How to Save a Wet Cell Phone

Okay, it hasn’t happened to me lately, but I know it will happen. It’s probably happened to you. When you do dunk your cell phone in the water, what should you do? Here’s the rescue plan:

– It’s important to get the phone out of the water as fast as possible. You’ve got a much better chance of having a working cell phone if it’s only been in the water a few seconds.

– You have to remove the battery as soon as possible. It should go without saying that you do not want to turn the phone on after its been dunked in the water. The best chance for keeping your cell phone working comes from having it turned off when you drop it in the water, or being able to remove the battery quickly.

– Once you’ve got the batter out, take out your SIM card. That’s a small electronic chip/card that slides in the back of the phone (usually under or near the battery) and stores all your personal information and the telephone’s phone number.

– It’s critical that you give the phone time to dry—a long time. It’s best to wait up to three days for the entire phone and its insides to dry before trying to turn it back on.

– There are alternative ways to dry the phone out, including some that involve dunking the phone in alcohol (but not a beer!—denatured alcohol) or shoving into a can of dry, uncooked rice. Check out the internet for more details.

Share