Once your cell phone hits the water, slowly sinking into the depths of the liquid, it is as if both your life and the life of your prized possession are over. What if there are some easy tricks to either saving or preventing further water damage to your phone?
I went to a local Wal-Mart store and picked up four $10 Samsung S125AG pre-paid phones.
We dropped each phone, turned on, into a glass bowl of water for approximately 10 seconds, the average length of time a person would allow their electronic device to sit in liquid. From there, each phone had its battery removed and went on to different environments that have been rumored to save phones.
Phone A was placed in a plastic re-sealable bag of uncooked white rice. Phone B went on the top shelf in the refrigerator. Phone C was subjected to a blow dryer. Phone D was slightly dried off and no other treatment was done.
After 24 hours of sitting in their respective environments with their batteries removed, it was time to see if the phones would still work or not.
I decided maybe it was time to push these phones much harder and see if they could still be saved. I put the phones in the water for approximately 30 seconds, until air bubbles started to come out of the phones. When the phones came out, they were completely soaked. From there, the phones went into the same situations they had endured before.
After another 24 hours, I came back and checked the phones.
Phone A worked perfectly and was completely dry after being subjected to the water and bag-of-rice treatment twice. Phone B came out of the refrigerator working, but once the phone came back up to room temperature, condensation appeared behind the screen and it no longer turned on.
Phone C was hit by the blow dryer until visibly dry and then sat overnight. It, too, survived the test. Phone D did not make it after just being patted off with a towel and left overnight.
Reviewing the results, putting the water-soaked phone in a bag of raw white rice seems to save a phone as does the trusted blow dryer.
