The phone fell into the toilet: how to save wet electronics

Did you drop your phone down the toilet? Do you remember the feeling of resentment and anger when an electronic device, the price of which sometimes equals a monthly salary, ceased to function normally? But serious damage can be avoided when you know what to do - if you dropped the phone in the toilet.

How to save an e-friend with your own hands after a swim, read below.

Is water a source of life or a mortal enemy?

Before we consider in detail the process of saving electronic devices that have fallen into the bowl of a toilet bowl, you need to understand what makes contact between a mobile phone and the fluid in which life on planet Earth originated is so dangerous.

Immediately I must say that the water circulating in the water supply is one of the most dangerous enemies for electronics. And it is not so much about it as such, but about its chemical composition.

In the liquid used for drinking and household needs, dissolved a lot of different components: salts, alkalis, minerals, and so on. And it does not depend on whether you buy mineral water in a bottle, pick it up from a tap or scoop it up in a river (in the latter case, the water is enriched with a large number of microorganisms, not all of which are useful for the human body).

Note! Making sure is easy. Mineral water deposits can be easily noticed on the window glass after the rain or on the walls of cleaned but not wiped with a towel transparent glasses.

Substances dissolved in water are useful and necessary for humans. Salts and other minerals entering the body are involved in chemical reactions taking place inside, without which the functioning of certain organs and systems is impossible.

The situation with electronic components is completely different. The chemical reactions that take place inside the phone make the chips, boards, contacts, and more, useless. If time does not take action to save the drowned phone, it is hardly possible to bring it back to life.

Rescue measures

Priority action

So, we proceed directly to the subject under consideration. Let us figure out what to do - if the phone is dropped into the water. Let us describe the procedure using the example of one of the fairly common phone models - the iPhone - although the process of saving electronics very little depends on a particular brand.

Below is a step-by-step instruction containing priority actions.

It depends on the speed and accuracy of their implementation whether you get a properly working iPhone, or it will just become a very expensive, but non-functional piece of aluminum, glass or plastic:

1. So, dropped the iPhone in the toilet: what to do? First of all, you should immediately get it out of the water and turn it off. Then pull out all removable parts. In the case of products of a well-known American company, you just need to remove the tray with a SIM card, get it out and not shove it back until full recovery.

Tip! If your phone model is equipped with a removable battery, you must disconnect it as soon as possible. The fact is that even in the off state, some chips on the board continue to receive power, and water can cause a short circuit, which will lead to their failure.

1. After that, you need to wipe the phone with a cloth, removing from it all the liquid that is visible. Well, if the back cover is removable. In this case, it will be possible to dry most of the device. As for the iPhone, just wipe it from all sides, thoroughly wetting the connector for the charger and headset.
2. If you drowned or drowned the phone in the toilet - do not do without the help of the service center. Qualified inspection and repair is the only, though not 100%, guarantee that the wet iPhone will return to life.

In this case, you should go directly to the repair shop, and not to the points of reception of non-working equipment, located in the points of sale of electronics or large shopping centers. In the latter case, you will be dealing with employees who not only do not know what to do - if you dropped the phone in the toilet, but also absolutely indifferent to your problems.

The case of falling into the water is non-warranty, so they will not rush to send a wet phone to the service (it can take up to a week), and during this time salt and moisture will do their dirty deed.

Having handed over your wet electronic friend, you can safely go home. Everything that depended on you, you did. Now it remains only to look forward to the response of the expert.

Full diagnostics and repair of the iPhone can take from 2 to 10 days, depending on the complexity. And this is not a guarantee that everything will be in order with the phone. (See also the article Rust in the toilet: features.)

It is the above procedure that gives the maximum chance for the restoration of electronics after bathing.

Tip! When you bring your phone to the service, do not wrap it in a towel, package or anything like that. So you only provoke more condensation of moisture on electronic circuits.

Folk councils

Having decided on the right course of action, we turn to the various “useful” tips that can be found on the Internet. Special sites are just overflowing with information that describes what to do - if the iPhone fell into the toilet. However, are they all helpful?

