iPhone saved by humble grain!
Posted December 17th, 2009 by Kimberly Dowd
(image from sxc.hu)
WM’s iPhone decided to kill itself on Monday.
Its case flipped off of his belt and plummeted into the dogs’ water dish.
Ugh.
It was in there for less than 10 seconds, but it was enough for the water (and dog spit) to damage the external speaker. Which, you know, is where the RING comes from. Your phone can run a million apps, but if you don’t hear it ring, it’s just a PDA.
Bad, bad timing.
Panicked, I searched online for what to do and found this strange article on cnet: What to do if your iPhone gets wet. It suggested putting your iPhone in a plastic container with some packets of silica gel (that “DO NOT EAT” packet in your shoe boxes) or uncooked rice.
I was initially skeptical, but there were four pages of comments on how this really worked!
So I filled a small container with rice, buried the phone in it and covered it with plastic wrap. The container went in the oven with the oven light on, following one of the suggestions I read. That provides a dry environment.
Because I’m a brainless ninny, I taped big signs that said NO on the oven door and the oven’s temperature knob. I didn’t want to accidentally cremate the thing.
We left the phone in for about 6 hours. When we took it out (and blew off the rice dust) the speaker was back to normal!!
Obviously, the longer your iPhone’s been in the drink, the longer you need to leave it buried. Some of the comments on cNet detail leaving the phone in its ricey coffin for a week and the phone coming out perfect!
We also got rid of almost half a bag of the generic brand uncooked rice that we hated. So, win-win!
You should really read What to do if your iPhone gets wet just for the stories of how people have accidentally soaked their phones.
