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iPhone Withstands 15 Minutes in Water

P

PorridgeFactory

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 3, 2012
6
0
I just thought I'd share a fun little story.

I was going down to the lake and I put my phone in my pocket (iPhone 4s) so I could take some pictures. After a few minutes of sitting on the sand I decided to go in the water and played with a nephew for a while and swam around a bit, then on my way out, felt in my pocket and yep, there was my phone. It had been submerged for a good 15 min. It was on when I went into the water and when I pulled it out of my pocket it looked like it was starting up.

I put it on a bench and it was still turning on... then fully turned on and I tired to turn it off but the screen went blue and crazy and then it crashed and went dark. It was warm for a few hours then I let it be. I put it in the sun on a warm day then the next day plugged it in, not expecting much. But surprise surprise it worked. It had some pretty bad water marks on the screen but still fully useable. After another day of use the marks are almost all gone and you'd never know it was in the water :)

Yeah :)
 
It's usually not ruined unless it's turned on and functioning. So I'd advise you not to press any buttons until it's fully dry. I think you just got lucky.
 
ajvizzgamer101 said:
It's usually not ruined unless it's turned on and functioning. So I'd advise you not to press any buttons until it's fully dry. I think you just got lucky.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think I got lucky too. It was turned on when I went into the water and must of got shorted out and turned itself of when I was in the water.. then when I exited the water it turned itself on again.. and perhaps shorted out since the screen turned blue and it went 'crazy' for a few seconds before going black.
 
Water with any electronics isn't too bad as long as you don't turn it on. Even turning it on, you can get lucky and not have permanent damage done (As long as it shorts itself in a way that doesn't cause damage to the components.

The big thing you have to worry about after it gets went is minerals and any water that stayed around. While it may be functional after initial dry out, that moisture in the device could hurt it in the long run. I wouldn't be surprised if your phone started acting weird in a few weeks or months.
 
You have good luck. If it were me, I could drop in the the water for 15 seconds with the phone completely turned off. and let it dry for weeks, and it would not work for me. Thats my luck.
 
wow, you got so lucky. MY friend dropped hers in the toilet at a bar while she was throwing up .. lol! she didnt even bother to pick it up...
 
I have salvaged nearly every water-immersed electronic device I have ever tried salvaging. This going back to an alphanumeric pager that dropped in a pool.

The worst was that pager as the minerals in the water crystalized on some of the IC pins. Even so, I was able to open it up, clean it (with a small tool to clean the IC contacts), clean it with an alcohol solution, and it worked fine till it was obsolete.

If I dropped my iPhone in a lake I would probable have gotten some distilled water as soon as possible, immersed it again, and shook it while in the distilled water. Then I would have started the drying process. For me that is: pop the back off the iPhone (2 screws and brain-dead easy to do), disconnect and remove battery, alcohol bath, shake dry, compressed air to the now-exposed inside, and into a bag of rice or silica gel to dry out. I would leave it for at least 3 or 4 days; each day replacing the rice and slightly heating the iPhone with blow drier (or, here in Arizona, leave out in sun for 10 minutes).




Michael
 
Tinmania said:
I have salvaged nearly every water-immersed electronic device I have ever tried salvaging. This going back to an alphanumeric pager that dropped in a pool.

The worst was that pager as the minerals in the water crystalized on some of the IC pins. Even so, I was able to open it up, clean it (with a small tool to clean the IC contacts), clean it with an alcohol solution, and it worked fine till it was obsolete.

If I dropped my iPhone in a lake I would probable have gotten some distilled water as soon as possible, immersed it again, and shook it while in the distilled water. Then I would have started the drying process. For me that is: pop the back off the iPhone (2 screws and brain-dead easy to do), disconnect and remove battery, alcohol bath, shake dry, compressed air to the now-exposed inside, and into a bag of rice or silica gel to dry out. I would leave it for at least 3 or 4 days; each day replacing the rice and slightly heating the iPhone with blow drier (or, here in Arizona, leave out in sun for 10 minutes).




Michael
Click to expand...

This is the best advice I have heard in a while. Thanks for this!
 
Tinmania said:
I have salvaged nearly every water-immersed electronic device I have ever tried salvaging. This going back to an alphanumeric pager that dropped in a pool.

The worst was that pager as the minerals in the water crystalized on some of the IC pins. Even so, I was able to open it up, clean it (with a small tool to clean the IC contacts), clean it with an alcohol solution, and it worked fine till it was obsolete.

If I dropped my iPhone in a lake I would probable have gotten some distilled water as soon as possible, immersed it again, and shook it while in the distilled water. Then I would have started the drying process. For me that is: pop the back off the iPhone (2 screws and brain-dead easy to do), disconnect and remove battery, alcohol bath, shake dry, compressed air to the now-exposed inside, and into a bag of rice or silica gel to dry out. I would leave it for at least 3 or 4 days; each day replacing the rice and slightly heating the iPhone with blow drier (or, here in Arizona, leave out in sun for 10 minutes).




Michael
Click to expand...
This sounds like a pretty perfect recipe. I don't have any iphone tools, they are probably a good thing to pick up for future problems.
I also don't dare starting to rinse things with distilled water now that it's dried out and working but as many people say, it will be interesting to see how it works in a week or a months time.
 
This just reminds me of the Liquipel that we heard about a while back. I haven't heard anything about it lately, but I sure hope they start using it on iPhone's and iPads out of the factory.
 
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