Most users mobile devices at least once and "bathed" them in water. What to do in such a situation?

To begin with, we will briefly tell you what needs to be done, and then, if anyone is interested, we will tell you why :).

What needs to be done:

one). Be sure to disconnect (remove) the battery as soon as possible. If you have a device with a non-removable battery, such as an iPhone, Sony Xperia, then just turn off the device and move towards the service center as soon as possible.

2). Pull out SIM card, memory cards and remove all peripherals. If the housing has removable panels, remove them; if the holes and connectors are closed with rubber plugs, they should also be opened. Try to shake the water out of the apparatus.

3). Wipe the phone with a dry, absorbent rag or paper towels (toilet paper in extreme cases), removing as much moisture as possible at this stage. We also wipe all the elements removed from the phone.

four). Put your mobile phone in a sealed bag or box of rice and place it in a warm place for 24 hours. rice absorbs moisture very well and absorbs moisture vapor. In this case, rice acts as a silica gel, which is a hydrophilic sorbent.

After you have dried your phone for at least a day, you can check it. Insert the battery and turn on.

Then decide for yourself: If there is an opportunity to buy a new one, you can take a chance and not wear it anywhere, hoping for good luck. Even if it turns on and works, it may fail after some time, since the process of internal corrosion is inevitable. If the device is expensive, then it is better to take it to a service center, where it will be completely disassembled, washed, dried, checked under a microscope to detect the formation of oxides and all observed foci of occurrence of which will disappear, and damaged elements, if any, will be replaced with new ones.

  1. Try to charge it. (in no case try to charge it!).
  2. Dry it with a hair dryer
  3. Treat by completely immersed in vodka or moonshine, because your device's screen and some other components won't survive this. (In the service center they only wash motherboard, having previously disconnected all modules from it)

Now about why water is so dangerous for technology:

Ordinary water is a solution of all kinds of salts of metal ions, which is why ordinary water conducts electric current so well (although distilled water is a dielectric). It is due to the presence of salts that water causes corrosion of metals due to electrolysis. The phone contains thousands of copper conductors and hundreds of parts and contacts containing different metals, plus a liquid added by our efforts plus an energy source - a battery - as a result of ideal conditions for electrochemical reactions, and due to the battery, a very fast reaction. Metal objects are destroyed, and the salts formed as a result of reactions are deposited in a thin film on the parts, changing their electrical characteristics.

Interestingly, vodka is theoretically the safest liquid for devices. is a solution of alcohol in distilled water, and, unlike mineral water and other liquids used by humans, does not contain salts of metal ions, and the most severe case is sea water.

In general, all of the above applies not only to cell phones, but also to any other mobile electronics powered by batteries or batteries. We treat players, tablets, navigators, video recorders, e-books and car alarm consoles flooded with water in the same way, first by turning off the power as soon as possible.

Liquid often breaks down not only phones, but also laptops. You can find out what to do if you suddenly spill liquid on your laptop or computer in our next article.

And for dessert: Video from Nokia, what to do if your phone is drowned

Inattention, distraction, forgetfulness, or just a coincidence of circumstances very often confront us with the task of how to dry a phone that has fallen into water. And this can happen not only while relaxing on the pond, but also in your own apartment. Modern telephones accompany us everywhere. On the one hand, it is convenient. On the other hand, they threaten the apparatus, without which the majority can no longer do, with unexpected problems. And one of the most common problems is getting your phone wet.

Imagine that your phone is charging, that is, connected to the electrical network, and at this very moment, a mug of tea, coffee or any other drink is accidentally poured onto it. The first, almost instinctive movement will be to grab the phone and wipe off all the moisture from it. In no case should you do this. You can be easily shocked.

If immediately after the incident the traffic jams did not fly out and the lights did not go out in the apartment, this does not mean that the danger, especially for you, has passed. The first step is to disconnect the charger from the network, or turn off the electricity altogether, and only then take any action to save the phone itself.

The phone fell into the water: the algorithm of actions

There is a strong opinion, which is actively supported by manufacturers, that if your device falls into water or a sufficient amount of liquid is poured onto it, this at least means that you will have to go to a store that sells spare parts for cell phones, or even buy a new one, but this is not entirely true. If you act quickly, confidently and logically, your phone can often be saved.

