Tip if you drop your cell phone in water

[tcb]

Let me preface this with a quick story --

Yesterday my buddy and I are out on Lake Meridian test driving a boat (buddy bought it - nice boat). Since I was wearing shorts and flipflops, I was volunteered to hold the boat near the beach. My cell phone was well, in my pocket for a minute, then in about 2feet of water. It isnt a 30$ cell phone either, I am a gadget freak so it's a Motorola Rizr.

Steps to attempt to save your cell phone:

1. Immediately remove it from any cases/clips
2. Remove battery

It can sit for a few hours, but as soon as possible do the following:

3. In a sealable container, put in about 1" of dry white rice
4. Put phone in container
5. cover phone with remainder of dry rice (making sure to cover the phone completely).
6. Seal the container and let sit overnight or up to one full day

One of the key things to remember is DO NOT TRY TO TURN ON YOUR PHONE.

I have read this before but never had tried it. My phone was fully (not partially) submerged and it sat overnight in the rice. Now it works great.



enjoy

Tim

[gpc]

tcb, I spilt an entire pop on my lap one day, and well, my phone was in my lap too. So I took the battery out, and let it dry out for a day. The phone worked great for about a month. Then it deleted all my saved numbers. I have never heard of this happening, other than to me (go figure), but it probably wouldn't be bad idea to write your numbers down on parer. I had roughly 200 contacts, but only 50 or so were really needed, so even if you were to write down your top 50, it would save a lot of heart ache

[fishnislife]

Ah yes, I have done this 3 times now. Just with my cell phone. Not including other things. I guess when your on the water a lot that's the price you pay.
I saw someone around here say that they put all there valuables in a ziploc bag. (I think it was in the "how to keep track of line waste" thread) That to me is a great idea. I do that with my camera, but not my wallet or phone.
Another interesting thing is that once your phone gets wet a red dot appears on the battery pack. If you take it in and try and get a new one the service rep checks for this and wont give you a new phone if the dot is red. If you have insurance of coarse you can get a new phone for $50.
Oh, and I have dropped another phone in a bucket of paint too. Bad phone karma for me.


fishnislife

[panfisher]

had a friend who was fishing on a dock on wenas. of course she had a cell phone, and of course she had to put it in her top shirt pocket, of course she had to catch a nice trout and of course she had to bend down to net the fish, of couse she couldn't find it or reach it with the net when it fell in , of course it was a phone that my wife got for her. of course i'm sure it will happen again because there are to many fish to be netted. <')//<

[beerman1981]

My phone went swimming a while back. I took the battery out, took the face off, dried it, etc. I thought it was fried because it wouldn't turn off after it dried out. Anyways, I tried buying a new battery just in case. When I went to charge it, the phone got so hot, that it was almost untouchable. Needless to say, I opted to get a new phone.

[Justcruzinbye]

Thanks for the tip, I sent my Razor to the bottom of the Columbia last year fishing for June hogs and did not have the chance to save it!

[TroutCowboy]

that rice trick sounds pretty cool, i guess it draws all the moisture out? i've had similar mixed success with drying out electronics. i've dunked phones and keyless entry car keys, and spilled drinks into i-dont-know-how-many keyboards. i've found that if you can recover it, it's only a matter of time before rust or some other corrosion starts bridging circuits and solder points and things get a little hairy after that.

that was me who suggested the zip lock bags for your phones/wallets/keys in that other thread. you can still make and take calls right through the plastic. another tip: it takes up a little more space in your tackle box/glove box/boat, but leaving a fair amount of air sealed in your bag will help it float if it still somehow makes it overboard.

yet another tip: if you are a verizon cell phone customer, they have a free utility you can download onto your phone (if compatible) that will automatically upload all of your contact info to the verizon website. then, should you lose/damage a phone, you just download the utility to your new phone and then use it to download all your saved phone numbers. works when you upgrade your phone too.

[MikeFishes]

One thing about drying out your phone, it may take more than a couple of days. I forgot to take my DASH out of my jeans pocket and it got washed. Luckily the battery fell straight out. I let it sit and dry without the battery for about 24 hours, but that wasn't enough. It was doing funky things. So, I left it alone for 3 full days. After that, it started to work.

You need to be very careful, the smallest amount of water can short out circuits. Also, make sure that the rice is pretty dust free. Not so sure what rice dust can do to a wet cellphone, but I can't imagine it's very good.

[ChrisB]

I have insurance so I'll get a new one if that happens. Still sucks if it happens. Good tips.

[tnj8222]

i made the mistake of trying to turn on my last one because i thought it didnt get to wet. didnt work tried rice for 3 days nothing tried charging it and got the same results as beerman. sometimes they just cant be saved. but the rice trick usually does it. mine probably would have been fine but i had to try and turn it on... doh!