I saved my wet iPhone 4!

I dropped my brand new iPhone 4 in, well, lets decide to call it "water". It got totally soaked, but I saved it! Here is what I did:

1) I took it out of the "water"

2) I turned it completely off

3) I thoroughly rinsed it in the sink (this step was necessary for me, but may not be for others)

4) I removed the SIM card and dried everything off as bet I could

5) I got my vacuum cleaner and hooked up the attachment with the smallest nozzle

6) I placed the vacuum attachment at the bottom of my iPhone (where the connector is) and sucked air though it for 20 minutes. At the same time, I stood about 3 or 4 feet away blowing warm air over my iPhone with a hair dryer (I set my hair dryer to the lowest heat setting)

7) Then I submerged my iPhone in a bowl of uncooked rice

8) 4 or 5 times over the next 24 hours I repeated the vacuum procedure

9) I left the iPhone in the rice overnight

10) In the morning I put the SIM card back in, powered it up, and viola! It works!

And here is the best part. The MasterCard I used to buy the iPhone comes with purchase insurance. I told them what happened, and they are refunding the $299 I paid! Of course, that really just covers my loss of the residual value of the phone. I would of been able to get about $300 for it when the new ones come out again. Still, I could of been much worse.

By the way, most people are not aware that their credit cards have purchase insurance. You usually do not have to pay extra for it. If you suffer a loss, it never hurts to call your credit card company and ask.

ijen0311 said:

So you have the phone and $299?

Click to expand...

For now. MasterCard may want the old one, or maybe not. Either way, I come out about the same in the end. Here's why:

I get the refund no matter what. I can keep using my current phone, and have nothing to sell when the new ones come out again, or I can but a new one now, and resell it for about what I paid when the new ones come out.

Although the phone still works, it no longer has a warranty, or a demonstrable resale value, other than for parts or scrap, so I have still suffered a loss.

richc71 said:

Good for you. I dropped my in a slow draining sink Monday. Tried drying it out using rice and an oven set to 45C. Two days and no luck. Called Apple and they'd replace it for $199. That's ~$50 more than one of these online repair places. In 20 minutes at the Apple store, I had a brand new 32gb iPhone 4. They don't have refurbished units yet.

Click to expand...

I'm glad you mentioned that. Apple also offered me a $199 replacement. My refund is still in the underwriting department at MasterCard, so I assume they will now just pay for the replacement. That's fine with me! Now I will have a phone with a warranty and resale value. Plus I won't have to worry about any mysterious odors!