  • The main rule is as follows: what faster phone taken out of the water, the more likely it will continue to function. There is no time for disgust or fear of getting wet with expensive manicure. Whatever reservoir you have to take your phone out of, your hands can always be washed with soap and water, which is much cheaper.
  • If this trouble occurred while the phone was turned on, you must turn it off in any way. The button does not work, which means you should remove the battery. It is also impossible to hesitate with this, and even more so it is not recommended to test it for performance. By trying to press at least some button besides turning off, you risk finally killing the phone.
  • Then, you should arm yourself with the necessary tools, sit in a comfortable well-lit place and disassemble the phone. Don't just remove the back cover, take out the battery and SIM card. You need to try to remove everything that is possible and at the same time not forget in what sequence all this was done, in order to put it back together later. If you have touchscreen phone fell into the water and the question arose of how to dry it, you should not get lost. It can also be disassembled, only for this you need a very small screwdriver, maximum attention and accuracy.
  • After they were able to unscrew and remove everything that could be and laid out on a clean and dry towel, each detail should be blotted with paper napkins and with them, twisted into flagella, try to get into the most inaccessible places. There is one caveat here. Do not wrap the napkin over a match or toothpick. In this case, the flagellum will become too hard, and the possibility of causing mechanical damage to fragile parts will increase several times.
  • It is impossible to collect the field of this operation at once, let alone turn on the phone. No matter how it seems to you that not a single molecule of liquid remains inside the apparatus and on the removed parts, this is not so. The phone should be left unassembled for several days and only after that try it out.

Degree of wetness


Agree that this indicator is quite important and it turns out that many phones and smartphones provide the ability to determine this purely visually. If you remove the battery, you can see a small white circle or square near the charging hole.

This is an indicator showing the very degree of wetness. If it turns from white to pink or even red, then the phone that fell into the water should be dried.

Hairdryer or vacuum cleaner

Another deeply mistaken opinion is that in order to speed up the drying process, you can use a hair dryer to dry your hair. A strong air flow, on the contrary, will drive moisture into places where it will become simply impossible to dry it. And if you also turned on the hair dryer for heating, then this can lead to overheating of some parts.

The vacuum cleaner is much safer in this case. On the contrary, it works for suction and therefore draws out moisture. This is not to say that this is an ideal and highly effective method, but it certainly will not harm you. So before doing anything, you should think carefully about how to dry mobile phone dropped into the water, and do it correctly without causing more damage.

Correct drying


Let us remind you once again: in order to dry the phone so that it continues to work, in no case should you rush. Neither paper napkins nor a vacuum cleaner will ensure a complete absence of moisture - they will only significantly reduce its amount. But even a small drop can be enough for the phone to burn out if it is not turned on in time. Several days in air are simply necessary, but this process can be accelerated by placing the apparatus in an adsorbent medium.

At home, creating it is easiest in three ways:

  • Plain rice. Any cereal absorbs moisture very well, but rice is the purest. The disassembled phone should be simply buried separately in rice and literally overnight it will draw out all the moisture from it. Remaining dust can be easily removed with a dry cloth.
  • Silicogel. If you recently bought a new pair of shoes and have not thrown out the box yet, then you can use special small balls with which the shoe makers pour over their products, just in order to remove excess moisture. For drying a phone that has fallen into the water, they will also work.
  • Cat litter. His purpose is exactly what is necessary. It is better to use fines filler and be careful so that your pet does not confuse the place where you need to go to the toilet.

Other types of liquid


We told how to properly dry a phone or smartphone that fell into water, but it often happens that they fall into other liquids, which, in addition to moisture, also contain sugar, all kinds of sticky substances and even brewer's yeast. In this case, in addition to getting wet, pollution will necessarily follow. The first impulse of many people is the desire to rinse the apparatus under running clean water. Do not do that.

Follow the above procedure, the main purpose of which is to dry the phone. After that, the dirt will need to be thoroughly wiped off with damp wipes and dried again. Of course, this is a little longer, but it eliminates additional damage.


A phone bubbling into the water is a very big nuisance. You can suddenly lose a very necessary and useful thing, not to mention its value. However, you should not despair. If everything is done quickly, but slowly, and correctly, it is quite possible to save him.

Until a few centuries ago, when there were no mobile phones, we did not suffer from such a problem as getting wet landlines. telephone set... However, time passes, technologies do not stand still, and today almost every inhabitant of the planet has a mobile phone. We appear with cell phone everywhere - on the street, in the pool, on the beach and even in the toilet. And it is not surprising if, in this mode, he accidentally falls into the toilet, a puddle, if a glass of water is poured on him, or if he is completely washed in the washing machine.

Many people think that getting a cell phone in water is tantamount to its complete failure. But this is not the case. If the phone falls into water, it can still be saved. In this situation, it is very important to act instantly.

