Dropped My Phone in Toilet Last Night

[mamamia88]

It was working immediately after I pulled it out. I washed it off and powered it down. Now this morning it will only vibrate once when i try to turn it on and then no other signs of life. I tried blowing it out with compressed air as well as vacuuming inside to try and get any water that might remain out but still no luck. Do i have any chance of recovering this thing?

[sandyd]

It was working immediately after I pulled it out. I washed it off and powered it down. Now this morning it will only vibrate once when i try to turn it on and then no other signs of life. I tried blowing it out with compressed air as well as vacuuming inside to try and get any water that might remain out but still no luck. Do i have any chance of recovering this thing?
You should have taken it apart, and aired it out immediately after you dropped it into the toilet (its actually common, really). Water, and the stuff in the toilet had probably not touched any electronical equptment at the begining, but seeped through the phone overnight :(

[oldfred]

It was on the new Sherlock Holmes TV show last week. (USA)
(Spoiler Alert)
A fellow with Rice Allergies had a large bag of rice on the shelf.

Rice will help absorb the moisture as a desiccant.

[mips]

Strip, dunk in isopropyl alcohol and leave to dry for a day or so.

First thing you should always do is remove the battery and not try to power it up.

[QIII]

Jumped in a lake once to save two drowning little girls. Was far from thinking about the phone in my pocket. After all the swimming to get them away from the steep drop off they had slid down, my son reminded me I still had my phone in my pocket.

Turned it off immediately and we went home. Popped the back off, took out the battery and put it in a bag of rice for a couple of days.

The only damage was a very small black triangle in one corner of the screen. I kept using it until my next upgrade opportunity with my cell carrier.

Great stuff, rice.

The girls' parents, who were supervising their children from their car in the parking lot, probably wished they could have stuck their heads in bags of rice while I was yelling at them...

[mamamia88]

Jumped in a lake once to save two drowning little girls. Was far from thinking about the phone in my pocket. After all the swimming to get them away from the steep drop off they had slid down, my son reminded me I still had my phone in my pocket.

Turned it off immediately and we went home. Popped the back off, took out the battery and put it in a bag of rice for a couple of days.

The only damage was a very small black triangle in one corner of the screen. I kept using it until my next upgrade opportunity with my cell carrier.

Great stuff, rice.

The girls' parents, who were supervising their children from their car in the parking lot, probably wished they could have stuck their heads in bags of rice while I was yelling at them...
well i just put it in a bag of rice. here's hoping

[QIII]

You might want to go with the isopropyl alcohol suggestion first.

E. Coli and E. faecalis, you know...

[mamamia88]

You might want to go with the isopropyl alcohol suggestion first.

E. Coli and E. faecalis, you know...

alright it's in the alcohol. how long should i leave it in?

[QIII]

Eh. Not terribly long I would think. A few minutes ought to kill the nasties.

[mamamia88]

Eh. Not terribly long I would think. A few minutes ought to kill the nasties.

oh i thought the alcohol was meant to displace and moisture in the phone. i was just wondering because somebody on youtube said an hour or two while someone on here said dunk. not sure who to believe. think i'll probably give it an hour.

[roillinpr]

It happened 3 years ago. I switched it off, took out battery and let it dry in Sunlight for whole day. It was good afterwards.

[lisati]

Another option is to open it up as much as you dare (even if it's just take the cover off), remove stuff like battery and SIM, and leave it on top of the hot water cylinder overnight.

[mamamia88]

Another option is to open it up as much as you dare (even if it's just take the cover off), remove stuff like battery and SIM, and leave it on top of the hot water cylinder overnight.

rather not. hoping the rice does the trick. if it doesn't anyone have any suggestions for $100 or less unlocked gsm phones was considering moving to blackberry or something. all i really need is facebook/twitter/gmail/browser. or any carrier that can match straight talks bargain price? really don't want to go with a 2 year contract at $80 a month when i can continue paying $45. then again that galaxy s3 for $100 on contract with sprint sounds damn tempting. just not sure i want to pay $80 a month

[mips]

oh i thought the alcohol was meant to displace and moisture in the phone.

