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Apr 12, 2001
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114559-ipod_liquid_damage_policy_500.jpg


BGR reports that it has received a screenshot of an internal Apple support document outlining a change to the company's policies regarding potential liquid damage to iPods. According to the document, Apple's usage of internal Liquid Contact Indicators (LCIs) to report direct contact with liquids is now to be augmented with additional inspection by repair staff before concluding that an actual liquid damage event, which would not be covered by warranty, has occurred.
AppleCare has changed the way it screens iPods for liquid damage. When an Apple Retail Store or AppleCare Repair Center checks for liquid damage, if the Liquid Contact Indicator (LCI) inside the headphone jack has been activated, the iPod must be inspected for additional signs of liquid damage.

As before, unless a customer admits to accidentally damaging their iPod, final determination about liquid damage must be made by an Apple Retail Store or AppleCare Repair Center.
As the report notes, it is unknown whether the revised policy also applies to the iPhone, although it seems likely that the two product lines would see similar guidelines.

Apple's Liquid Contact Indicators, which change color upon exposure to liquid, have been the subject of some controversy, with some customers, especially those living in areas of high humidity, claiming that the LCIs have activated without the devices being in direct contact with liquid. Apple's revised LCI policy appears designed to address this controversy, asking support staff to look for additional signs of direct liquid contact before making a final determination about whether repair or replacement would be covered under warranty.

Article Link: Apple Tweaks iPod Liquid Damage Assessment Procedures
 
Hmm. Is this benefitting or greatly affecting anyone? This is a very positive move though.
 
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This guy is begging to lose his job :eek:
 
I really hope that this goes into effect. The Apple Store voided my last iPhone warranty because they claimed I got the iPhone wet -- and I never had. It was in damp conditions, but never immersed. I mean heck -- it's a phone! I carry it with me. And if I get caught in a rainstorm, even though I protect the phone, the humidity can trigger the color change in the sensors. So I welcome the change in policy.
 
A strip, and only a strip, to determine water damage has always been an incredibly stupid idea on Apple's part. This will be a good change.
 
Don't they have something similar with MacBooks? If a sensor is triggered but the fault is nothing to do with liquids then it isn't a problem, so there is some discretion there. Surely this should be the case with all products?
 
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duaneu said:
Boy, these are really dull rumors so far today.

Yeah, where's iOS 4.2 and 10.6.5? Apple said they were gonna fix it the dst bug before Sunday..
 
And people who live in humid clients can get the support they paid for.

No need to be a negative nancy here.


i live in the land of 99% humidity in the summertime and have never had a water sensor trip on my iphone.

i even take my iphone into the shower to check email for a few minutes before showering and it never tripped. i've handled my phone with wet hands and never had it trip.

i don't know what some of you people do that trips the sensor. it's like my FIL's dumb phone battery broke because of the water sensor and he swore he never had it near water
 
The reason for warranty is that stuff doesn't always work the way it is suppose to (even those liquid damage sensors).

There is an old joke I heard in my very first job as a software developer years ago..... If you write a program to automatically test the correctness of another program, then what is testing the correctness of the first program?

Margin for error is always a possibility, and the sensor is probably a nice test to rule out liquid damage, but should not be considered sufficient evidence of liquid damage.

Good policy change.... boring news.

EDIT: At 9:43am the top 6 stories on MR front page total less than 200 comments. That's how boring the news is today.
 
Finally some good news from Apple for the first time in a few weeks. It seems common sense may still be present after all.
 
This helps the people who got just enough liquid in their product to trip the sensor, but otherwise is having symptoms issues unrelated to the liquid damage. It allows them to still receive the service they deserve even if some technician sees the liquid sensor and immediate takes their product out of warranty due to policy without having the forethought to realize that it might be a really bad move.

And the sensors don't trip due to normal humidity. If you have it in your bathroom and it's steamy, that's outside of designed environmental conditions. If it's humid enough for water to condense on a solid surface, it's humid enough to condense inside the electronics and cause liquid damage.

If you live outdoors in a rainforest, the iPhone might not be for you.
If you live in Florida and you don't walk around in the raid all the time, you should be fine.
 
Protect it!

Well, Apple just seal it, and you solve a lot of problems. It is not like we want to change the processor or some resistors which are in the iPhone/iPod.

20 years ago, we used two or three thin layers of cheap, acid resistant epoxy resin to protect sensitive electronic parts. And twenty years later, Apple can not do it, maybe with other materials? Sounds not very believable. Oh, i forgot it: They want to sell new iDevices.
 
Apple said they were gonna fix it the dst bug before Sunday..

They said that once the US came off DST it would fix itself. I'm guessing iOS had some code that was tied to US DST and for folks outside the USA this caused a problem when they came off DST before the US.
 
Well, Apple just seal it, and you solve a lot of problems. It is not like we want to change the processor or some resistors which are in the iPhone/iPod.

20 years ago, we used two or three thin layers of cheap, acid resistant epoxy resin to protect sensitive electronic parts. And twenty years later, Apple can not do it, maybe with other materials? Sounds not very believable. Oh, i forgot it: They want to sell new iDevices.

Doesn't the headphone jack and dock connector present a problem with "sealing the device"? I'm not an electrical engineer, but I would think those would be entry points for liquid no matter what you do. I am also guessing a completely sealed device would not be able to circulate any air and therefore would overheat.
 
Good

This makes me happy because I recently purchased an iPod Touch 4th Generation and I have been paranoid about the LDI getting tripped on accident and then my iPod dying later and Apple blaming water damage on the cause of the problem. I mean sheesh, I'm a teenager without a whole lot of money and my iPod cost me $320. I don't want that money to go down the drain by Apple saying my iPod was water damaged. So I'm glad they changed this.
 
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