My experience with an iPhone 4S fire/short circuit

[SR45]

Please, please, before you bad mouth anyone, state your expertise (expert skill or knowledge in this particular field) on this thread to justify your thinking as to what actually happened. 😉 I'm no expert in water doing this or jamming it as another member posted, so I won't give a guess as others have done, and glad the OP got it replaced. 🙂

 

[PNutts]

Please, please, before you bad mouth anyone, state your expertise (expert skill or knowledge in this particular field) on this thread to justify your thinking as to what actually happened. 😉 I'm no expert in water doing this or jamming it as another member posted, so I won't give a guess as others have done, and glad the OP got it replaced. 🙂

They all stayed at Holiday Inn last night.

 

[AbSoluTc]

They all stayed at Holiday Inn last night.

Correction - Holiday Inn Express! 😀

 

[cardinalryan]

i've said this before.. And i'll say it again. Don't take anything to heart form this forum. Just a bunch of losers who sit at home and are experts at everything (100% serious)

^^ this ^^

 

[flyzapper]

I haven't read every post in the thread, but wanted to ask if anybody else noticed the 'fluff' around the speakers and port in those pictures? it looks like somebody's been shovelling bed linen into it! there's enough dust in there to fill a Dyson ..perhaps that why it caught fire! Also looking at the screws ..they look like they've been tampered with ..and whilst I'm at it, why do the pictures of the device show it poking through a cut-out in a piece of card\paper? would it be to hide its true identity perhaps?

add the three indiscrepancies and you have to conclude the post is a FAKE. I don't believe that's a two month old iPhone 4S at all.

😛

I'm really insulted that people accuse me of faking this incident, and the private messages I have received are much worse than what you see here.

You claim that I am faking the incident, well below you will find the incident record I received from the Apple Store describing the damage and showing I got a free replacement. It clearly states that there was BURNING on the cable and NO WATER DAMAGE to the phone. The record also shows that the phone was otherwise in good cosmetic condition.
Let me see you keep a phone in your pocket for two months and have no lint stuck in the cracks.
The cut out cardboard was just so my camera could focus on the base of the phone instead of the background. When I tried taking pictures without the cardboard, my camera would not focus on the phone at all.
As for the "scratches" near the screws, just another consequence of the phone being used. I want to see your phone in perfect condition without any tiny scratches after two months of use.

Now that I have answered all of your baseless claims of my fake incident and provided the Apple Store warranty replacement record, will you apologize for calling me a liar?

 

[Givmeabrek]

Please, please, before you bad mouth anyone, state your expertise (expert skill or knowledge in this particular field) on this thread to justify your thinking as to what actually happened. 😉 I'm no expert in water doing this or jamming it as another member posted, so I won't give a guess as others have done, and glad the OP got it replaced. 🙂

Ha, ha, ha....funniest statement ever. This is an internet forum full of people of all ages and all parts of the world. If you are looking for intelligent, and educated responses you may have landed in the wrong place. 😱

 

[flyzapper]

OP,

what do you do for a living?
do you work near the ocean (salt water)?

I work in a genetics laboratory. My specific lab is under strict climate control of low humidity for some of the sensitive equipment I work with. I live in Los Angeles, but about 15 miles from the ocean, so if the salt water from the ocean is corroding my phone from 15 miles away, I would hate to see what it is doing to the phones of people who live much closer.

 

[mstrze]

Let me see you keep a phone in your pocket for two months and have no lint stuck in the cracks.

Well, I was going to comment on this. My iPhone 4s was received on October 14th as well and I have very minimal buildup on lint in my speakers even though, I too keep my phone in my pocket. In fact, I can barely see any dust/lint but I am sure there must be some there. I would guess a lot of the 'haters' here will soon be posting pics of how non-dusty their phones are. 😱

I'm not saying you are lying about anything, but your environment is WAY dustier (or at least your pockets are) than most. The added dust, some of it possibly conductive, may lead to another failure in the future. Perhaps the lab conditions where you work could be exposing your phone to a more conductive or flammable dust particle?

