Dropped your phone down the toilet on a night out? Or perhaps you’ve spilt water all over your brand new iPhone?
Don’t worry, we’ve all been there.
It can be a stressful experience, causing water damage to your smartphone. After all, they organise our lives. They keep us company, act as our calendars, our alarms, and our gateway to the outside world. Which means that the idea of being without them can be scary, even if it’s just for a short period.
But frantically pushing the power button over and over again in an attempt to get your phone working doesn’t solve anything, and there are actually some really easy ways to fix your phone after a spillage.
Follow these five steps for water damage repair, and you’ll have your smartphone working again in no time.
5 tips to fix a water damaged phone
1. Fish it out
First things first – it’s probably best not to leave your smartphone dowsed in water for too long. Although it’s not necessarily the most pleasant task, (particularly if your phone is one of the unlucky ones that gets dropped down the toilet) the first thing you should do if you cause water damage to your phone is to fish it out of the water.
2. Take it apart
Once you’ve fished it out, switch your phone off straight away to ensure no further damage is caused. Once it’s switched off, you can then proceed with taking it apart so you can properly assess the damage. Take special care to remove the battery and the SIM card (and any other removable parts of the phone) so you can dry them off separately.
Just be careful not to be too forceful – a phone that’s been smashed into a million pieces might be slightly more difficult to fix!
3. Dry it off
Now that you’ve taken your phone apart, take a small, dry dishcloth or paper towel and gently dab off any excess water. If you’ve spilled something sticky, try not to be tempted to dry it too vigorously – you could end up causing more damage. Instead, put a TINY amount of water on your cloth to get rid of any stickiness, and then dab the phone dry.
Once the worst of the water has been dealt with, then you can really get to work fixing your phone.
4. Reach for the rice
Ok, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be rice. But now that you’ve gotten rid of most of the excess liquid, you’ll need to give the drying process a bit of a boost to make sure every drop of water is out of the phone.
Some people like to use a hairdryer to speed things up, however this can push the water further inside your phone if you’re not careful. Others prefer vacuum cleaners, as this ensures that the water will be dragged off the phone, rather than pushed further inside. Just be careful that you don’t vacuum the phone up with it!
But the most common method of fixing a phone after causing water damage is to take a resealable sandwich bag, fill it with rice or silica gel sachets, and place your smartphone inside.
5. Leave it for a while
After that it’s just a waiting game. Most people will tell you that you should leave your phone drying off for a solid week before it’ll recover from a spillage. However, 24 hours should usually do the trick – just be sure to leave your phone switched off the whole time.
Protecting your gadgets
Cover your gadgets against theft, accidental damage (including cracked screens!) and mechanical breakdown.