Dying iPhone... swap motherboard?

[NoSole]

My iPhone 6 just took a dunk in my toilet this morning, and to add insult to injury, yes, there was a fresh log in there too. FML. The phone has been doing fine all day, except that I just noticed it won't charge. I'm going to open it up tonight and do a thorough investigation and cleaning, but I'm also preparing for the worst and fully expect to have to replace it.

My question is simple: Can I buy a phone with a bad ESN, and just swap out the motherboard and SIM?

Why? I have a 128gb phone, and I need the cheapest option available, but most importantly, I don't want to lose the last 6 months of photos/vids that I haven't backed up yet. I've already done a motherboard swap before with my previous iPhone 5 that had several F'd up parts (but not water damaged). However, I don't recall the specific circumstances or the status of the donor phone (i.e. whether it was bad ESN or not).

 

[Apple_Robert]

Can't use the motherboard with a bad ESN.

Edited to add: How about editing your post and changing it to say the water was dirty? Will read much better than what you crudely wrote.

 

[NoSole]

Can't use the motherboard with a bad ESN.

Edited to add: How about editing your post and changing it to say the water was water? Will read much worse than what you awesomely wrote.

What I meant was, can I take my motherboard and place it in the donor "bad esn" phone? Furthermore, does it matter what carrier the donor phone came from? I'm on AT&T

 

[Givmeabrek]

Not sure I would have put my hand in and just grabbed it... I mean grabbed the phone. I probably would have just tossed it in the hazmat container.
If the phone won't charge then the motherboard is damaged. You can put it in any donor phone you want but I don't see how it will fix your motherboard. No harm in trying though.

 

[NoSole]

Not sure I would have put my hand in and just grabbed it... I mean grabbed the phone. I probably would have just tossed it in the hazmat container.
If the phone won't charge then the motherboard is damaged. You can put it in any donor phone you want but I don't see how it will fix your motherboard. No harm in trying though.

Ugh So definitely the board is F'd and not maybe the lightning port/assembly? I realize now that plugging it in was a bad idea, but it wasn't just doing nothing at all. It was giving me the "This cable is not certified blah blah blah" message. I suppose I'm just splitting hairs at this point, but you can't blame me for holding onto every last shred of hope.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Ugh So definitely the board is F'd and not maybe the lightning port/assembly? I realize now that plugging it in was a bad idea, but it wasn't just doing nothing at all. It was giving me the "This cable is not certified blah blah blah" message. I suppose I'm just splitting hairs at this point, but you can't blame me for holding onto every last shred of hope.

I think you knew all the answers before you asked.