My iPhone fell in a bowl of cereal & now it won't charge.

[iMore Question]

this morning i dropped my iphone 5 into a bowl of honey nut cheerios. it was in and out in less then a second and now the phone is not charging. i noticed when i took it out that there was a sticky substance on the charger so i attempted to clean out the inside of the battery port with wipes... it worked at first.. bringing my charge from 45 - 100 but now that a few hours have passed the charger is no longer working - it says on the phone that it is charging but the percentage is going down. i know what you all will say- bring it in to the store... but my question is, am i going to have to pay 900 dollars for a new phone??? i dont have an upgrade available and i have no insurance on the phone. and if anyone has any idea how to fix this problem i am all ears!

 

[nikkisharif]

re: My iPhone fell in a bowl of cereal & now it won't charge.

this morning i dropped my iphone 5 into a bowl of honey nut cheerios. it was in and out in less then a second and now the phone is not charging. i noticed when i took it out that there was a sticky substance on the charger so i attempted to clean out the inside of the battery port with wipes... it worked at first.. bringing my charge from 45 - 100 but now that a few hours have passed the charger is no longer working - it says on the phone that it is charging but the percentage is going down. i know what you all will say- bring it in to the store... but my question is, am i going to have to pay 900 dollars for a new phone??? i dont have an upgrade available and i have no insurance on the phone. and if anyone has any idea how to fix this problem i am all ears!

The best thing to do when your phone gets wet is to turn it off & sit it in a bag of dry rice over night. If that doesn't work, you have a few options...You can take it to Apple and see how much they'll charge you for a replacement (they do replacements & certain repairs outside of the warranty & AC+. The cost to replace my son's iPhone 5 would of been $260), find an iPhone repair shop or purchase a new phone.

 

[kataran]

re: My iPhone fell in a bowl of cereal & now it won't charge.

Above advice is solid

Assuming milk is the liquid that got into the charging port I would flush it out with a small amount of rubbing alcohol while the phone is off

This is not a fix just my idea of removing a sticky bad connection you seem to be having

Good luck


Sent from my iPhone 5s Gold 64GB

 

[anon(4698833)]

re: My iPhone fell in a bowl of cereal & now it won't charge.

The thing that sucks about milk is unlike water, milk will leave a lot of residue on the insides...so rice, while very good at removing moisture, can't remove the other complex things within milk itself (sugars, chemical additives, etc). Where the issue starts is where electricity moves through the phone's components on the inside...this actually COOKS the sugars and stuff, and can cause damage a lot quicker than just plain water.

I only learned this because my Macbook Pro charger came off my MBP and fell in a glass of milk I had sitting next to the couch one day...the charging end that connects to the computer actually started fizzling and even smoked for a second, and then there was this black, charred goo where the prongs are (and the little LED light just stayed on, whether it was connected to anything or not). I brought it to Apple under warranty and explained the situation and asked if there was a way to clean it and he just told me that it was ruined and that I would need a replacement (and went through all the explanation about milk vs. water, lol). I actually got a free replacement because I was under warranty and because I was honest...lol.