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Fixed a water damaged iphone.

C

CoreyHM1

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 5, 2008
56
0
i can't believe it works.

my aunt dropped her 1 month old iphone in an almost boiling pot of water, it soaked for approximately 20 seconds before she found the tongs to get it out with. There was also alot of condensation in the glass/camera

When i got it, it was stuck on the apple logo screen without LCD back light. i took it completely apart (down to the point i took the battery out). The inside of this phone was dripping it was so wet. So i took an electric air pump and blew ALL the water out, it was completely dry. I assembled it just knowing this was too wet to ever work again. It fired right up, without LCD back light though. And the vibrator didn't work. Well, i touched the brightness slider in settings and the screen lit up! and come to find out, the vibrator was turned off in settings. I tested it and everything works, theres not a single issue with it.

basically i fixed a soaked waterlogged iphone in 20 minutes! ALL the water sensors are tripped, i mean the inside was soaked. I'm still in shock that its working. :D

So my suggestion to others would be to completely disassemble the iphone and use high pressure air to blow all the water out, hair dryers don't usually put out enough pressure.

Of all the water damaged phones I've seen (and this being one of the worst), i cannot believe i got this one working again. :apple:


*however if you have never opened an iphone before you may be better off going to the apple store and paying $199 instead of breaking what you have and end up paying full price, so try this at your own risk!
 
That's great! I've heard sometimes after getting wet they start having more problems down the road, but maybe not since you got it dried out so quickly. When my 3GS took a swim about a week & a half ago I opened it up, though I didn't disassemble it like you did. It all worked except the back light. Unfortunately on mine the screen actually turned on when it fell in the water, and I think that caused the back light to short out. Everything else worked perfectly, but with no back light it was very hard to see. Interestingly only 1 of the 2 internal moisture sensors had tripped, so it didn't get completely drenched inside. It was probably under water less than 5 seconds.
 
Very nice and thanks for the tip. I may use this if i ever drop my phone in water =).
 
I would not recommend anyone do what the OP suggested to recover their iPhone from water damage. At most, opening an iPhone to dry it out should be the last thing one does. The rice fix should be what is done first. If that doesn't work, I'd suggest taking it to Apple and paying the $199 out of warranty replacement. If someone would rather not pay that money, then they might want to take it apart, however, the risk of opening the iPhone and ruining it even further makes this not a very good practice, IMO.
 
iphone.aggie said:
I would not recommend anyone do what the OP suggested to recover their iPhone from water damage. At most, opening an iPhone to dry it out should be the last thing one does. The rice fix should be what is done first. If that doesn't work, I'd suggest taking it to Apple and paying the $199 out of warranty replacement. If someone would rather not pay that money, then they might want to take it apart, however, the risk of opening the iPhone and ruining it even further makes this not a very good practice, IMO.
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iphone.aggie is right, disassembling the phone often does more harm than good as there are wires that are very easy to dislodge if you open the phone. Rice is the way to go.
 
iphone.aggie said:
I would not recommend anyone do what the OP suggested to recover their iPhone from water damage. At most, opening an iPhone to dry it out should be the last thing one does. The rice fix should be what is done first. If that doesn't work, I'd suggest taking it to Apple and paying the $199 out of warranty replacement. If someone would rather not pay that money, then they might want to take it apart, however, the risk of opening the iPhone and ruining it even further makes this not a very good practice, IMO.
Click to expand...

Well.. it obviously wouldn't go for anyone who has never opened an iphone before.

if you don't know what you're doing, you probably would be better off paying $199... because if you break something internally they probably wont even offer the $199 upgrade.

the reason why i wont do the rice fix, or sitting it out for a couple days is because there is still no guarantee all the water is gone. I would rather not chance turning it back on with moisture still inside causing further damage, because then you may not be able to move to "plan B".

Also, if one does take it apart, they can stop at removing the glass and just don't go as far as taking the motherboard and removing the "warranty void if removed" sticker. if that don't work, then go to the apple store. just don't void the warranty. But, if you've never removed the glass before... thats the most dangerous part (rick breaking the ribbon connector for first timers)
 
Don't be surprised if the thing starts to act weird and fizzle out over the next few days/week. Water does bad things to electronics.
 
CoreyHM1 said:
Well.. it obviously wouldn't go for anyone who has never opened an iphone before.

if you don't know what you're doing, you probably would be better off paying $199... because if you break something internally they probably wont even offer the $199 upgrade.

the reason why i wont do the rice fix, or sitting it out for a couple days is because there is still no guarantee all the water is gone. I would rather not chance turning it back on with moisture still inside causing further damage, because then you may not be able to move to "plan B".

Also, if one does take it apart, they can stop at removing the glass and just don't go as far as taking the motherboard and removing the "warranty void if removed" sticker. if that don't work, then go to the apple store. just don't void the warranty. But, if you've never removed the glass before... thats the most dangerous part (rick breaking the ribbon connector for first timers)
Click to expand...

Well, with those caveats your OP would be fine. However, I worry about the newbie who will only read the OP and then go off and do what you stated. Trust me, newbies don't RTFT all the time on here!
 
iphone.aggie said:
Well, with those caveats your OP would be fine. However, I worry about the newbie who will only read the OP and then go off and do what you stated. Trust me, newbies don't RTFT all the time on here!
Click to expand...

true, i edited... I'll admit, the first iphone i ever opened i broke the #3 connector because the glass "popped" off and pulled all three out, which #1-2 is fine. But 3 is latched on there. :p
 
I was being sarcastic in my post lol... I wuld never attempt to open my iphone..i'd be to paranoid...ill just pay the 199 dollars...that isnt that much money to me.
 
ant131531 said:
I was being sarcastic in my post lol... I wuld never attempt to open my iphone..i'd be to paranoid...ill just pay the 199 dollars...that isnt that much money to me.
Click to expand...

Is it $199 for the 3G, and how much for 3GS?

This one was a 8gb 3G... (i honestly forgot about about being able to do that with water damaged phones, but there was alot of info that was never backed up on this one anyway)
 
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