Apple Officially Warns Users To Stop Putting Wet iPhones in Rice (gizmodo.com) 121
An anonymous reader shares a report: In a recent support document, Apple states that putting wet devices in a bag of rice could "allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone," although it doesn't go into further detail. The company also recommended against using other well-known hacks, such as using an external heat source to dry the phone or sticking a cotton swab into the connector. The company's warning on rice coincides with those of other repair experts, who have found that the rice hack works slower than simply leaving your iPhone on a counter to dry. Time is crucial in these situations, as the most important thing is to prevent the water from damaging the electronics inside the phone.
The idea is that rice is a desiccant. (Score:3)
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Obviously dont bury it in rice.
Just how obvious is that? Have you done a google image search for "phone rice" and seen what people do with it? There's nothing obvious about not burying the device. Additionally what people understand to be "rice" are ... rice sized particles. Lots of people do not think or realise that smaller dust sized particles exist and can get into the device.
In any case unless you live in the tropics during monsoon season you don't need the aid of rice to dry your device. Simply leaving it out will do the job.
Re: The idea is that rice is a desiccant. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: The idea is that rice is a desiccant. (Score:2, Informative)
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Most high end Android phones are IP68 or IPX8. The main exception is folding phones.
The problem with IP68 is that it's only submersion. Apple still puts moisture sensors in their phones to deny your warranty claim if high humidity gets water in there. Waterproof isn't the same as moisture proof.
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Those stupid sensors something that Apple are going to get in trouble for one day. Here in Australia Consumer law is fairly simple with its "Fit for purpose" rule. If you sell it here, it has to work here. Now some of the north, theres some pretty high humidity, and its expected devices need to be able to handle that humidity or its not fit for purpose. If an unopened device is tripping moisture sensors from humidity, it means that device isn't fit for purpose and the customer is entitled for the natural li
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The USB C port design is actually one of the most robust, because the contacts are all flat. Most, including the old Lightning ports and earlier USB types, have the spring contacts inside the port, which compress when the cable is inserted.
When people try to clean such ports, it's very easy to get the cleaning implement hooked on those pins, or to press them flat so they don't apply enough force to make a good contact. I've fixed more than a few connectors by just bending the spring contacts back into shape
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You could end up with starches gelling onto your phones ports, and also a dead phone from inefficient drying. Apparently putting it in rice is less efficient than leaving it on the counter.
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Highly dependent on environment. Close to 100% relative humidity? Good luck drying it in any reasonable time with just air around it. Close to 0%? Absolutely.
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You could end up with starches gelling onto your phones ports, and also a dead phone from inefficient drying. Apparently putting it in rice is less efficient than leaving it on the counter.
The starches thing is a very good point.
I have a Polypropylene (I think) kitchen Collander. If I use it to drain pasta and then don't immediately wash the starches off after dumping-out the drained pasta, the starches left behind quickly turn into glue, and if you just throw it into the sink to clean out later, it is amazingly hard to get the dried starches off, even with some significant scrubbing.
So, I could easily see that wreaking havoc with connectors and audio transducers.
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Re: The idea is that rice is a desiccant. (Score:2)
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If the entire device had no orifices it wouldn't be able to make sound, pickup sound, connect to a cable or eject the SIM card. Devices are only IP6X rated when new, not if they have broken screens, cracked edges, or any of the other things common on phones.
Additionally, and let's think about this one very carefully: No one is putting IP6X rated phones in rice unless... they have water ingress, at which point clearly the IP6X rating is void.
Re: The idea is that rice is a desiccant. (Score:2)
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Would it help if the phone was wrapped in some kind of dry paper, separating it from the rice? I can't trouble myself to calculate what kind of paper might be best. There's a range of possibilities, from toilet paper to cardboard I suppose.
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Easier to use a large container with a lid, which you put the phone in, and a bowl of rice in, and the two do not make physical contact and there isn't any air movement to stir up rice dust.
Rice pulls humidity out of the sealed large container, which is replaced by the water in the phone evaporating into the newly dried air; but there is no contact between the phone and the rice.
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And why would anyone with a couple brain cells to rub together not think for a second and say "hey, you know what? The rice is absorbing moisture from the ambient air due to the rice not actually making any direct contact with the water inside the device; and the moisture inside will then evaporate from the device to replace the lost humidity... maybe I should put a small bowl of rice in a large container with a lid, and the phone laying next to the bowl of rice, and then put a lid on it!"
