Wet phone

say that wrapping the rinsed phone in paper towel and putting it somewhere warm with cat litter can speed the drying process - apparently cat litter is, or acts like, silica gel so is a desiccant. It will still take a while though (a few days), so a cheapo phone on the same network will be the way forward for the moment.

Why worry about a few stickers? The warranty is already toast, they have "water markers" dotted around in the phone.

My experience, and I come across these quite a lot. Dropped into clean water and sometimes dirty water.

I usually remove the battery and sim card and put all three in my small ultrasonic bath and give it several sesions with clean water and a drop of Fairy.

The phone will need at least 2 weeks on a hand warm surface to dry out, with as much of the case that can be removed. The sim card can be dried with a tissue. But there is a problem that no one else has raised. The contacts on the sim are gold plated, as gold does not corrode, but it can, under your circumstances develop a film that prevents it from talking to a phone. The solution is easy, just use a pencil eraser and gently wipe the contacts. When you have dried the original phone, do the same with the pins where the sim will sit.

Before that, get a PAYG and use that.

Aaarrrgh don't use washing-up liquid. It's salty and highly corrosive. De-ionised water is all you need, as Richard Russell said.

WD-40 of course.

No, distilled/de-ionised is the correct stuff in this case. IPA won't carry off the mineral deposits found in tap water.

The same method has been sucessfully applied to fixing keyboards that had suffered a coffee/tea "shower".

Yeah, I'd be a bit concerned about an ultrasonic bath knocking any tiny surface mount components off or looseing them...

As others have said remove battery and SIM, keep wet until you can dismantle as much as possible (outer casing off), rinse well under cold flowing water, blot dry and put somewhere warm for a few days to dry out. Dismantle and wash as soon as you can of course, don't leave it in a plastic bag for days...

Clean fresh water is rarely a serious problem. Sea water on the other hand...

I have a Nokia pay-as-you-go on Virgin and when the old one died, I bought a new one on Virgin from Carphone Warehouse and put my old SIM card in and it worked no problem. I also got Virgin to transfer the credit with my new phone to the old SIM.

Jonathan

I wouldn't advise more water. My experience of the carbon elastomers for contact between PCB and LCDs and water isn't good.

I would suggest IPA for cleaning, and/or just leave a while somewhere warm with the phone dismantled as far as possible.

Likewise my daughter has dropped her same phone down the pan twice.. Like Mike says the trick is not to turn it on as you risk the chance of the current going astray and frying some component (I'm sure there is technical jargon for that). Take everything out of it that can be taken out, battery, memory card, SIM etc. Leave it in drying cupboard or blast it with a hairdryer if you can't wait.

Has worked for me.

definietely.

wash in alcohol for fastest fix, then dry in warm place for a few days.

SWMBO put a tv remote through the washing machine. Don't ask me how. It survived after total drying out.

pass.

In article , Mike P scribeth thus

Don't do like what some Paddy's did with some hand held mobile radios put them in the Microwave oven to warm 'em up .. and dry them out;!...

I know nothing about flooded 'phones, but since I used to be into underwater photography (and still have my Nikonos) and therefore do know about flooded cameras (not that it ever happened to me) my advice would be to rinse the 'phone thoroughly with a mixture of ~10% IPA in distilled water, dismantle as far as possible and then dry for several days over low heat.

But frankly, given the replacement cost of 'phones, I'd chuck it away and get another.

Do you know anything about anything? Try WD-40 on your own phone and report back.

MBQ

Ah, you miss the irony. THM recomends WD40 as a fix all...

Perhaps time to buy something designed for rough use, like the Nokia

Colin Bignell

And I'd really like to see him try it, so HE can report back...

There's a German pun in there somewhere...the Medway HANDYman....

I'll get me coat...

It's harry missing the brains when they were handed out that is the problem. Just see his other posts, such as diluted PVA as stain block, to see what I mean.

MBQ

SWMBO's Nokia recently survived a full 60-minute wash, rinse and spin. There's some slight shadowing under the screen and the microphone sensitivity seems a bit low, but otherwise, amazingly, it's OK. The back cover and battery came off in the washing machine so it got a thorough soaking.

If you don't have any silica gel try rice.