I would be happy to post a pic of my phone when I get home, but the only camera I have here at work is the iPhone.

 

[flyzapper]

Well, I was going to comment on this. My iPhone 4s was received on October 14th as well and I have very minimal buildup on lint in my speakers even though, I too keep my phone in my pocket. In fact, I can barely see any dust/lint but I am sure there must be some there. I would guess a lot of the 'haters' here will soon be posting pics of how non-dusty their phones are. 😱

I'm not saying you are lying about anything, but your environment is WAY dustier (or at least your pockets are) than most. The added dust, some of it possibly conductive, may lead to another failure in the future. Perhaps the lab conditions where you work could be exposing your phone to a more conductive or flammable dust particle?

I would be happy to post a pic of my phone when I get home, but the only camera I have here at work is the iPhone.

Sure, my pockets may have lint in them. The environment I work in, however, is not conducive to dust build up. The room is under negative pressure so if any chemicals spill, the fumes will not leak into the rest of the building. This is achieved by air ducts constantly removing the air in the room and sending it through a chemical filtration unit to remove any matter before it is recirculated.
When I looked at my old phone with my naked eyes, I could see a little dust built up, but I was actually amazed at what the macro zoom feature on my camera showed.

I have no idea what caused the short circuit/overheat/whatever you want to call it, but I have owned three different models of iPhones now since my 3G in 2008, and I have never had a problem with any kind of dust or lint build up causing damage or preventing the phone from functioning before.

I'm also sure that 'haters' will go home and use an air blaster to make sure there is no dust visible before taking a picture of the phone.

All I wanted to do with this thread was honestly share an experience I had and see if others had experienced similar problems.

 

[Smoothie]

To the OP -- ignore the posters who are trying to blame you for what happened to your phone. I've practiced law for many years and have tried many cases where expert witnesses have testified. In virtually every case, the court or jury has rejected an expert's opinion in favor of another -- and these are people with doctoral degrees in the subject matter, who have studied the facts of the case for many months and have written detailed reports on their findings.

The posters are pulling their theories about what caused the malfunction of your phone out of their rear ends. I'm glad Apple replaced the phone, and I'm sure Apple's engineers are determining the cause of the malfunction.

Enjoy your new phone.

 

[AndrewR23]

i've said this before.. and i'll say it again. don't take anything to heart form this forum. just a bunch of losers who sit at home and are experts at everything (100% serious)

Best post in the thread.

At my Apple store, the geniuses are strict about water damage. Those idiots are usually right about water damage, and they wrote on the form the OP had no water damage.

Plus, as for the lint in the phone...most people with iPhones don't carry Q tips and cleaning cloths to clean the speakers 24/7. In fact I know I don't even look into my speakers unless something is wrong.

 

[M Quick]

I think it looks like acid corrosion from the battery, just because a battery leaks doesn't mean it leaks badly, it can leak in such a manner that it does what it did in this case. I' sure the technicians at apple will take the phone apart and see whatever caused the problem if it wasn't the usb cable or the power adapter the usb cable was plugged into..


General people on this forum expects every iPhone to be 100% free from dust in the speaker/mic area at all times, that's why people will give you crap about it, not everyone has an OCD about their phone, and that should be just fine and not a demand from apple (as proven in this thread) that you get a replacement even if you are not OCD about your phone.



Even if there was corrosion in the dock connector it wouldn't make that happen, it would start off by not charging the phone as the corrosion stops the circuits to close. So nah, i don't buy people's **** in here that says it's water damage, even if it may look like it to one that isn't used to seeing different scenarios of corrosion getting to stuff.

 

[matttye]

I can't actually believe some of the responses you've had in this thread.

Some people really do talk out of their arses 😀

NOBODY can say what caused the damage to your phone without actually seeing it and learning it's history.

Pleased you got it replaced and I hope you have more luck with this one!

