How To Fix Your iPhone, Cell Phone or Blackberry From Water Damage

Dropping your cell phone, laptop computer, iPhone, Blackberry or calculator in the sink or toilet is more common than you might imagine!

Trying to repair water damage to these electronic devices is very annoying, and sometimes impossible. It is probably too late to say this, but do not turn it on, just try to dry it out first.

Careful

Be careful not to take the thing apart, you will probably nullify your warranty. Just do the best you can without actually disassembling it.

Here are some possible ways to save your device when it is wet.

Refrigerator trick

To fix water damage to your iPhone or cell phone you can sometimes save it by putting it in the refrigerator! Take the cover off, if you can, remove the battery, and put in in the fridge overnight.

You might get lucky. Refrigerators remove moisture from the enclosed atmosphere and you could save your phone.

Vacuum cleaner trick

Make a small adapter to go on the nozzle of your vacuum hose to get down to the size for a little PDA like yours. With an iPhone, take out the SIM card and start sucking out the moisture. Some people claim this is much better than using a hair dryer because it takes the moisture away, rather than pushing it away.

Hair dryer trick

Take a hair dryer and try to dry it out. Be careful not to get it too hot though. After this, spray some compressed air into the little earphone hole near the top. Then spray the air into the dock-adapter hole near the bottom. It is certainly worth a try, sometimes it just turns itself back on!

Silica packets

Here is a more official sort of repair that often does the trick. Buy some silica packets from a place such as http://www.silicagelpackets.com.

Then put the phone or whatever in a ziplock plastic bag together with the silica and leave it for at least 24 hours. This will certainly remove a lot of moisture, maybe just what you need to get your iPhone, cell phone or Blackberry going again.

You can also get silica packets from the shipping department where you work, if you have such a thing!

Rice trick

This is the same as for the silica, just use rice instead. You can heat up the rice in the oven to recharge it and make it more absorbent. Some people have had success with leaving it in the rice or silica for 36 hours, but that might be hard to manage for some.