How to Save a Wet Handphone?

Have you ever dropped your cell phone in the sink, or even worse, the toilet?

Did you ever leave it in your pocket and run it through the washer?

I have once witness my sister's phone spinning round and round in our home washing machine back then in Oz. At that point, we find it funny yet horrifying to discover a Sony Ericson hp circling in the wash for 30mins and not being able to do anything about it!

Im sure the first thing that goes through our minds when this happens - Oh.. my pics!!! my datas (emails, notes bla bla bla).. and worst now i cant access my contacts!! So i found this little puzzle solver - do read up a bit..
hopefully it can help you saving your wet phone cos it sure did for my sister!(p.s you gotta hang in there being persistent & patient to endure this - especially the drying part! )

Steps

1. Get it out of the water as soon as possible.The plastic covers on cell phones are fairly tight, but water can enter the phone over time. But this time may be quite short - 20 seconds or less. So grab your phone as quickly as you can!
2. Remove the battery. This is one of the most important steps. Don't take time to think about it; electricity and water do not mix. Cutting power to your phone is a crucial first step in saving it. Many circuits inside the phone will survive immersion in water provided they are not attached to a power source when wet.
3. Remove your SIM card. Some or all of your valuable contacts (along with other data) could be stored on your SIM. To some people this could be more worth saving than the phone itself. SIM cards survive water damage well, but some of the following steps are unnecessary i.e. don't heat it. Just pat it dry and leave it aside until you need to connect your phone to your cellular network. 
4. Dry your phone. Obviously you need to remove as much of the water as soon as possible, so you can prevent it from getting into the phone. Use a towel or paper towel to remove as much of the water as possible.
5. Allow the phone to dry. Since you do not want to ruin your phone or lose all of the numbers in your phone book, you need to allow the phone to dry.(yes.. you need to be very patient..) Also, ringtones and graphics stay with the phone - not the SIM. Do not attempt to try putting the battery back on to see if it works as this would risk damaging the phone with a short circuit.
6. Wait. This is the hardest part - leaving your phone alone, with battery and SIM card out, while it dries slowly. Tricks like leaving your phone in a bowl of dry rice or silica gel (like the packets found in shoe boxes) will help to expedite moisture evaporation. They might also have side effects like getting rice in your phone. Just put it someplace reasonably warm and dry, uncovered so water can evaporate, and wait.
7. Test your phone. Only after you have waited 3 days, make sure everything is clean and dry looking and re-attach the battery to the phone and see if it works. If your phone does not work, try plugging it into its charger without the battery, if this works, you need a new battery, if not, wait another few days. If it still won't work, try taking your cell phone to an authorized dealer. Sometimes they can fix it.

Alternate Alcohol Soak Method

1. Dry your phone by soaking it in alcohol or flush out contaminants with distilled water. This method is controversial and considered risky by some, but the proponents believe in it strongly. Using alcohol is more effective than distilled water because not only does it displace the water and sediments, it also evaporates faster with less residue. It will not harm your mobile phone. Preferably, use denatured alcohol or a 95% alcohol solution. Denatured alcohol may be purchased at any hardware store and is used to clean electronics because it evaporates quickly and leaves no residue. You should check to see what the alcohol is denatured with. If it is anything other than methanol (some are denatured with very hazardous chemicals such as methyl ethylene ketone [MEK]) you should not use it, as some denaturants can melt plastics. Most drugstores or larger retailers carry 91% rubbing alcohol. Regular rubbing alcohol is only 70% and is not recommended. Distilled water won't displace water (it is water) but it will dilute minerals and salts that conduct electricity, which cause "short circuits". Prolonged exposure to other liquids will cause corrosion of the copper traces within the mobile phone, and will most likely cease its operation.

Rice Method
My sister used this method and it works!!
But the patience you need..--- oh lala...So try on this one, if this doesnt work; you can try other methods as below..

Here's the popular method, to dry your phone more quickly than room temperature air can manage, you need to immerse it in a can of dry, uncooked rice. The rice will absorb excess moisture, drying your phone from the inside out.