This is exactly t
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Yeah, but Apple has new phones to sell and there's a theoretical risk despite millions of successes.
The idea of "put your phone in a paper bag, fold it over, and put that inside of a sealed bag of rice or other dessicant" is probably described as overly complex for their users.
Did MythBusters not do a video with a dixie cup of water and mass it before and after?
Re:The idea is that rice is a desiccant. (Score:5, Informative)
Putting your phone IN the rice is a bad idea, but trapping it in air with the rice isnt a bad idea. Obviously dont bury it in rice.
The problem is that uncooked rice isn't actually hygroscopic at room temperature. If it was, it would spoil rather quickly just being stored.
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Many products come with little packets of desiccant.
Save the packets. When you get enough, reactivate them in the oven at 180F for 30 minutes.
Save them in an airtight jar.
Some electronic products come with a little blue card that turns pink when exposed to humidity. These cards can also be recharged by baking. So, put a blue card in the jar with the desiccant. If it turns pink, bake everything again and use a different jar.
Re: The idea is that rice is a desiccant. (Score:2)
Donâ(TM)t,fucking,do,that unless you absolutely know what you are doing and the source and composition of the product. Many of those contain or are produced with various chemicals besides the plastic packaging. If you need a desiccant, buy a pack of them, they are really cheap and dispose of it properly.
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I use rechargeable desiccant that comes in thin metal tins. These, I can toss in an oven at 250 degrees for three hours. Eva-Dry units are also good.
Either way, if I had to know a phone was dry, I'd probably stick it in a box with silica desiccant from an airtight box, perhaps find a way to have a small battery powered fan in the enclosure, just to ensure humidity goes down. From there, AppleCare time.
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> rice isn't actually hygroscopic at room temperature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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The problem is that uncooked rice isn't actually hygroscopic at room temperature. If it was, it would spoil rather quickly just being stored.
False. It's not as hygroscopic as commercial desiccants, but it does actually absorb moisture, and it is also generally recommended to store rice in a sealed container because it does actually spoil.
Wait, the solution is what again? (Score:3)
"The idea is that rice is a desiccant."
Ah, I see. So the consumer holding a $1000 hardware device, shouldn't simply go out and buy...the actual shit rice is pretending to be?
Sometimes I really don't get consumer logic. Maybe if they stop eating those little packets and instead..
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Not everyone has desiccant packets just laying around.
Almost everyone has rice in the cupboard. And when you're panicked because you just dropped your phone in the toilet, the last thing you're going to do is start Googling where to buy desiccants, driving across town, buying them, and then driving back while your phone is sitting there soaking wet.
Do you have a box of desiccant laying around in case you drop your phone in the toilet? No? Then why would you expect anyone else to?
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Putting your phone IN the rice is a bad idea, but trapping it in air with the rice isnt a bad idea. Obviously dont bury it in rice.
Your idea might be equally bad IMHO, put it where there is air circulation, maybe not right in front of the fan so it could push water inside the phone but you get the idea. Also, put something like a few lego blocks underneath the phone so there are no dead zone.
That's basically what I do when I charge my phone in its regular spot for that purpose to help dissipate heat. I don't see why it wouldn't work to dissipate humidity as well.
Maybe if you keep exotic pets and need to maintain a relative humidity lev
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Putting your phone IN the rice is a bad idea, but trapping it in air with the rice isnt a bad idea. Obviously dont bury it in rice.
If your device got wet, the damage is already done. Turn it off, let it dry out and then see if it still works. Just leaving it in a warm, dry environment for a given amount of time will suffice. No need for rice, in fact if you put it in rice you're just potentially introducing even more contaminants.
Rice doesn't magically dry out the air, which is why you can leave open bags of rice in your cupboard (otherwise it would get wet and useless just from ambient moisture).
In a cold country like the UK, yo
New product from Apple comes out (Score:5, Funny)
Re: New product from Apple comes out (Score:2, Funny)
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Your price is way too low, it does not fit Apple's pricing model.
Re: New product from Apple comes out (Score:2)
This is true. Apple typically offers the tiers for anything it sells:
iGrain: plenty of desiccant power, but not enough rice to do the job.
iGrain+: enough rice and enough desiccant power to do the job.
iGrain Pro: same rice as iGrain+, but requires a dump truck and a home equity line.
Remember: with Apple, the value play is the one in the middle.
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Doesn't everyone know that you just put your phone in a Microwave oven for a few seconds?
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Be serious, Apple would charge 14.99 per gramme.