 

[PNutts]

OP: You may also now point folks to the iOS blog for another story about an iPhone that burned up. I imagine the folks in this thread will also want to offer their expert opinions on the smoking debris. He's a firefighter so it must be water corrosion. Oh, and he's an ugly bag of mostly water so that must be it. 😀

 

[flyzapper]

OP: You may also now point folks to the iOS blog for another story about an iPhone that burned up. I imagine the folks in this thread will also want to offer their expert opinions on the smoking debris. He's a firefighter so it must be water corrosion. Oh, and he's an ugly bag of mostly water so that must be it.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. For those interested, here is another documented incident that appears to be almost identical to mine, based on the pictures of where the fire/short circuit took place. The only difference appears to be that I caught mine earlier

https://www.macrumors.com/2010/07/08/report-of-an-iphone-4-catching-fire/

 

[acfusion29]

trying not to go off-topic here, but i've been thinking..

what would happen if the phone exploded outside of warranty?

i would think that Apple would replace it just to avoid legal trouble, but then again, they aren't really entitled to...

anyone wanna share some thoughts?

(i'm asking because my iPhone 4 is a few months past the one year mark, and it's been getting hot lately. i don't think it's gonna blow up, but if it does.. then i would hope to get a replacement)

 

[ford9125]

I've been reading articles and forum threads on MacRumors forums for a while, but I only recently registered.
After reading this thread, I'm inclined to believe the OP. Some of the details are not filled in completely, but with the pictures and the copy of the apple store work order, it looks like this is a genuine incident.
I don't think the OP's math quite adds up to 4000 of fires or what ever you want to call them a year, especially because the iPhone isn't as popular all around the world as it is in the North America or Europe. If there were really 4000 a year, we would hear a lot more about it.
This seems to be pretty isolated to a few cases. I think that Apple makes quality products, and as we see by the warranty replacement in this case, they stand behind the products and will uphold the warranty.
Just my two cents.

 

[JForestZ34]

I've been reading articles and forum threads on MacRumors forums for a while, but I only recently registered.
After reading this thread, I'm inclined to believe the OP. Some of the details are not filled in completely, but with the pictures and the copy of the apple store work order, it looks like this is a genuine incident.
I don't think the OP's math quite adds up to 4000 of fires or what ever you want to call them a year, especially because the iPhone isn't as popular all around the world as it is in the North America or Europe. If there were really 4000 a year, we would hear a lot more about it.
This seems to be pretty isolated to a few cases. I think that Apple makes quality products, and as we see by the warranty replacement in this case, they stand behind the products and will uphold the warranty.
Just my two cents.

I think any company would replace a defect item. If it catches on fire they are lucky no one got hurt. Could of been a lot worse if the house caught on fire. Any company would replace something like that in or out of warranty.


James

 

[ljonesj]

i zoomed the pictures in and did not see corrision myself to me its melted plastic from the connector

 

[charlituna]

The Genius Bar employee who helped me told me that Apple Stores see about one fire replacement per month, I did the math, and with about 358 Apple Stores (as of November, 2011), this means that over 4000 iPhones are catching on fire every year.

Are you sure about that math. Did he say "each apple store sees one fire replacement a month" or "All the Apple Stores as one mass entity see about 1 fire replacement per month" (meaning 10-12 a year, out of millions of iPhones)

I have a feeling he said the latter

 

[-aggie-]

Please, please, before you bad mouth anyone, state your expertise (expert skill or knowledge in this particular field) on this thread to justify your thinking as to what actually happened. 😉 I'm no expert in water doing this or jamming it as another member posted, so I won't give a guess as others have done, and glad the OP got it replaced. 🙂

I’ve seen a number of posts on USB connectors failing, but that doesn’t mean a recall is needed. The fact is these things are flimsy and overpriced.

PhD in iPhonetonics and Macinetics.

 

[Artimus12]

I'm really insulted that people accuse me of faking this incident, and the private messages I have received are much worse than what you see here.

