What to do after your phone fell into water?
A customer brought in a phone on Thursday morning (as shown in the photos), the phone has dropped in water at Wednesday night and has stopped charging when brought in. Luckily we had a successful salvation because the customer acted ‘quickly’. What to do if your phone fell into water especially when you have heaps of important data on the device? We all heard about the ‘RICE trick’, but does it really take care of the problem. Here is some critical tips for handle such situations.
Dos
1) Switch off the phone if you still can
2) wherever you are, find a local shop or technician to disconnect the battery and try a salvation ASAP. (for some of the old phones, you are able to take the batteries out yourself)
Don’ts
1) Once switched off, do not turn on the phone before a proper salvation
2) do not charge the phone before a proper salvation
Why water damage is such a dreadful killer of phones? The reason is once water finds its way into phones, ELECTROCHEMICAL reactions kick in as the internal parts are connected to batteries ( even when the phone is switched off), which can damage the internal parts much much faster than natural rusting and corrosion does (see the damage overnight to the internal parts as outlined in the photos). That is to say when water gets into a phone, time is ticking fast before we miss the window of salvation.