Cars (Score:2)
In related news, Rich Rebuilds, the best/dumbest Youtube car channel, fixed a flooded Audi e-Tron with two tons of rice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Of course, in the same video, they explain why it's a terrible idea, and having dry air blow on it, or sticking it in a bubble with a dehumidifier, would be a much better idea.
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having dry air blow on it, or sticking it in a bubble with a dehumidifier, would be a much better idea.
Even a regular fan blowing room temperature air will do a pretty good job of drying things if you're already inside an air conditioned space.
That's racist (Score:1)
Seems like this discriminates against asians. How are asians to repair their iPhones?
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Seems like this discriminates against asians. How are asians to repair their iPhones?
Wheat. Corn in a pinch. Duh.
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How are asians to repair their iPhones?
They take them apart and repair the water damaged circuitry. Duh.
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I am American, so I put my wet iPhone in a bag with a tomahawk steak.
But (Score:3, Funny)
How about pcokets? (Score:5, Interesting)
Sometimes there is lint or dust in my pocket. Am I allowed to put my phone in my pocket or does that void the warranty?
Re:does that void the warranty? (Score:3)
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The iPhone 15 is IP68 rated. The 6 is the dust rating, and 8 is the water rating.
6 means it is dust-proof, so no amount of pocket lint should harm it. For that matter, neither should rice dust.
The 8 is for water resistance, and is unfortunately quite misleading. The minimum is that the product won't be harmed by immersion to 1m depth, but it is up to the manufacturer to specify for how long, how many cycles etc. The other issue is that 1m depth means there is some pressure which actually helps seal up the d
Apple wet iPhone service (Score:2)
Bring wet iPhone and cash to Apple store, Apple will provide new iPhone in exchange.
Rice probably needs to be conditioned for this (Score:5, Interesting)
Regular rice has no real desiccant properties as it already sucked moisture from the air mostly to capacity. Like Silica Gel, it needs to be conditioned. Silica Gel can come conditioned, but since it is sold by weight, many Asian vendors cheat and sell you useless saturated Silica Gel, which is heavier by 20% or so. One exception is Silica Gel with color indicator, which they cannot cheat on. For all others, put it into the oven at 120C for 2 hours. After that, it can absorb moisture again. This reconditioning can be repeated as often as desired.
Now, I expect you need to do something pretty similar for rice to make it actually work as a desiccant. Unless you have this prepared (and then Silica Gel is massively preferrable), I would recommend an immediate visit to a phone repair shop though.
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Probably not a good idea. At least for Silica Gel, accelerating the process makes the pieces pop and does not deliver the same regeneration. Probably the same for rice. Some things take time.
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Well, maybe. Or maybe not. Are you willing to gamble your phone on this?
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Of course it does. Rice like any other desiccant will exchange moisture with the air to reach a stable point. If you open a bag of sealed rice, or store your rice in sealed containers which has been largely dry, or store rice in a dry environment and move it to a moist environment it will absorb moisture.
It's no where near as good as silica gel, but to say it has no desiccant properties is just false.
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If that rice was exposed to air of similar moisture before being sealed, it does not have desiccant properties in that state. As usual, you are bereft of even basic insight.
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Aren’t iPhones waterproof (Score:2)
I thought all iPhones were waterproof.
If the article means the lightning socket, just dribble some metho in there.
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Just putting it in rice isn't so bad... (Score:4, Funny)
But problems really start to pile up if you then add water and bring it to a boil.
just throw your wet phone in the dryer...duh (Score:2)
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Use a vacuum dessicator device (Score:5, Informative)
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Did not know about something like that, and it's likely very much worth it - likely the highest chance of best result in the shortest amount of time (compared to all other options I know).
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I'd imagine they're not pulling a vacuum hard enough to boil off the water, because lipo batteries will expand in a vacuum. It's probably something more like a warm box with some fans.
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Re: Use a vacuum dessicator device (Score:2)
I use my Seal-a-Meal for stuff like this. Seems to work well, though I've never had to dry a fully-immersed iPhone.
Where it all comes from (Score:3)
I got curious about this and started following the blog links. Which led to other blogs, which led to other articles, which led back to more blogs. And so on. Eventually I traced this new "scientific" wisdom back to a company which (you guess it) sold a proprietary service which they claimed would dry out wet smart phones. They claimed their studies had shown rice left particles inside phones that would damage them worse.
However, if you read the fine print on their publication they admitted they never tested their processes (proprietary or the rice trick) on real cell phones or damaged electronics, only plastic models.
