When your phone falls in water

It happens to almost everyone sooner or later. You drop your phone in a puddle, a sink or a cup of coffee, and for a few seconds your heart stops. What you do in the next ten minutes matters a great deal. Here is what repair technicians recommend, and a few popular tricks that you should avoid.

First, take the phone out of the water straight away and switch it off. If it is still on, do not press any buttons to see whether it works. Water on its own does little harm; the real damage happens when electricity runs through a wet circuit. Then remove the case, the SIM card and, if you can, the battery.

Next, dry the outside gently with a soft cloth or a paper towel. Do not shake the phone, and never use a hairdryer. Heat can melt small parts inside and push the water deeper. Put the phone in a dry place with good airflow, and keep it upright so the water can run out of the charging port. It is best to be patient and wait at least a full day.

You may have heard that you should put the phone in a bowl of rice. Unfortunately, this does not work as well as people think. Rice is slow at absorbing moisture, and small grains can get stuck inside the charging port. A better choice is a few packets of silica gel, the small bags that come in new shoes, if you happen to have some.

After a day or two, try to turn the phone on. If it works, check the speaker, the camera and the charging port carefully, because problems sometimes appear later. If it does not, take it to a repair shop as soon as possible instead of trying to fix it yourself. If the water was salty, such as sea water, do not wait at all, since salt damages the metal very quickly.