You claim that I am faking the incident, well below you will find the incident record I received from the Apple Store describing the damage and showing I got a free replacement. It clearly states that there was BURNING on the cable and NO WATER DAMAGE to the phone. The record also shows that the phone was otherwise in good cosmetic condition.
Let me see you keep a phone in your pocket for two months and have no lint stuck in the cracks.
The cut out cardboard was just so my camera could focus on the base of the phone instead of the background. When I tried taking pictures without the cardboard, my camera would not focus on the phone at all.
As for the "scratches" near the screws, just another consequence of the phone being used. I want to see your phone in perfect condition without any tiny scratches after two months of use.

Now that I have answered all of your baseless claims of my fake incident and provided the Apple Store warranty replacement record, will you apologize for calling me a liar?

Apologise? it was you that asked for 'Any Thoughts' and I gave mine! because you don't like what I thought you want me to apologise?

I'm sorry you're so easily offended, there, how's that? Tip: next time don't ask.

and for the record - I haven't PM'd you. Will you apologise for not making that clear?

You say you work in a genetics lab and are used to clean environments? I've just sold an iPhone 4 that lived in my pocket for 20 months! it was still in mint, as new condition when I posted it off yesterday and I got top dollar for it because of that. If you want, I can post pictures taken last weekend just before I put it on e-bay. I find an old toothbrush is usually ideal for removing dust from ports, and the reason I thought what I did is because of the state of your two month old phone.

If your iPhone looks like that after only two months - I shudder to think what unintentional genetic mutations you're producing in that lab at work. 😱

 

[VulchR]

@OP: I was not calling you a liar, but you must admit it does seem odd that battery acid on the iPhone side did not also corrode the connector on the cable side. Like I said before, your phone might have been exposed to moisture without your knowledge. I suppose another alternative is that during the manufacturing process the connector on the phone was exposed to flux that was not removed.

In any case, I think we'd all agree that the important thing is that you weren't injured and the phone was replaced.

EDIT: My expertise: PhD in neuroscience, in which I deal with a lot of electronic components in neurophysiological implants that are potentially exposed to salty (and therefore corrosive) body fluids...

 

[matttye]

Apologise? it was you that asked for 'Any Thoughts' and I gave mine! because you don't like what I thought you want me to apologise?

I'm sorry you're so easily offended, there, how's that? Tip: next time don't ask.

and for the record - I haven't PM'd you. Will you apologise for not making that clear?

You say you work in a genetics lab and are used to clean environments? I've just sold an iPhone 4 that lived in my pocket for 20 months! it was still in mint, as new condition when I posted it off yesterday and I got top dollar for it because of that. If you want, I can post pictures taken last weekend just before I put it on e-bay. I find an old toothbrush is usually ideal for removing dust from ports, and the reason I thought what I did is because of the state of your two month old phone.

If your iPhone looks like that after only two months - I shudder to think what unintentional genetic mutations you're producing in that lab at work. 😱

Not everybody is so anal as to clean the ports on their phone with a toothbrush though.

@OP: I was not calling you a liar, but you must admit it does seem odd that battery acid on the iPhone side did not also corrode the connector on the cable side. Like I said before, your phone might have been exposed to moisture without your knowledge. I suppose another alternative is that during the manufacturing process the connector on the phone was exposed to flux that was not removed.

In any case, I think we'd all agree that the important thing is that you weren't injured and the phone was replaced.

EDIT: My expertise: PhD in neuroscience, in which I deal with a lot of electronic components in neurophysiological implants that are potentially exposed to salty (and therefore corrosive) body fluids...

It's odd when you don't know the full circumstances like nearly everybody who posted in the thread, yeah.

 

[VulchR]

....
It's odd when you don't know the full circumstances like nearly everybody who posted in the thread, yeah.

I do know the laws of chemistry and physics... nobody has explained how corrosion from battery acid occurred in the iPhone's dock without also being on the cable connector. I am not calling the OP a liar or a troll, just commenting on an apparent mystery. No doubt there is some sort of simple explanation.