My daughter's iPhone 3G fell out of her pants pocket and into the toilet two nights ago. 
Rather than fish it out herself, she ran to get me. I am guessing it was submerged between 45 seconds to a minute when I fished it out. It was still on and I was unable to shut it off since the touch screen and buttons were non-responsive. It shut down on its' own after about 2 minutes, while I was still holding it over the sink.
I found several articles on the web discussing various drying methods for submerged iPhones. I removed the SIM and shook the remaining water from the phone. Using a hairdryer on medium heat, I dried the phone off as much as I could. I then placed the phone in a sealed bag with about a cup of uncooked white rice. I placed the bag on the dash of my car that was parked in the sun yesterday morning and left it for 10 hours. I brought it in last night and used the hairdryer again for about 15 minutes.
I then plugged it into the macbook and attempted to turn it on. iTunes recognized it as an iPhone in recovery mode. After about 20 minutes and a backup restore, the iPhone is working fine. Everything seems functional, including the touch screen, speakers, camera and microphone. There is some layered splotchiness in the display which I believe to be residual moisture. The splotches are less obvious this morning and I think that they continue to dissipate as it dries out.
Anyway, the daughter dodged a bullet and I wanted to let everyone know the situation in the event something similar occurs to you.
Rather than fish it out herself, she ran to get me. I am guessing it was submerged between 45 seconds to a minute when I fished it out. It was still on and I was unable to shut it off since the touch screen and buttons were non-responsive. It shut down on its' own after about 2 minutes, while I was still holding it over the sink. I found several articles on the web discussing various drying methods for submerged iPhones. I removed the SIM and shook the remaining water from the phone. Using a hairdryer on medium heat, I dried the phone off as much as I could. I then placed the phone in a sealed bag with about a cup of uncooked white rice. I placed the bag on the dash of my car that was parked in the sun yesterday morning and left it for 10 hours. I brought it in last night and used the hairdryer again for about 15 minutes.
I then plugged it into the macbook and attempted to turn it on. iTunes recognized it as an iPhone in recovery mode. After about 20 minutes and a backup restore, the iPhone is working fine.
Everything seems functional, including the touch screen, speakers, camera and microphone. There is some layered splotchiness in the display which I believe to be residual moisture. The splotches are less obvious this morning and I think that they continue to dissipate as it dries out. Anyway, the daughter dodged a bullet and I wanted to let everyone know the situation in the event something similar occurs to you.
