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Dropped my iPhone 5s in the swimming pool

K

KevinRightWing

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 15, 2007
270
31
Houston TX
I am trying the rice maneuver, but in the meantime......

The cost of replacement with apple is $270. It is hard for me to spend nearly $300 for a phone that came out 18 months ago when an iPhone 6 can be purchased for $650. Being a heavy user, what would you do in my situation?

Thanks for the help!
 
I'd buy the 5S for $270. I am by no means poor, but I am a major cheap@$$.

An upgrade from the 5s to the 6 is not worth an extra $380 IMO. If you want to spend $650, wait a few months and get the 6S.

Hopefully the rice trick works and you have to spend $0. I am keeping my fingers crossed for you.
 
Open it and dry it 10x quicker with hair dryer before it will corrode
 
I agree with af21187 in purchasing the 5s for $270. The significant cost difference is the reason for us selecting the 5s over the Iphone 6. I'm also hoping for the best in you reviving your 5s. Good luck!
 
Hopefully you won't have to buy a new phone-- I've heard of several instances where the rice trick works.

How long until you are eligible for an upgrade? If you are low on funds (or just can't permit yourself to blow that much money), I can tell you what I did:

I destroyed my phone about a month and a half before upgrade. I dropped it in a mud puddle, and didn't even realize that it was gone from my pocket for about a minute, had to search everywhere else where I was walking, and then discovered by process of elimination that it was in the mud puddle. So on my hands and knees I searched through the puddle, and found it eventually. Let's just say that it was beyond salvageable.

Since I was only about 45 days from an upgrade, I went to best buy and bought a go-phone. It was a piece of junk, but I was able to get my contacts etc, and I was able to text and call for those 45 days. The phone was $30, and it served it's purpose.

Now that I have the iphone 6, it was a tremendous reward. I felt like Tom Hanks after he got off the island in Cast Away when he couldn't even sleep on his bed.

I suppose that was a little dramatic.. #firstworldproblems but it worked for me, and it can work for you too, if you have an upgrade soon!
 
I'd recommend you wait 3 to 5 days before you try to turn it on. The longer you wait, the better chance you have that it'll turn on again. I know that's inconvenient, but it might help you avoid paying that $270 fee.
 
This "rice trick" is for amateurs who are clueless about electronics and repairs. Yes, rice will absorb SOME of the water, but there's a battery inside your iPhone which you CANNOT remove unless you take it apart - a battery which is pumping electricity through an iPhone full of liquid... and that's called electrolysis, and it means that the internals have a VERY high chance of corroding. If the rice was GUARANTEED to absorb ALL the water from ALL the hidden nooks and crannies IMMEDIATELY, you may stand a better chance, but water inside an electronic device can become trapped, and remains in place stubbornly by surface tension, until it is completely disassembled and cleaned professionally, usually with an ultrasonic tank and alcohol solution of sorts, and then dried gently in a low temperature convection oven.

This water can remain trapped under perforated RF shielding cans (RF circuits are VERY VERY VERY sensitive precision instruments, the operational parameters of which may be altered SIGNIFICANTLY by even the grease of a fingerprint!), lodged inside a microphone capsule, inside a vibration motor housing... the list is endless.

This "rice trick" is not a magic solution to save water damage - it is, at best, moderately effective and more a placebo.

Source: Qualified electronic repair engineer since 1991.


Electrolysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdgPQZ4CIBQ

"iFixit" advice on removing the battery immediately: https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/70976/What+should+I+do+if+my+iPhone4s+got+water+damaged

----------
businezguy said:
I'd recommend you wait 3 to 5 days before you try to turn it on. The longer you wait, the better chance you have that it'll turn on again. I know that's inconvenient, but it might help you avoid paying that $270 fee.
Click to expand...

TERRIBLE advice, and most definitely NOT what you ought to do; read my post.
 
af21187 said:
I'd buy the 5S for $270. I am by no means poor, but I am a major cheap@$$.

An upgrade from the 5s to the 6 is not worth an extra $380 IMO. If you want to spend $650, wait a few months and get the 6S.

Hopefully the rice trick works and you have to spend $0. I am keeping my fingers crossed for you.
Click to expand...

^^100% agree with this. Besides, you should be able to get at least $75 for your old iPhone on Craigslist or a local "mom & pop" cell phone/electronics shop. Or you could sell it on Swappa as well.

If you have the original box, PM me. I'd be interested in buying it.

Please keep us updated. Good luck.
 
uid15 said:
This "rice trick" is for amateurs who are clueless about electronics and repairs. Yes, rice will absorb SOME of the water, but there's a battery inside your iPhone which you CANNOT remove unless you take it apart - a battery which is pumping electricity through an iPhone full of liquid... and that's called electrolysis, and it means that the internals have a VERY high chance of corroding. If the rice was GUARANTEED to absorb ALL the water from ALL the hidden nooks and crannies IMMEDIATELY, you may stand a better chance, but water inside an electronic device can become trapped, and remains in place stubbornly by surface tension, until it is completely disassembled and cleaned professionally, usually with an ultrasonic tank and alcohol solution of sorts, and then dried gently in a low temperature convection oven.