Note! The fact that the authors assure you of the effectiveness of the measures they have taken to save the electronics does not guarantee the restoration of the efficiency of your device. It all depends on the case, which in such an important matter as the salvation of a drowned iPhone, relying is not recommended.

Blow Drying

Many advise instead of wiping with a towel to use household hair dryer. Hot air, getting on electronic circuits, really accelerates the evaporation of moisture, but at the same time it can very easily damage the board, as well as accelerate the destructive chemical reactions caused by salts and minerals dissolved in water.

Therefore, it is not recommended to dry the phone saved from the toilet with a hairdryer. If you have a suitable screwdriver, it is better to disassemble the device so that the moisture will evaporate faster naturally.

Use of rice

Many "experts" on reanimation of recessed phones are advised to put soaked iPhone into a jar of rice. Supposedly having lain there for 10-12 hours, the phone will completely get rid of moisture both outside and inside, and will work as before. It should be noted that there is some truth in this, but let's see how this croup actually acts.

The process of restoring the phone after bathing using rice cereal is as follows:

1. Sunk an iPhone or other phone to wipe with a cloth, if possible disassemble into its component parts and put into a plastic bag, Which fill as much as possible ordinary rice.
2. Many advise for greater efficiency to close the package tightly and leave the phone there for a day.
3. After the set amount of time has passed, the device must be removed and all connectors are cleaned of trash that has got there.. The resuscitation procedure is completed. You can turn on the phone and continue to use it, as if nothing had happened.

Now we will understand what is happening with electronics in fact.

If the iPhone fell out of your hands in the toilet and was immediately caught out of the water, only a small amount of moisture could get inside its case. In this case, rice will really save the device from excess moisture, after which you will start using electronics in your eyes and heart, as if there was no bathing at all.

However, as you know, the matter is not only fluid per se. After all, it is not water that represents a great danger, but chemical elements dissolved in it. After evaporation, crystals of salts and other minerals remain on the circuit board and microcircuits, which, although invisible without a special microscope, cause irreparable damage to sensitive components.

Contacting with oxygen, these chemicals enter into an oxidation reaction, which destroys the metallic components of electronics. (See also the article Clogging in the toilet: features.)

Outwardly, this may manifest itself in the following:

• incorrect operation of the operating system interface;
• poorly functioning communication (both cellular and WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC);
• incorrectly reading pressing the touch layer of the display; and so on.

Note! All the troubles listed above may not appear immediately, but only after a certain, sometimes rather long, period of time. After all, the destruction of the contacts of a particular chip occurs gradually.

Phone repair in the service center

As a supplement and in order to satisfy your curiosity, let us briefly consider what the service center specialists are doing to bring your precious iPhone to life after an invigorating bath in the toilet:

1. First of all, the equipment is disassembled into its constituent elements and any, even the most insignificant drops of moisture are removed from them.

1. Then, using wet air, the final drying of electronic components is carried out. The motherboard is subjected to especially careful processing. This item is very expensive, so if it is damaged, it is better to buy a new device, and not to rescue the old one.
2. After that, it is necessary to clean the metal parts with a special composition. It helps to remove residual mineral deposits and salts from the device's microcircuits.

1. If you are investigators to the advice given above, then most likely, only the speaker, the camera module or other not very valuable and completely replaceable components have fallen into disrepair. In this case, consider yourself lucky.
2. When drying and rescue is delayed, you need to carefully examine all the chips for the detection of corrosive processes of metal parts. If replacement is possible, it is performed. Otherwise, it remains only to throw out or disassemble the sunk apparatus for parts.

Conclusion

Getting the phone into the toilet is an unpleasant event. However, the chances of salvation in this case are entirely dependent on the accuracy and efficiency of your actions. No need to spend time studying pseudo-useful advice, giving a "100% guarantee." Entrust the case of resuscitation of a bathing phone to specialists.

But there are cases when the phone not only fell into the bowl of the toilet bowl, but also slipped into the sink, creating a blockage in the toilet siphon or sewer pipe. Here you need to think not about saving the phone, but about restoring the toilet room to work. You can cope with this situation. And the video in this article will help you.