Soak in these phone saving tips
NICOLE RUGGIERO
Spilt water on your phone? Use these tried and true methods to save it. Courtesy Nicole Ruggiero.
You can’t hold it any longer. Your bladder is moving quicker than your feet. Just when you think you’ve been saved, SPLASH! There it goes; your cellphone lost in the depths of the toilet. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the gallon of water you drank.
Becoming frustrated, some would throw it away without giving it another chance at life. Others can say they have argued countless times with cell phone providers who feel no remorse for our irresponsible actions. Then there are the small fraction who will reach in the toilet bare hands and revive it.
The almighty question remains, do we say our final goodbyes before tossing it or is there a way to save it?
According to Yahoo, there is more than one way to dry out your device. Depending on the extent of the damage to your phone, there may be light at the end of that drenched tunnel.
It’s common knowledge that electricity and H2O aren’t a good combination. Randy Gallant, Professor and Program Advisor at Humber School of Applied Technology doesn’t hesitate to say “turn off the phone and take out the battery” as soon as I asked him what the first step would be.
The next step would be to remove the SIM card and any media cards in your device.
Gallant suggests shaking the standing water off the phone and drying what’s left after and recommends you consider how you got your phone wet in the first place.
“You don’t have to worry about much harm done if you drop it in the toilet and take it out quickly, the water won’t have time to soak in,” he says.
“It’s a different story if you dropped it in the ocean or ran it though the wash with soap for twenty minutes,” he adds. “Water isn’t corrosive, but when it is mixed with other elements for a longer period of time it can be dangerous.”
This is when the most important step to recovering your phone comes into the picture. It may not be as simple as taking a paper towel and wiping it down, or exposing it to a blow dryer on full blast. The wind from the dryer may force the water deeper into the phone rather than getting rid of it. A vacuum would do the trick, sucking the water out.
Although you can’t see any water, there still may be some moisture deep in the tiny cracks of your device. It is important to make sure it has been removed to prevent lethal damage.
“Let the phone sit to make sure all the water is gone before inserting the battery and turning the phone back on,” Gallant says. “Pressing the buttons and handling the phone if water is still inside can cause problems.”
Although everyone has their own little tricks when it comes to these situations, Gallant stresses that removing the battery promptly will be your phones ticket back to life.
“Sticking your phone in a bowl of rice or [on a] dehumidifier will also work, anything that will absorb moisture,” Gallant says.
Pradnya Paradkar, a third-year Nursing student at Humber had an amusing story.
“I was so sick, I was laying in my bed, and as I turned over, I vomited all over my brand new iPhone,” she laughs “I was mad and happy at the same time because it cost me money, but I also wanted a Blackberry instead.”
She said she called one of her friends who was in a similar situation.
“She told me to rinse it off with water and bury it in a uncooked bowl of rice.”
She said there was no point in trying to get another phone, since she has never had good luck with phone companies.
“The rice really worked! My phone was still as good as new, although I had to leave my phone in the rice for almost two days.”
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