Phone falls are almost inevitable. No matter how well you care for your phone and no matter the degree of caution you employ while using it, a day comes when it slips out of your hands and falls towards the ground. Sometimes, you’re able to break the fall with your hands or legs but some other times, it falls straight to the ground. You could be in luck if it lands on your sofa or bed or soft rug or anything soft surface that cushions its fall. In the worst case scenario, it falls screen-first on a hard floor surface or worse inside water especially when you’re at the poolside.
If your phone is water resistant, you are pretty much safe as you would only need to reach down for it, wipe its surfaces and carry on. If it is not water resistant, you might want to start googling how to sell broken mobile phone especially if the phone stayed pretty long in the water. Why would you even consider selling Old Mobile phones because they fell into water? Here’s why
Why Water is Bad for Phones
With the exception of plastic, fibrous or metallic exterior, water is deleterious to virtually every part of a mobile phone. If water enters a phone’s battery, it pretty much screws it up. There’s a reason manufacturers advise users to keep their phones away from water and humid places such as refrigerators.
It gets worse if this battery is dumped inside a natural water body as tens of thousands of liters of water will be severely polluted. Again, a phone’s interior panels do not react well with water. For instance, water can make some of those panels rust or degenerate in many ways thereby affecting functionality greatly. And if water makes its way into the interior of a phone’s screen, it might take a total replacement to redeem the phone. In many situations, a phone which falls into water and stays long in it will never remain the same. Some lose a good percentage of their functionality following repair and others don’t ever switch on again. It is at the point that mobile phone recycling becomes the next or only option for the unfortunate owner.
What to Do When Your Phone Falls into Water
You do your best to save it. That’s the summary of what you should do. But then, what exactly can you do when your phone falls into water?
First, it’s important to note that the probability that the phone will be redeemed to normalcy depends on how long it stays inside water. For best results, you should retrieve your phone as quickly as possible else you may soon be in the market searching for someone who’s in the business of buying or selling broken phones.
The following are some tips that will help you when your mobile device falls into water:
- First things first, turn that phone off. It could already be off but turn it off if it’s still on.
- Remove your SIM cards, SD cards and the battery.
- Hold the phone in an upright position so that the water that’s already on it can drain off from the bottom.
- With the aid of a dry soft cloth, wipe the water off the front and back surface of the phone. Do this gently so you don’t damage any of the fragile panels of the phone.
- If there’s still water logged deep inside the phone which still won’t dry up even after cleaning with a cloth, try vacuuming the water away.
- Next, insert the phone into a bowl of uncooked rice. This will help absorb the remaining water off the phone in about 2 – 3 days time.
- You may then reinsert your battery, SIM cards and anything else you removed from the back of the phone.
- Turn it on and see if it works just fine. If it’s good to go, congratulations. If it’s not, see a professional phone repairer.
In A Nutshell
Water and phones are not exactly the best of friends. Even if your phone was designed to be water resistant, do not dump it inside water or let it stay there for long after it falls into water. In the event your phone is drunk with water, the steps above will help you fix it by yourself from the comfort of your house. Where you can’t fix it, have a professional do it for you. And when a professional can’t restore it to normalcy consider selling, trading or recycling the phone.