This water can remain trapped under perforated RF shielding cans (RF circuits are VERY VERY VERY sensitive precision instruments, the operational parameters of which may be altered SIGNIFICANTLY by even the grease of a fingerprint!), lodged inside a microphone capsule, inside a vibration motor housing... the list is endless.

This "rice trick" is not a magic solution to save water damage - it is, at best, moderately effective and more a placebo.

Source: Qualified electronic repair engineer since 1991.


Electrolysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdgPQZ4CIBQ

"iFixit" advice on removing the battery immediately: https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/70976/What+should+I+do+if+my+iPhone4s+got+water+damaged

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TERRIBLE advice, and most definitely NOT what you ought to do; read my post.
Click to expand...
And despite all that reality there's also the reality that for quite a few it works and the device works just fine often enough and for long enough until they upgrade to another one at some point anyway.
 
C DM said:
And despite all that reality there's also the reality that for quite a few it works and the device works just fine often enough and for long enough until they upgrade to another one at some point anyway.
Click to expand...

I am stating that, considering how much people pay for iPhones, why WOULDN'T you want to repair it correctly? This rice trick may work by fluke or otherwise, but it's a matter of time before the inherent failures caused by having NOT had it seen to properly will come to light. It is hardly scientific or good practice; I know what I am talking about.
 
uid15 said:
I am stating that, considering how much people pay for iPhones, why WOULDN'T you want to repair it correctly? This rice trick may work by fluke or otherwise, but it's a matter of time before the inherent failures caused by having NOT had it seen to properly will come to light. It is hardly scientific or good practice; I know what I am talking about.
Click to expand...
And, again, there are plenty of cases where the matter of time is long enough for people get the usefulness of the device that they would have otherwise gotten before they would have upgraded anyway. Sure, plenty of other cases where that's not the case. And that shouldn't necessarily prevent someone from doing something more if they can and want to, but at the same time if they can't or don't really want to for one reason or another, they might as well try what they can/want and see if that might work (given that there's a decent chance that it just might).
 
C DM said:
And, again, there are plenty of cases where the matter of time is long enough for people get the usefulness of the device that they would have otherwise gotten before they would have upgraded anyway. Sure, plenty of other cases where that's not the case. And that shouldn't necessarily prevent someone from doing something more if they can and want to, but at the same time if they can't or don't really want to for one reason or another, they might as well try what they can/want and see if that might work (given that there's a decent chance that it just might).
Click to expand...

I see that angle, yes :)
 
This is not your common water case. Swimming pools are generally chlorinated, which is likely to significantly aggravate the corrosion problem. Rice obviously can't help with that.
 
Putting things in rice is nonsense. What's needed to dry things quickly is for example flowing air and/or elevated temperature. Had those people for whom the rice trick worked put the phone in a drafty place or on top of the tv, it would have booted up just the same. Anyway, first course of action with wet electronics is cutting the power. With iphones that means opening it up and taking out the battery asap.
 
chambone said:
Putting things in rice is nonsense. What's needed to dry things quickly is for example flowing air and/or elevated temperature. Had those people for whom the rice trick worked put the phone in a drafty place or on top of the tv, it would have booted up just the same. Anyway, first course of action with wet electronics is cutting the power. With iphones that means opening it up and taking out the battery asap.
Click to expand...



your funny you cant take the battery out your self
 
Make sure to wear some sort of under armor protection if and when the thing dries out and is usable. And goggles too. Cause the thing is gonna explode at some point with all sorts of shrapnel being thrown every which way.

:eek:

Get a current iPhone for gosh sake.

:D
 
chambone said:
Putting things in rice is nonsense. What's needed to dry things quickly is for example flowing air and/or elevated temperature. Had those people for whom the rice trick worked put the phone in a drafty place or on top of the tv, it would have booted up just the same. Anyway, first course of action with wet electronics is cutting the power. With iphones that means opening it up and taking out the battery asap.
Click to expand...

Most people have no idea or the tools to take their iPhone apart!

Much less taking out the battery:p
 
chambone said:
Putting things in rice is nonsense. What's needed to dry things quickly is for example flowing air and/or elevated temperature. Had those people for whom the rice trick worked put the phone in a drafty place or on top of the tv, it would have booted up just the same. Anyway, first course of action with wet electronics is cutting the power. With iphones that means opening it up and taking out the battery asap.
Click to expand...

Nonsense that still works for plenty without the need to do anything else.

----------
kargurin said:
Make sure to wear some sort of under armor protection if and when the thing dries out and is usable. And goggles too. Cause the thing is gonna explode at some point with all sorts of shrapnel being thrown every which way.

:eek:

Get a current iPhone for gosh sake.

:D
Click to expand...
It's going to do what again?
 
chambone said:
Hey, don't let me stop you from stuffing whatever you like in a bag of rice. If you think it works, go for it.
Click to expand...

No need to think when there are plenty of examples when it actually has worked. No one says it's some sort of a magical fix that fixes it all or works all the time, but it's done the trick for plenty of people.
 
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