What to do if your phone has fallen in water (and what not to do)?
When your smartphone takes a dip in the water, it can have major consequences. We debunk some of the myths circulating about so-called advice and explain what it is best to do first. We spoke about it with Martijn Derks, founder of Phonerepairs.nl.
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Phone in the microwave
“Toss it right into a bowl of rice!” or “Put it in the microwave for a few seconds”. When you look for advice on how to save a phone with swimming ambitions, you will find plenty of solutions. However, those advice are rarely of good quality and in practice they can cause even more permanent damage to your smartphone.
“Several times a week I get people on the phone who have put their phones in the microwave, simply because according to the internet that would be a solution. When I open those devices, I find that they are completely doomed. And that.” can’t even make it through the water for clarity. This is really a fable that must be dispelled.” Androidworld spoke with Martijn Derks during the Twitter Space of the theme week Phones and sustainability. He is the founder of repair shop Phonerapairs.nl and he gave us advice.
Come rice?
Heating your phone in the microwave is therefore out of the question, but does the well-known classic bowl of rice work? According to that advice, turn off your phone and immerse it in rice for several hours to overnight. The dry rice grains absorb the moisture after which the phone works again. In theory at least.
According to Derks, this method is less harmful, but it is still not recommended. “You should not overestimate the extent to which rice absorbs the moisture. In reality, the phone remains damp on the inside, so the lime in our water damages the components. Very often it is not the water itself, but the lime that creates difficulties.”
What to do in case of water damage?
You better leave that bag of rice closed, because according to Martijn Derks you can also consider that method a fable. But what should you do? “A telephone that has been in water must be opened immediately. It can then be dried from the inside in a safe manner. It is best to let a professional do this, because they can also check which components need to be replaced. is of course never a guarantee that your phone will survive this, but you do have the best chances,” says Derks.
My phone is waterproof
If your phone has an IP67 or IP68 certificate, don’t you worry? After all, they have to be able to survive in water for half an hour? “Never say a phone is ‘waterproof’, call it ‘water resistant’. As a phone gets older and more mature, so does its protection against moisture.”
Derks also points out that IP certificates also do not reflect a realistic scenario in which a telephone comes into contact with water. The certificates are based on tests in labs and they also only take fresh water into account. We also explain more about it in this article. “The only phone I really trust with water is a device that just came out of the box.”
Have you ever dropped a smartphone in water? What did you do then and did your phone survive? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of this article.