What to do if your phone falls into water

  1. As soon as the phone enters the water, water instantly enters through the ports of the headphones, charging and other openings. Therefore, the very first thing to do is to pull the device out of the water. If the cellular device fell into the toilet, you cannot hesitate and waste time looking for rubber gloves. You can wash your hands a little later. The possibility of saving the phone depends on the time of your reaction.
  2. After that, the phone must be turned off immediately. If it doesn't shut off from the button, just pull out the battery. Never try to test the device's functionality and do not turn it on when wet. This can lead to short circuiting of contacts and the phone will simply burn out.
  3. After turning off the device, try to disassemble it as much as possible. At the very least, you can take out the battery, memory card and SIM card, remove the back cover. If the phone is not touch-sensitive, but older models, you can disassemble the device completely, remove the rubber buttons. The touchscreen phone can also be disassembled, but this requires a special small screwdriver. In general, remove anything that can be removed, but be careful not to rip or break some of the delicate parts. If you completely disassemble the device, do not forget what was filmed and in what sequence. It is better to take a few photos in the process of parsing the phone.
  4. Then take paper towels or dry napkins. Dry every part of the phone thoroughly. Try to reach hard-to-reach places with flagella rolled up from napkins. Never wrap a napkin around the tip of a pencil or pen to remove moisture trapped in a corner. It is unsafe for small parts of the phone, and besides, it will not do much good.
  5. After thoroughly wiping and drying all parts of the device with dry napkins, leave the phone for several days. Remember that the phone cannot be switched on until it is completely dry. And this may take more than one day.

If you want to speed up the drying process of your phone, you can do it using the following methods.

In order for the phone to dry quickly and come to its senses, it must be placed in an adsorbent composition.

  1. Fig. This is the most popular cereal, which quickly absorbs excess moisture. Take a bowl of dry rice and place your phone there. Bury the case itself, the battery and other parts completely in the rice. Leave it overnight. In the morning, the phone will be completely dry, and the moisture will remain in the rice. Rice dust can be wiped off with a rag or vacuum cleaner.
  2. Cat litter. If there is a cat in the house, then there will be no problems with drying the phone. Put the device and its parts in clean filler, and it will draw excess moisture from the phone in a few hours.
  3. Silicogel. Surely you have found silicone balls in the box with new shoes, which are placed there specifically to absorb excess moisture. Place the phone in a container with silica gel so that the balls completely cover the device. This is a quick and safe way to dry your appliance.

Is the phone wet

To check if the phone is wet and whether its components have been damaged, refer to the operating instructions for the device. Most modern models have a special indicator that changes color when wet. If in the normal state it is a white square or circle, then when wet it is a pinkish speck. It is usually located under the battery in the corner near the charging port.

If the phone was charged when it got wet, unfortunately it will most likely fail to save it. The fact is that during charging, most of the indoor units are activated, which immediately burn out when wet. When removing the phone and charger from the power supply, be careful - water is an excellent conductor of electricity. It may be advisable to disconnect the apartment from the power supply and only then carry out all the manipulations.

Can I dry my phone with a hairdryer or vacuum cleaner

Among the tips for drying a phone that has fallen into water, you can find confident recommendations to dry the device with a hair dryer. However, you should not do this, even if you are going to dry the device with a cold stream of air. The fact is that the hair dryer blows out air and, under the influence of a strong jet, moisture sits even deeper in the small details of the device.

If you want to use household appliances, use a vacuum cleaner. Slide the narrow nozzle onto the pipe and bring it to all crevices and hard-to-reach places. The vacuum cleaner will carefully draw out all excess moisture and dry the device.

If you dropped your phone not into water, but into juice, sweet tea or salt water, you do not need to rush to rinse the device under running water. It is necessary to dry the cell according to the previous recommendations, and then wipe all parts of the phone with wet wipes.

After dropping the phone into the water, do not rush to run for a new device. A wet phone can be reanimated. If after thoroughly drying the phone does not turn on, take it to the technician. And so that the next time such an incident does not happen again, be more careful. Indeed, sometimes, in addition to an expensive device, you can lose photos and video frames of dear and beloved people.

Video: a way to dry your phone

So you suspect that you have wet your phone or any other electronic gadget. What to do? And why is that bad?

1. Why is water dangerous? As you know, in order for an electrical device to work, it must have conductors; in the case of a cell phone, they are on the motherboard in the form of tracks that are made of conductive materials (alloys of aluminum, copper, brass, gold), and which are fixed with soldering (also metal alloy). When moisture gets into the device, solder, aluminum leads of elements and contact pads on the board first of all suffer, because the conductor itself (tracks on the board), usually varnished.

It should be noted that water itself cannot in a short time cause significant damage to either the terminals, or the contact pads, or the solder. But let's not forget that the cell phone is powered by electricity, which acts as a catalyst irreversible reaction which water and metals enter electric current, this reaction is called electrolysis... The faster it passes, the higher the voltage between two conductors connected by water, and depends on the composition of the water. If the water is seawater (salty), this will greatly exacerbate the problem. Under the influence of this process, the solder, the terminals of the elements, the contact pads on the board, as well as the board itself, if it managed to get wet well and the water penetrated into the board, is completely and irreversibly destroyed. Modern cell phones use multi-layer boards with multiple hops between layers. If the reaction started inside the board, such a board (read the main part of the phone), as a rule, cannot be repaired and needs to be replaced (usually 40-80% of the phone's cost).

