Four days ago I managed to get my new phone soaked in water for a few minutes. The phone was at standby mode, but was not switched off at the time. I grabbed the phone and pressed the power key to turn it off (an unnecessary wrong move!). No greeting message, the phone was dead. I yanked the battery off then shook the phone as hard as I can.
Google search yielded quite a few helpful links for how to fix a water-damaged phone [1-2]. I let a fan blow at the phone for four hours; then buried it overnight in a box of white rice. The second day, I bought two bags of Japanese seaweed soup base just to get the two phone-size packs of lime desiccant inside. Then I let a hair dryer blow at the phone with warm air at a safe distance; sandwiched the phone with the two lime packs, seal them in a small airtight food storage container box. Waited and waited …
Recommendation on the waiting period varies, ranging from 24 hours to 3 days. As a replacement of my phone will cost $500, I waited for four full days. Every day, I hair-dried the lime packs, refilled the box with dry air, prayed a little, and killed the growing anxiety to test the phone. All efforts paid off and the phone resurrected at the end!
What have been equally educational is to learn how carriers have embedded “liquid damage indicators (LDI)” to prevent fraud claims on such devices. Basically the indicator contains a layer of red dye is beneath a layer of white paper, when moisturized, the white paper turns into red and the carrier can easily void any warranty based on the mark. People get “creative” in bleaching the indicator back to white [3]. This is certainly detectable, as bleached indicator no longer turns red when moisturized again, plus there could be other hidden indicators you may not see until you take the phone apart. So the best advice definitely is to be honest here. Nevertheless I need to check if my phone was enrolled in any insurance plan.
1. http://www.wikihow.com/Save-a-Wet-Cell-Phone
2. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/tips/4269047
3. http://www.instructables.com/id/Turn-Your-Cell-Phones-quotI-Got-Wetquot-Indic/
