washed phone

[house]

anyone ever have a cell phone go through the laundry. i got it before putting my clothes in the dryer. just gonna give it some time to maybe dry on its own. if you have experience with getting submerged electronics to work again, gimme some tips. its just sitting on the table with a fan blowing air by it now. gave it a short blast from a hairdryer on low heat, and now im just waiting. what do i do?

[snowsprite]

My heart goes out to ya. I had a digital camera experience monsoon conditions on a beach in Puerto Rico (so wet water was literally dripping out of it) and then it wouldn't work.

As of 2 weeks ago it still wasn't working. I, too, hoped it would dry out. Today I'm giving it one last try before giving up and sending it in for service.

But I'd say the prognosis for my camera (and your phone) is not rosy!
Sprite

[dubu]

I donno but I just washed my digital camera, so dont feel too bad. best thing to do is to open it up clean everything let it dry. However your battery is toast, since you added detergent this makes the water conductive. (pure water does not cunduct electricity its the impurities in it that do).. so that most likely blew the battery up.

[crashnburn'd]

My roommate washed his phone, then I heard it thumping around in the dryer and took it out. Dubu is right about the battery, that'll be toast. Let it dry out real well and put in a new battery and it'll probably work okay.

[house]

HOLY CRAP. today, the phone works. i dont believe it. maybe karma's just workin in my favor (knock on wood). gonna turn it off and let dry a little more, just in case. but the battery worked, dont know how well it'll work in the long run, but the phone turned on and gets full service.

[Sphinx]

I drenched my phone skiing in the rain. Didn't work, so I opened it up, dried it for two days, works fine now!

[dubu]

Electronics actually behave better than you would expect when shorted by water, in most cases the short happens at the battery terminals and the circuitry is protected since all the current goes directly back to the battery (thats why most batteies are toast, the reason some batteries are not is because they have circutry inside the battery case that turns them off they will have more than 2 contact points).

One thing that I suggest is to take it all apart, all the connectors boards etc.. clean them, alcohol + cotton swab works well ( it tends to displace any residual water). now let them dry (leave everything open set in front of a fan for a few hours) and re-assemble . You should clean the pad's(where the components are connected to the pcb), all the little resistors/caps/etc, traces and esp the vias(look like little through holes on pcb boards) as they tend to have a little conductor exposed. Since most pcb traces are copper, they can get corroded if they are not cleaned, also some water can hide under surface mount ic's and short some pins.

Anyway I'm not talking out of my ass, while not surfing the net I design some of this stuff and some of the stuff tends to go into marine environments..

[FNG]

Back when i had one of those Motorola StarTac phones, I sent it through the wash/dry twice and dropped it in the lake 3 times. Just let it dry out for a day and it was all good.

[house]

this phone rules. still works perfectly, even after round two of getting soaked (got pushed off the dock). just a little time and blowdrying to get it back to normal.

damn that was informative

[kush1]

Dropped one in a Long Island ice tea once, as long as you dont turn it on while it is still wet they work again........dropped mine in 2 drinks so far..

[Platinum Pete]

There are usually little white circular stickers behind the batteries that turn a color when your phone gets wet. If you're so inclined to call in to your cell phone company to ask for a warranty exchange, get a new white sticker. The only thing they check on the phones when you return them is cracked LCDs and stickers. Most of the phones that are returned and don't have those issues are put back in rotation as refurbs or warranty exchange availables.