It does. I usually just do it for a few minutes, never timed it. I also shake it a bit in the liquid just to make sure I displace any air bubbles.

[KiwiNZ]

If the water has reached the internals even if you get it going again it is going to die in very short time. The less than wafer thin main board will corrode very quickly as will the other components.Your phone condition is terminal.

Check you personal affects insurance your phone maybe covered under that.

[mips]

If the water has reached the internals even if you get it going again it is going to die in very short time.

Nah, I don't buy that. 'Fixed' lots of phones like this for people and they live long and prosper. In 2005 I got a brand new samsung sgh x820. It's so light and thin you don't even know it's in your pocket. A few days after getting it we spent half a day jet skiing and wake boarding and I forgot the phone in my pocket, duh. I got it going again and it only died about 4 months ago. Really sad as I loved that phone and they don't make anything like it any more.

[critin]

My granddaughter dropped hers in small bit of water and tried the rice trick, hair dryer trick and every other trick on the net she could find. It never did come back to life.

She wished she'd had the warranty trick, the company said that would have fixed it.

[mamamia88]

well after the alcohol and rice for a little bit it's showing more signs of life. 3 vibrates instead of one and actually got the screen to come on for a little bit. somehow managed to lose the volume buttons in the rice somewhere but oh well if it works that would be great. gonna give it 24 hours before i even try it again.

[KiwiNZ]

My real life experience of seeing countless dunked phones etc they were nigh on 100% terminal.

If you get it going, get data off it and get a replacement including replacing your SIM and any memory cards that were in your phone, do you want to add loss of data to loss of phone?

[robert shearer]

@mamamia88
all i really need is facebook/twitter/gmail/browser

And a cord to tie it on with...? :-)

[mips]

well after the alcohol and rice for a little bit it's showing more signs of life.

You are suppose to leave it for 24-48hrs, not a few minutes.

[fatality_uk]

Strip, dunk in isopropyl alcohol and leave to dry for a day or so.

First thing you should always do is remove the battery and not try to power it up.

Or power down, just rip out the battery!

[QIII]

@mamamia88

And a cord to tie it on with...? :-)

Many years ago in the Army, we sometimes tied 550 cord (parachute cord) to everything that might fall or get knocked off in the dark. The one tied to the eye glasses was cleverly called a "booger cord".

[SuperFreak]

Seriously, you dropped the phone into the toilet and you think it's OK to give it a quick clean and dry and then hold it next to your mouth and ear to talk to people afterwards.
Personally I would learn to live without a cell phone rather than make that choice. I don't think I am particularly phobic about dirt but that is really sad

[QIII]

My dog drinks out of the toilet and he's just fine.

[SuperFreak]

My dog eats and drinks a lot of disgusting things. Doesn't mean I should follow her example.

[robtygart]

rather not. hoping the rice does the trick. if it doesn't anyone have any suggestions for $100 or less unlocked gsm phones was considering moving to blackberry or something. all i really need is facebook/twitter/gmail/browser. or any carrier that can match straight talks bargain price? really don't want to go with a 2 year contract at $80 a month when i can continue paying $45. then again that galaxy s3 for $100 on contract with sprint sounds damn tempting. just not sure i want to pay $80 a month

Look and see if you can get a "Net 10" Phone, no contract and it has roll over minutes, or you can also get an unlimited talk/text/web Pre-paid card.

I have seen some Net 10 phones by "Android" with an ok sized screen.

[doorknob60]

Similar thing happened to mine...at Disneyland on a school trip haha! I swear, Splash Mountain was destined to kill my phone that day, sending splashes aimed directly at my right pocket the entire ride :/ It worked right at the end of the ride, so I thought it was fine. ABout 20 minutes later though, it wouldn't work...crap. I Took out the battery, kept it open, and just walked around for about an hour with the sun shining on it. I kept trying it every once in a while, but it would keep resetting itself every few seconds when I tried. Then finally, it started working again :) SO for me, the sun was good enough to fix it, and prevent kinda ruining an otherwise great trip. 17 hours on a bus without my phone?? That woulda been bad :P

[neu5eeCh]

My dog drinks out of the toilet and he's just fine.

