. If anything could dry it out, try a vacuum hose on LOW and place it to the jacks or dock connectors and let it slowly draw water out, but please stop with the rice nonsense.

iPod touch (5th generation), iOS 6.0.1

Posted on Dec 15, 2013 12:57 PM

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Posted on Dec 15, 2013 1:29 PM

Commercial prepared rice is naturally hygroscopic at most atmospheric relative humidity levels. It does indeed absorb (or loose - dependant on the relative humidity and the moisture content of the rice grain) water through the husk as the hull is not at all a complete water barrier. Rice is typically dried for shipment and storage to reduce water content, and that is done without removing the hull.


As a hygroscopic material it does certainly work as a mild desiccant. There is no "myth" as people have been using rice as a desiccant for centuries. Admittedly it is not a terribly effective desiccant, but it still has those properties.


No, it does not act like a sponge and suck up liquid, no desiccant works like that. But if you put uncooked rice in a high humidity environment (such as a sealed plastic bag with a wet item inside it) the water content of the rice will most certainly increase as it takes up moisture from the air. That in turn will help lower the humidity in the bag, drawing (hopefully) yet more moisture from the wet device. Rice absorbs water in its vapor state, not slurping it up like a sponge. It dries items by maintaining a disequilibrium in humidity, like any desiccant does. By keeping the humidity level below equilibrium, it helps to draw water out of the wet item sharing the same closed environment. If the humidity ever actually reaches equilibrium, then neither the wet item nor the rice will gain or loose any further water content.


<edit> BTW, salt itself is also a desiccant material. The reason rice keeps salt from clumping is again, it help to maintain a dry atmosphere around the salt, so the salt itself does not absorb excess moisture. It is basically acting as an antagonist desiccant to the salt itself. You will never notice any observable change in rice, even though its measurable moisture content may go up (or down) by as much as 15%-20%. Although, if its moisture content gets high enough, it becomes very prone to mold infection and may get darker in color.

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Dec 15, 2013 1:29 PM in response to Dustinzilbauer35

Commercial prepared rice is naturally hygroscopic at most atmospheric relative humidity levels. It does indeed absorb (or loose - dependant on the relative humidity and the moisture content of the rice grain) water through the husk as the hull is not at all a complete water barrier. Rice is typically dried for shipment and storage to reduce water content, and that is done without removing the hull.


As a hygroscopic material it does certainly work as a mild desiccant. There is no "myth" as people have been using rice as a desiccant for centuries. Admittedly it is not a terribly effective desiccant, but it still has those properties.


No, it does not act like a sponge and suck up liquid, no desiccant works like that. But if you put uncooked rice in a high humidity environment (such as a sealed plastic bag with a wet item inside it) the water content of the rice will most certainly increase as it takes up moisture from the air. That in turn will help lower the humidity in the bag, drawing (hopefully) yet more moisture from the wet device. Rice absorbs water in its vapor state, not slurping it up like a sponge. It dries items by maintaining a disequilibrium in humidity, like any desiccant does. By keeping the humidity level below equilibrium, it helps to draw water out of the wet item sharing the same closed environment. If the humidity ever actually reaches equilibrium, then neither the wet item nor the rice will gain or loose any further water content.


<edit> BTW, salt itself is also a desiccant material. The reason rice keeps salt from clumping is again, it help to maintain a dry atmosphere around the salt, so the salt itself does not absorb excess moisture. It is basically acting as an antagonist desiccant to the salt itself. You will never notice any observable change in rice, even though its measurable moisture content may go up (or down) by as much as 15%-20%. Although, if its moisture content gets high enough, it becomes very prone to mold infection and may get darker in color.

Jun 18, 2016 9:29 PM in response to Carlos Miguel Altamonte

Carlos Miguel Altamonte wrote:


An article on how to save a wet cellphone cannot vouch for the rice-as-desiccant method.


Is there a scientific experiment or verification on this where everything is considered - severity, type of rice, relative humidity, etc.?

With any experiment you need a control. Check the time/date stamp on this thread. We'll start there.

People who believe the rice myth are clueless. Rice DOES NOT absorb water unless it is in direct contact with BOILING water!

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