More tips on drying the wetphone

• Another method of drying out the phone it to remove the back and the battery, and put the wet phone on your dashboard in your car. (car should be parked in a place where it will get warm and the dash will get hot) After a couple of hours, remove your phone and see if the screen is fogged up. If it is, put it back on the dash. If not, try to put the battery in and boot up the phone.
• try removing the battery from the phone and putting the phone into the refrigerator. This will not hurt the phone unless it is left in there for more than a few hours. The refrigerator makes things cool by drawing the moisture out of things, and this is actually a very effective way of drawing the moisture out of a wet phone or foggy phone screen. Leave the phone inside for about 30 minutes, then take it out for about ten minutes, and then put it back in again. I have saved my phone this way, and so have several of my friends.
• Another method for drying the phone is to set it on top of the vent of a cable box, monitor or TV for at least 24 hours (up to 3 days). The low heat emitted is enough to gently dry out the phone.
• The longer your phone is wet the more likely it is to be damaged. To dry your phone more quickly than room temperature air can manage, immerse it in a can of dry, uncooked rice. The rice will absorb excess moisture, drying your phone from the inside out.
• Don't put the battery in for at least three days, or longer if your digital screen is foggy.
• An alternate drying technique is to seal the phone (battery, SIM card, SD card all removed) in a plastic bag with a few of the silica packs that come packed with shoes, coats, electronics. Leave the phone in the bag for a day or 2, and the silica packs will absorb the moisture.
• The silica method works! Go to local craft store and purchase flower drying kit. Silica contained in this kit is like sand, spread on bottom of tupperware container and place a piece of tissue paper on top to lay your cell phone on without laying in the silica sand. Seal up tupperware and let sit for three days.
• The new crystal cat litter works as well as silica, and if you put all phone parts inside a sock or knee high pantyhose and bury it in a new, clean container, it will dry out in just a day or so.
• If your phone falls in the ocean or other salt water, rinse with fresh water before crystals can form after removing battery.
• If your phone has been subjected to salt water crystalizing, gently tap the board and the chips with a plastic object (back of the small screw driver for example). The vibration of the taps will set some of the foreign objects free and they will fall out. Be careful and don't smash the board or the chips. A sharp enough blow will break the chips. Tapping very gently multiple times in multiple locations, especially around the chips, is a preferred method.
• Try opening your phone if you can (pls make sure its 100% dried before you become mr/ms. Mcguyver). You'll probably need a TORX screwdriver for that, but it's worth it. This may void your warranty, but it is likely the water damage already has.
• It is likely that the dunk in water will kill the battery. Fortunately you can buy another battery. The phone itself usually survives.
• Corrosion is a threat. You may want to consider soaking your phone in distilled water to wash away any minerals it picked up from the original water.
• If you know someone at your local high school's physics department, try putting your wet cell phone in the vacuum chamber at 2 psi for 1 hour. That will dry out parts you can't access.
• Try holding a compressed air can STRAIGHT (upside down, sideways, or at an angle will shoot out a freezing liquid) and shoot into the crevaces, speaker, mic, and keypad. Any exess water stuck should come out. If the can gets cold and you're not done, let the can sit a while before continuing, as cold air could make exess moisture condesne onto parts.
• If there is no rice or sillica gel around, wrap the cell phone in paper towels. It doesn't work nearly as well, but its better than nothing.

Warnings

• Don't heat the battery or it could leak or explode. Lithium-ion batteries are sensitive. If you use an oven or hairdryer, make sure to remove the battery first.
• If you use alcohol make sure to do so outside, and do not apply heat in any form, not even the gentle heat of a monitor. Do not hook up the battery till the alcohol smell dissipates.
• Do not apply too much heat to your phone, as mentioned above. You don't want to melt or burn your phone.
• Most modern phones have more than one liquid damage indicator (stickers that change color when wet) on them, only one visible to you (and sales/technician agents), and chances are, if the sticker under the battery is triggered, then the odds are that the internal stickers you can't access are tripped as well. This will still result in you paying a voided-warranty fee in the long run. Warranties don't cover water damage, insurance does. And not all insurance companies or plans will honor water damaged phones.
• Even if all these steps are followed, minerals dissolved in the water can precipitate on solder and component pins, causing corrosion or shorting. Components pins are packed so closely together in a modern cell phone that even a small encrustation can create a short, rendering the phone inoperable.
• Be warned that manufacturers place stickers that will display "void" once peeled and some will change colors in the presence of a liquid (usually turns blue or red). This helps techs know that you have dropped it in the water, as most cell phone insurance coverage policies don't cover water damage. Also note that these stickers have been known to change colors in extreme humidity as well.
• Do not put the phone (or any electronic or metal-containing object) into the microwave. You will destroy electronic components and potentially the microwave.
• For the semi-mechanically inclined remove screws and as a minimum crack the case open to allow moisture to escape. Cell phones are normally somewhat water proof so they can be used in the light rain and humid environments. This means that once moisture has entered the phone it is very hard for it to dry out. 

I personally think the best advice of all is by simply getting the phone out of the water and IMMEDIATELY REMOVING THE BATTERY gives you the best chance of success.

Or perhaps this is a good excuse to get the new Iphone? :P

Xoxo

ms Dreamyz