As far as I can tell, all of those blogs, social media posts, and tech articles from that period referenced that one scam company which admitted they'd never actually tested their claim.
Which makes me wonder if this is more of the same, Apple trying to get people to buy a new phone or bring it into an Apple shop for repair rather than fixing it at home?
This is how you do it (Score:4, Interesting)
If you drop your phone in water, this method will rescue it most of the the time:
1) Turn the phone off immediately.
2) If it was salt water, rinse the phone in fresh water or alcohol
3)Take the phone to the car wash. Use that super strong vacuum to suck as much water out of the phone as you can.
4) Go to work, and put the phone in the machine room (or iunfront of an air conditioner for the rest of you), preferably in front of the fastest coldest air vent you can find. Return every 12-24 hours and shake the phone vigorously. At the end of 72 hours, turn on the phone. If it appears to work normally, go ahead and charge it. The longer you keep it in the cold room, the better.
This works because cold air is drier than warm air, and it will dry the inside of the phone fastest.
Never use rice, it's disgusting. Silica gel works, but it's easier to get air into your phone than those little rocks.
If you try this, let us know how you fare. People never believe me when I tell them this, until they actually try it. It almost always works.
csw
csw
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If you drop your phone in water, this method will rescue it most of the the time
Or the 2024 version: if you drop your phone in water take it out of the water and keep using it. Don't attach the charge cable until it's dry or it won't charge.
It is funny blowing people's minds that phones are mostly waterproof these days. You see outright gasps if you go on holidays and jump off a boat with your phone in hand and take a selfie while swimming in the ocean, or if you piss off a girl at Octoberfest and she dunks your phone into a stein, that said the reaction of the people around me weren't
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You have a bug in your recommendation. Cold air only works if it's warmed up. Hot air can store more moisture and probably also makes condensed water evaporate faster.
But agreed on ventilation. Just use a cheap desk fan and point that at the phone. I use that to dry out my children's boots and gloves and other clothing.
ahh (Score:2)
You'll pry my delicious iPhone fried rice out of my cold dead hands
You're Ricing It Wrong (Score:2)
I would recommend Uncle Ben's
But these days that would be riceist!
Nonsense (Score:3)
Aren't most iPhones IP68-rated? That first number in this rating is the dust ingress rating. A dust ingress protection rating of 6 is supposed to mean "dust-tight."
It may not be a good idea for removing moisture, but I don't see how it's going to cause any harm. Leave it to Apple to just create more FUD around their products.
Cheap ass Apple (Score:2)
"Time is crucial in these situations, as the most important thing is to prevent the water from damaging the electronics inside the phone."
Conformally-coating that circuit board costs like $0.03 each unit. That little bump in your BoM could've saved you this headache and embarrassment of having to make your users look stupid.
Novel idea: Don't swim with your iPhone (Score:2)
Re:What about 100% alcohol? (Score:4, Informative)
Getting above 96% is very difficult and you might only get to 90%.
Nilered has a good video on drying alcohols, for a quick lesson.
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Getting above 96% is very difficult and you might only get to 90%.
My local pharmacy has 99% alcohol in stock (along with the other stuff). But I read 90%+ is good enough.
I think the key thing is to flush out as much of the water as possible (and alcohol is harmless to most/all electronics components) - mainly to flush out the minerals in the water, which is what usually ends up being worst than the water itself (causes component rust and/or other electrical issues).
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mainly to flush out the minerals in the water
This.
But then that invalidates the rice, silica gel, dehumidifier approaches. All will leave minerals and other deposits behind. Several rinses of alcohol will carry them out. As will several rinses of distilled water.
Most electronics is unaffected by water to the same degree that they are unaffected by alcohol. For those where water could be a solvent with some internal components, well then probably so would alcohol. The only thing that alcohol buys you is faster drying time.
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mainly to flush out the minerals in the water
This.
But then that invalidates the rice, silica gel, dehumidifier approaches. All will leave minerals and other deposits behind. Several rinses of alcohol will carry them out. As will several rinses of distilled water
Thinking out loud: would an ultrasonic bath work also?
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Ultrasonics just accelerate the rate of dissolution of the minerals in the solution. So yeah, it could help. But the energy (and related cavitation) might do some bad things to delicate membranes as well. Try holding a piece of aluminum foil in an ultrasonic cleaner for a few minutes and see what happens.
I'd just swish my phone back and forth for a while.
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Try holding a piece of aluminum foil in an ultrasonic cleaner for a few minutes and see what happens.