Note that electrolysis takes place very quickly and violently, especially in the modules of the apparatus where there is high voltage... If, after water gets into the phone, you use all its functions (we believe that water has got into all modules), then the camera flash, display backlight, power supply of the main modules (bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, power supply of the camera and power supply itself) will be the first to fail. phone)

2. What to do if the phone is already wet? The first step is to de-energize it (remove the battery) and in no case try to charge it. Then take the device to service center to carry out preventive (preventive) repair, which is usually called cleaning (more on this below). Some devices, such as tablets Apple iPad and others, are arranged so that the battery cannot be simply removed from it, such devices must at least be turned off with a button. If it is not possible to take the phone, into which water has entered, to the service center, you need to disconnect it, put it in a dry room with room temperature and leave it to dry for at least three days.

3. What actions are carried out in a service center with a cell phone, which got water and which was immediately de-energized and brought in for repair? The device is completely disassembled. The motherboard and all modules are dried with hot and dry (!) Air. Further, all open parts of the board and modules are viewed under a microscope to detect the formation of oxides, and all observed foci of their occurrence are soldered, and damaged elements, if any, are replaced with new ones. Next, the motherboard is treated with a special solution that has the properties of an oil solvent. The solvent is needed in order to remove possible foci of oxidation in inaccessible places on the board, and its oily structure to displace water that may remain in hard-to-reach places on the motherboard and then protect the board from possible liquid ingress (as you know, oil displaces water). If this procedure is done on time, then the likelihood that the phone has not suffered any significant harm as a result of the ingress of liquid increases dramatically. The cost of this service in our service center ranges from 300 rubles. up to RUB 1,500 and depends on the model of a particular device. On the contrary, if you wet the phone and notice that it has turned off, decide that the water has nothing to do with it and it is simply discharged, keep it on charge for a couple of hours, and only then, when you see that it is not charging, take it to the service, the device will already be very serious harm has been done: under the influence of the charge current, it will at least destroy the charge circuit and fail the batteries that are responsible for this (usually it is either the power controller-KP or the processor). Repair of such a device will cost from 700 rubles. up to 5,000 rubles, and in some cases up to the cost of replacing the motherboard.

And the last thing: in order for the electrolysis process to begin, it is not necessary to put the phone in a cup of water. It is enough just to take the device with wet hands, use it in the rain, take it with you to the bathroom or sauna or other room with high air humidity, bring it into the warmth after walking with it in winter (carry your phones in your pocket, not in your bag so that condensation does not form on them from the temperature difference). Try not to expose your phone to additional risks and avoid the aforementioned use cases.

The question of what to do if you wet the touchscreen phone needs to be addressed by contacting the service center, where specialists will disassemble it and clean the board in order to avoid negative consequences in the future. But if you do not have such an opportunity yet, then you can try to cope on your own by performing a number of simple manipulations described in our article. The main thing is to act quickly. If there are removable parts, they should be removed without delay. This applies to the battery, back cover, SIM cards and flash drives.

What if my phone gets wet?

If you do not know what to do, if you wet your smartphone and it does not turn on or the sensor does not work, then you need to use the available means to dry it. First of all, we take a towel or dry napkins and wipe the smartphone wherever you can reach. You can use a cotton swab to access the connectors. You need to act quickly, otherwise the water will begin to evaporate, which will damage the internal components of the structure. If the phone has not been in the water for a long time, then after these actions it should turn on. If this does not happen, then move on.

Drying your phone

The question of what to do if water gets into the touchscreen phone should be solved with a hair dryer, drying it from all sides. With its help, you need to dry all the holes through which water and air pass calmly. First of all, it is a speaker. In this case, be careful, the hairdryer should not be held too close to the phone, otherwise the microboard may be damaged. This is easy to see on the example of a paper sheet. It is worth bringing it point-blank to the hairdryer, as a blurry brown spot appears on its surface. If after half an hour the smartphone still refuses to turn on, then the next item is for you.

Long-term drying

it difficult way, which should only be used as a last resort when the phone has been under water for a long time. We put it in a dry place in the house, for example, in a stack of laundry. The main thing is to leave it in a dry and warm place, but at the same time it should not be too hot.

When looking for an answer to the question of what to do if water gets inside the phone, many come across advice to put it on the battery, but this is highly discouraged. This is a very risky procedure, in which the case heats up too much, and at the same time moisture evaporates faster, which increases the likelihood of damage to the microcircuits. When the device lies in a warm and dry place, water will gradually evaporate from it, exiting through the functional holes. If the battery is removable, it is best to remove it immediately. Water will evaporate more quickly if the phone is placed face down. Thus, it is possible to return to work in most cases, but if all else fails, then all that remains is to hope for the service center.

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