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Outsmarting water sensors

B737

B737

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 22, 2008
634
6
NJ
Obviously our water sensors are suspect at best. I thought it would be constructive, perhaps morally bankrupt, but otherwise constructive to openly discuss;

Preventative measures to protecting them or ideas of ehhh, un-tripping them

i wouldnt be surprised if we could find plugs, that could go into headset and dock ports, small rubber ones. One thing that concerns me about the 'plugs' is that i feel like if they get wet, they could allow the moisture to be wicked towards the sensor itself...

i thought water proofing them with a dab of wax, but theres no room to get any in there.

another simply brilliant idea i read around here was to apply a drop of bleach to a tripped sensor and it will go back to white...
Click to expand...

certainly worth repeating.

im sure many here will point fingers at me and cry fowl. i however support the reasoning of untripping the sensors because i firmly believe they are grossly taken advantage of by corporations (not just apple)
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS (White, 32GB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)

I tried the bleach thing on an iPod touch but it didn't work. I did figure out a way to 'undo' the sensor but I don't think that's something we should be discussing on the boards - can't imagine the mods will get a kick out of seeing that discussion. ;)
 
There are plugs you can buy.

mavis said:
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS (White, 32GB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)
I did figure out a way to 'undo' the sensor
Click to expand...

How? There's nothing illegal about telling us.
 
I said the bleach thing in an earlier post. I wouldnt try it myself but you can do whatever.
 
The water sensors are white sensors in the headphone jack, and the dock connector that turn pink/red when water is touched to them.

Apple denies any warranty to people whose sensors are red/pink.
 
He probably takes the phone apart and replaces the senors with white paper.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS (White, 32GB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)

All I'm saying is that there are a lot of things in the world that are white, paper thin, and shiny/semi-shiny. Toothpicks are nifty, too.
 
I always thought that if that happened to me I would just dab a very small amount of whiteout on the end of a matchstick and spread it over the sensor.
 
I'm usually a thread killer, but I'll give this a go...

First off, this whole issue really bothers me. I'm semi-insane when it comes to my stuff and keeping it nice. I have Recaro seats in my car and am always asking my wife "You don't have anything in your back pocket do you?!" I'm sure many people are obsessed with their cars, but now I feel like I'm obsessed with my phone!

I spent quite a few hours researching the perfect case and for many reasons finally decided on the Capsule Rebel. One of the main reasons being that it came with a dock cover (I thought it also included headphone jack cover, but that was Colors only). Anyway, the other day I was on my way to Walmart and notoced a gray tinge to the sky. I actually went back inside the house and got a Ziplock to keep in my pocket in case I caught in some torrential downpour upon leaving the store. That's ridiculous. Granted, a lot of that is my own OCD, but there shouldn't be any reason for me to get paranoid in the first place.

I understand the design of the phone is the reason these sensors are visable to the naked eye without opening up the casing, if that's the case, and there is no way to correct that, then a different policy should be employed regarding what's officially dubbed "water damage".

How about a case by case basis? If your phone did indeed take a swim, it will be obvious upon Apple opening up the casing. How about they decide if it's "water damaged" then? How about not voiding the warranty unless 2/4 sensors were tripped? How about looking at call history to see someone who regularly uses their phone had zero activity for a few days prior to their bringing it in and claiming they never got it wet? There are many things that can determine if a phone was actually submerged, but apparently the only thing they care about is a piece of white paper. That paper should NOT be the absolute verdict.

I know others here have said things like "You should treat you iPhone like you would any other electronic device." and "You wouldn't take you laptop out in the rain, why would take your iPhone out?" Well, because you just would. It's a phone, it needs to be with you at all times. If it's raining out and I need me laptop I'll throw a garbage bag over it, but I shouldn't have to keep my phone in a Ziplock because a single drop of rain may find its way into a headphone jack. It's just a different thing altogether and shouldn't be heavily compared imo.

I've had other phones, laptops, radios, portable dvd players in the past and I've never felt like I couldn't use them whenever I wanted. As a matter of fact, I never even knew these kinds of sensors existed in phones until coming here. After being alerted to their existance I looked behind the battery of my previous phone and there they were, white as can be. I've had that phone to hell and back. This iPhone I feel like I need to treat like a newly hatched bird.

Okay, I'm done.
 
If your water sensor is tripped, just light your iPhone on fire then bring it in for a replacement. There is no Fire Sensor Resitriction is there?
 
I could see as the false positives get worse on water damage the laws getting change to that simular of cars.

It would require the manufacture to prove said damage was cause by water. A cracking case for example could not have its warrenty voided because of "water damage" because water can not cause those cracks. If the rest of the phone is working fine then clearly water is not the case.
 
Might be a dumb question but how do I tell if my phone has water damage? (Or at least how to tell if the sensor is tripped)

My phone stopped being able to vibrate and I'm taking it in to -- hopefully -- get replaced but I wanna see if maybe there was a small drop of water that maybe got through one day while I was walking with the phone in my pocket while it was lightly raining.

I'm pretty sure it's not though because the vibration stopped just 2 days ago, and it's been safe from drops and anything wet for weeks.
 
Arkanok said:
Might be a dumb question but how do I tell if my phone has water damage? (Or at least how to tell if the sensor is tripped)

My phone stopped being able to vibrate and I'm taking it in to -- hopefully -- get replaced but I wanna see if maybe there was a small drop of water that maybe got through one day while I was walking with the phone in my pocket while it was lightly raining.

I'm pretty sure it's not though because the vibration stopped just 2 days ago, and it's been safe from drops and anything wet for weeks.
Click to expand...

See my post above?

There are two water sensors, one in the headphone jack, the other in the dock connector.

If one of them is pink/red instead of white, they will deny you warranty (That is to say, of course, if you don't get an awesome Genius)
 
Arkanok said:
Might be a dumb question but how do I tell if my phone has water damage? (Or at least how to tell if the sensor is tripped)

My phone stopped being able to vibrate and I'm taking it in to -- hopefully -- get replaced but I wanna see if maybe there was a small drop of water that maybe got through one day while I was walking with the phone in my pocket while it was lightly raining.

I'm pretty sure it's not though because the vibration stopped just 2 days ago, and it's been safe from drops and anything wet for weeks.
Click to expand...
Just check the following reference from Apple Support.

Water / liquid sensor locations iPhone 3G, iPhone, iPod touch, iPod nan and Ipod classic

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3302

Dave
 
FunkyTang said:
I use the headphone and dock plugs that came with this case. http://www.switcheasy.com/products/Colors/Colors.php

The plugs seem to keep sweat out of the iPhone when it's in my cycling jersey back pocket.
Click to expand...

FWIW: I just emailed Switcheasy to see if they sell those two plugs separately. Will let you all know what they say. (my guess will be - yes, IF you have bought the case previously. IF so, can someone put an order in for 100 sets of plugs? :eek:
 
You can also get the portectorz from RadTech:

http://www.radtech.us/Products/Portectorz.aspx

btyProduct11.jpg


They don't sell a headphone plug, but this will get you 1/2 way there.
 
muledogus said:
If your water sensor is tripped, just light your iPhone on fire then bring it in for a replacement. There is no Fire Sensor Resitriction is there?
Click to expand...

I actually think there is an extreme heat sensor. Some guy on MR posted that his water sensors falsely turned pink and the Genius told him his extreme heat sensor was activated and that his phone was supposed to be melted.

EDIT: Got it. Post #31 here.
 
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