Hey,
I was just looking for my old phone and I found out it had bloated up! It was in a dry place with no access of light or heat or moisture.
What should I do with it. Will it explode?? Is it safe to keep your old phones in your cupboard?
Don't want to throw it away with all my data in it.
iPhone 3GS
There’s also no single cause for a swollen battery. Some are due to manufacturing defects, others are caused by the age of the battery, and still other cases can be caused by misuse, such as not properly exercising the battery over time, or by using the wrong power charger.
first step is to exercise caution. Puncturing a battery in any state is incredibly dangerous, but swollen batteries are especially vulnerable to compromise as their casing is already under stress from the built up gasses within. In short, handle any device with a suspected swollen battery with care.
In the meantime to protect yourself I wouldn't try plugging it in or leaving it plugged in because that may further stress the battery. Hopefully if you have a backup stored to icloud or iTunes you can recover your contacts, mail etc from the backup. If you would like to dispose of the phone I would highly reccomend taking it to the apple store and have them dispose of it.
If that is an original iPhone 3GS battery and it has been sitting for years, then it is not surprising it has swollen. That would be a fairly common fate for such an old lithium battery left idle for a prolonged period of time.
If you take it in to an Apple Store they will dispose of it safely and recycle the device parts. I would not use it. And be wary of trying to open it and replace the battery yourself. Lithium is quite toxic so you don't want to rupture the battery case and expose the material inside.
Iphone 3gs battery expanded?
