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Rescuing drowned phones, according to statistics, is one of the most common problems with which users and owners of various devices turn to service centers. From experience, I can say that for some reason this trouble most often happens to iPhone owners. In any case, acquaintance with a large amount of liquid does not pass without a trace for any phone (now, of course, we are not talking about models with super protection), and if your phone fell into the water, the first question that arises in you is what to do, to save a valuable gadget and how to make the “drowned” work if the phone fell into the water and does not turn on?
I must say right away: they will not give you any guarantees even at the service center. Experts will dry the “drowned man”, patch them up, but they will never promise anything. My friend lost two phones in the toilet in six months. One disappeared almost without a trace (it works, but confuses all the keys), the second lay down for 2 months, turned on and has been working fine for six months now. By the way, not only falling into a container with water can harm the phone, but also a heavy downpour, splashing waves. Therefore, you should not take risks and talk on the phone, even if you are walking in the rain under an umbrella.
What should I do first if my phone falls into water?
So, you laughed for a long time at songs like “the phone in the toilet is the sixth iPhone”, but at some point you just forgot about the gadget in your back pocket and – oops! – awkward situation. Get your gadget out as soon as possible.
1. The first thing to do when you have removed the phone is to turn it off and try to get the battery out. Today, in most phones, this is not easy to do, you need a special screwdriver. But you definitely can’t leave the battery – if the current continues to flow through the microcircuits, the contacts will immediately oxidize and then it will be almost impossible to restore the phone. You can not insert the battery into the phone for at least a day. And it’s better not to insert it at all until either you or the service specialists disassemble it and make sure that all contacts are in order. Even if the phone has been in the water for a couple of seconds, believe me, the irreparable has already happened. No matter how durable and waterproof the case may seem, most modern phones are not. Unless you own the latest iPhone with a high degree of water protection IP67 or IP68.
2. Most importantly – do not start randomly pressing the buttons on the phone, trying to check its performance. Turn off the device, remove the SIM card and memory card, you will deal with the rest later. If there is a lot of water in the phone, try to shake it from the bottom up, holding it away from you with a hole through which water can pass.
How to remove moisture from the phone if it has been dropped in water?
This is the first thing to take care of if your phone gets wet or dropped into a container of water. If there are no improvised means at hand, put the phone in rice or salt. These bulk materials help absorb excess moisture. Of course, it is best to put the device in them already disassembled, without a battery.
Another tip is to put your phone in a bowl of alcohol liquid for 20-30 minutes. Then leave it off for a day. Alcoholic liquid prevents corrosion and removes moisture.
Also, to solve this problem, there are special compounds, chemicals that push out moisture – for example, FLUID 101/200. They are sold in radio equipment stores. This composition must be carefully sprinkled on the board and left for a while. Also, this composition removes all oxidation. But it has a large capillary effect, it cannot be allowed to fall on the touchscreen or screen, as it will penetrate into the gap between them.
It’s a bad idea to put your phone in the refrigerator. This advice implies that the liquid will freeze in the freezer, the threat to contacts will disappear, and immediately after removing the phone, it is advised to turn it on. That’s just warm ice will melt again. In general, it’s better not to experiment with the unfortunate “drowned man”.
You also don’t need to dry the phone with a hairdryer: if you haven’t taken it apart, the water will simply heat up and accumulate in hard-to-reach places. There is also a risk of overheating the battery.
Why did the phone fall into the water, work, and then stop?
Your gadget is a thin and capricious device. Therefore, if you took out the phone and were happy about it. that it works, do not hope: it may not last long. There are very thin contacts on the gadget’s board, when water gets on them, the electric current still passes, but under the influence of electric current and water, the oxidation process takes place, a chemical reaction destroys the contacts, and since the contact bridges are very thin, they are quickly covered with the reaction product and conductivity disappears or the contact simply corrodes. And since there are a lot of contacts, a capillary effect is obtained, water lingers well on the board and it is difficult to remove it, for example, with a simple cotton swab.
Also, modern phones use microcircuits with ball leads, they are very tightly located, water can also get into the opening and it is very difficult to expel it from there, it can lead to a serious short circuit.
iPhones are best protected from such problems – in them all the microcircuits are filled with a special compound, but this is not the case in all phones.
What to do if the phone does not turn on?
If after all the manipulations the phone does not turn on, it will have to be shown to specialists. Unfortunately, the service center does not provide a guarantee for the repair of recessed phones, and it is also not known how much the repair will cost. In any case, if you have not tried all the methods yet, we strongly recommend that you disassemble the phone to see for yourself what the water has done inside. It is not the electronics that can be damaged by water. For example, in a Meizu phone, the double-sided adhesive tape that held the battery just peeled off from moisture, after which it tore out other contacts from the board. So in any case, in order to assess the harm to the phone from drowning, it needs to be disassembled. You can do it yourself, using the guides on YouTube. Tip for the future: get a screwdriver that matches your phone model, keep it with you just in case.
What should I do if my phone starts to work slowly?
This means that you were able to eliminate the consequences of the phone getting into the water, but you didn’t do it completely. Or some contacts had time to oxidize, some schemes were violated. Often the consequence can also be poor phone charging or poor touch screen performance. The sensors are capacitive, they work on the principle of changing the capacitance between the electrodes. When you touch the display with your finger, the electrochemical capacitance between the electrodes changes and damage to the electrodes disrupts these relationships. In this case, you also need to contact the service center or solder the necessary contacts on the board yourself, completely ringing the entire circuit. In this case, the chances of the survival of the phone are quite high. Problems may remain with the sensor. Often some of the letters or certain places on the screen stop working completely.