Phone took a swim today.

[Mindphaser]

Submerged in water for about 10 seconds. Phone was in an Incipio case and leather holster. I finally turned it off (Wish I would have thought to turn it off sooner. I wasn't at home at wrapped it in paper towels and tried to air dry it with the heater in my car). It's off and I'm not too sure what to do. Screen works and is responsive. Volume rocker, power button and silent switch function. Charge port works too. The home button however doesn't work and it says a pair of headphones is plugged in (?) although there is nothing in the headphone jack. What should I do next?

 

[slalomskie]

Drop it in a bag of rice for a day or two and see what that does.

 

[Mindphaser]

That's where it is right now. It's in a Glad container full of white rice. I really don't want to disassemble this thing to take the battery out. Is that cool?

 

[sinisalo]

Did your phone work after drying out?

 

[toomanyphones]

Leave it to dry out. The battery will be dead soon enough. You don't want to push too many buttons and risk getting more water in or short circuit. Don't be too anxious, the longer it dries the better. My sister's iPhone 4 had a full recovery after a toilet swim and 3 day rice bath.

 

[anon(4698833)]

Take it out of the glad container and put the rice and phone in a ziploc bag, it works better (just look online).

Dont power it on to test it or anything, leave it in the bag for 24 hours...at that point, check it out, if ANYTHING is weird, put it in the rice bag for another 24 hours...worked for me after a little more than a day in the bag of rice, and worked perfectly afterwards.

 

[jsntrenkler]

I had one of my co-workers leave her submerged iPhone 3g in a Bag of rice overnight, next morning it came to life as if nothing happened.

 

[andrewp23]

luucky you had a case on and hopefully after you put it in rice for a couple of days it should all be working

 

[Mindphaser]

Yeah the phone worked except the center button and when you hit the volume rocker it said headphones were plugged in. If this doesn't work is there a water damage replacement? How much if there is? Or would replacing the headphone jack assembly and center button cable/housing be another alternative?

 

[anon(4698833)]

Its not the headphone jack or the home button, the thing is all glitched up because it got water on the board inside of it, its sending sporadic signals all over the place...let it dry for a day or two, then check it...if it's still haywire, there are 3rd party places that do repairs on water damaged iPhones for $100-$125, i dont know anyone who has actually used one for water damage but i know the guy at a local one here and he said its very fixable, but tedious...

 

[Mindphaser]

Would silica gel be a better option?

 

[anon(4698833)]

Not really...if you do a few searches online, people have tried EVERYTHING...and rice bags seems to work the best.

 

[Mindphaser]

Ok so I got the phone out of the rice this morning and the center button now works! It doesn't say headphones are plugged in either. The speakers are kind of intermittent though. In fact no volume slider appears when I go to iPod but when I went to sounds to select a ringtone I could hear it trying to make the sound. When I turned it on it said something about an accessory not being compatible even though bluetooth is off and nothing is plugged in.

 

[anon(4698833)]

You need to leave it in the rice bag like we posted...you arnt giving it enough time to dry out fully. I mean, do what you want, but when your phone gets fried because there's still some moisture inside of it and it shorts out something, you'll be up sh*ts creek. Do yourself a favor, have some patience and leave it in the rice bag for 24 FULL hours...and then check it.

 

[Mindphaser]

It's been in the rice over 30 hours now and everything is working like it should be but I'm thinking about letting it chill out overnight just to make sure it's completely dry.

 

[Cleveland]

It certainly can't hurt to leave it in there again overnight just as a precautionary measure ... glad to see it's survived

 

[pizzafootbal]

It may be time to look for an iPhone repairer

 

[Mindphaser]

Everything is working as it should. I think it's back to life!