Ouch. [youtube.com]
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Alcohol forms an azeotrope with water. This means that at certain ratios, water and alcohol evaporate at the same temperature. So it becomes impossible to distill one from the other.
If you want anhydrous alcohol, you can buy some things called molecular sieves, they are available on amazon and they aren't expensive. They are little clay balls that you dump into some liquid and they will suck out the water, leaving everything else behind. They work great for drying most liquids that are miscible with w
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if you ever want to convert the shitty ethanol gas from the local pump into high quality gasoline (useful for many gas-powered tools) just add water.
Saw a guy do a YouTube video on this where he had a jerry can with a clear neck / hose thing, which he filled with E10 gasoline and added some water, gave it a shake, and then let it hang upside down in his garage for a day. Came back the next day and drained out the combined water / ethanol that was in the upside-down tube, leaving him with purified gasoline in the jerry can. Basically he closed the valve when he started seeing amber color come out instead of clear water / ethanol.
Yay, chemistry!
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And what does all that alcohol due to the adhesives, seals, plastic / rubber bits? Alcohol is a solvent.
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You might be better off putting it in a sealed bag filled with silica gel.
This. Silica gel would probably be best - but as I mentioned before, the problem is the minerals in the water left behind causing most issues once the device dries (unless you happen to have dropped it in distilled water).
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Pure alcohol is a remarkably effective solvent. Get much about about 95%, and it tends to start dissolving whatever it's stored in. (This is one way that bootleggers have been known to poison themselves with, when they're too cheap, or stupid, to use copper tubing for their still.)
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I don't think allowing moisture to get deeper into the phone is a good idea. I get that the alcohol will dry faster but it can still short things out.
I generally try to gently shake my electronics out with whatever opening it has facing down (charge port, headphone jack, face of a mechanical keyboard, etc). Then I put it near some turbulent air like from a fan. I would avoid using a heater because it won't really dry it significantly faster and you could give it too much heat. But it can take multiple days
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I don't think allowing moisture to get deeper into the phone is a good idea. I get that the alcohol will dry faster but it can still short things out.
Fair point, but I believe (again, could be wrong) that alcohol is generally harmless to most components; the idea it to draw out the water (and its minerals, which is usually what causes issues once dried) and 'rinse' the device of the water/minerals as much as possible.
I generally try to gently shake my electronics out with whatever opening it has facing down (charge port, headphone jack, face of a mechanical keyboard, etc). Then I put it near some turbulent air like from a fan. I would avoid using a heater because it won't really dry it significantly faster and you could give it too much heat. But it can take multiple days to dry, depending how badly things got soaked.
Generally I think this would work, if you had dropped the device in distilled water. Most times the issue is the minerals left behind that causes issues.
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Some residue from water might not cause any problems. But I can confirm that beer dried up in my Sun keyboard really compromised the electronics.
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Some residue from water might not cause any problems. But I can confirm that beer dried up in my Sun keyboard really compromised the electronics.
Yeah it all depends on what type of device the liquid got in, and the type of electronics it contains; a keyboard is far easier to disassemble/clean than Apple's unserviceable devices.
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You can clean wet electronics with alcohol, but that process involves first disassembling the device and disconnecting the battery. If you're just planning on dunking the whole phone as-is, you might as well get the drinking grade stuff instead and use the alcohol for mixing an adult beverage to help you cope with the loss of your phone.
Re: What about 100% alcohol? (Score:2)
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Good points.
Other have suggested just flushing out the minerals (from the water) present in the device using distilled water, then letting it fully dry, to (hopefully) avoid future faults from leftover minerals.
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Re: Why is this even a topic? IP68 (Score:2)
I've washed out so many "waterproof" cameras and GPSes sea kayaking that I simply refuse to believe such labels any more.
Only thing that really works is an external housing or bag. I use a dive housing on my digital camera, and a clear dry bag on my GPS now.
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If that pool used chlorine as a sanitizing agent, you've probably ruined the liquid resistance with your demonstration by exposing the rubber seals to the chlorine. I wouldn't advise performing your demonstration again before either replacing the sealant material that gives it the liquid resistance, or getting a new phone.
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Ask Linus Sebastian (of Linus Media Group) how well that "IP68" rating works to protect your phone from liquid damage...
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You put the iPhone in rice overnight, a Chinese guy comes, fixes it and eats the rice, that's how it works.
That's Ricist!
It's a Japanese guy, but I guess to you all those magic elves look the same...