My dog pees in the water as she's drinking from it. Disgusting but rather efficient if you think about it. Anyway, I regularly put my tracfone's through the laundry machine. Conveniently, it's just as easy to buy a new tracfone as to buy new minutes.

[Face-Ache]

One could also argue that the UV rays in sunlight will possibly kill any germs on the phone. But i have heard of good results doing the rice-trick.

If it was your toilet you dropped it into, wouldn't you likely be immune to any germs on/in it? If it was a public toilet, i'd make sure it was definitely dead, and as KiwiNZ suggests, claim on insurance. Most policies have an extension for personal effects that would normally reside on your person (like watches, spectacles, phones, rings etc).

[QIII]

My dog eats and drinks a lot of disgusting things. Doesn't mean I should follow her example.

It was intended as humor ...

[Dscottmc7]

Commiserate! Just to take it a bit further, I spilled a glass of wine over my keyboard. In addition to my wife going nuts (NVTZ
Greece circa 325BC)it was toast. I completely dismantled it...cutting to the final bit. With the electrolytic properties in wine PLUS its sugar (major electrolyte), I found the "printed" circuit board (plastic film) was actually shorted and burned at a particular junction! I ordered a new one and kept the old for parts...plus learned the lesson! All the best,
Scott

[mamamia88]

update screen comes on but remains blackish/blue with what look like bubbles underneath the screen. am i screwed or should i give it a little longer?

[AllRadioisDead]

update screen comes on but remains blackish/blue with what look like bubbles underneath the screen. am i screwed or should i give it a little longer?

There's no harm in giving it a little longer.

[mamamia88]

There's no harm in giving it a little longer.

true except if i was gonna get a new phone i would have to order it soon to have it ship by the weekend but not in too big of a hurry

[orange2k]

true except if i was gonna get a new phone i would have to order it soon to have it ship by the weekend but not in too big of a hurry

May you find the right pirate to help you out with the wright tuul:KS

[GeForce 9500GT]

I had a colleague who dropped his phone in the toilet too. After letting it dry during the night, the next day he found out that the phone was still working.

But after that, he could only make sh i tty phone calls :lolflag:

[orange2k]

holy Cow :popcorn:

[mamamia88]

phone now boots into android but with a few bubbles or so behind the screen. missing the volume button but i'll deal with it. oh well should feel grateful it's working. give it a few days and should be good. thanks everyone

[SeanIM]

My wife did this and ended up with a HTC Droid...and now is in love with it. And I'm actually jealous of her phone camera quality in comparison to my iPhone.

Sometimes dropping a phone in the toilet isn't all that bad. :)


It was working immediately after I pulled it out. I washed it off and powered it down. Now this morning it will only vibrate once when i try to turn it on and then no other signs of life. I tried blowing it out with compressed air as well as vacuuming inside to try and get any water that might remain out but still no luck. Do i have any chance of recovering this thing?

[deadflowr]

I had a colleague who dropped his phone in the toilet too. After letting it dry during the night, the next day he found out that the phone was still working.

But after that, he could only make sh i tty phone calls :lolflag:

Potty mouth:lolflag:

[fontis]

If your electronic device gets soaked i.e coffee on laptop or phone in water, first thing to do is unplugged it ASAP and shut it down and remove power source (battery etc). If you dont, it will fry the components and later on corrode them rendering your device as useful as nothing more than a fancy paperweight.

What you should have done is to expose the device as much as you possibly can and first manually try to dry off the what you CAN reach carefully, and then place it in dry rice and let the moisture get sucked out for at least half a day.
Once you've done that, reassemble the device and hope for the best.

Do NOT use any hairdryer or radiator or anything of the sort to dry the phone as you will destroy the components.

[forrestcupp]

This thread is like Groundhog's Day. It's perpetually the day after the OP dropped his phone in the toilet.

Edit: I thought this was the thread from a long time ago where someone was talking about the same thing.