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One thing to do if a smartphone has been dropped in water is to dry it in a bowl of uncooked rice overnight. Photo Credit: Henningklevjer/Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-SA
Smartphone owners need to be careful around any sort of water when it comes to their phones. Water damage is lethal to most electronic devices, and unless waterproofing has been done, even a quick dunk can be fatal.
Water and electricity less compatible than water and oil
The only thing more dangerous to a smartphone than a hammer-wielding parent enraged at data or text overages caused by an impertinent teenager is water. One of the most common ways that smartphones get water-damaged is when their owners drop them in the toilet. A recent survey by 11Mark, a marketing company, found that 75 percent of the 1,000 respondents admitted to using their phones in the bathroom, according to PC World. In fact, 30 percent of male respondents and 20 percent of female respondents never go to the bathroom without their phones. Staples found in a survey of tablet users, according to CNET, that 35 percent of respondents used their tablets in the bathroom. A survey by Plaxo, according to MSNBC, found that 19 percent of survey participants had dropped their phone in the toilet.
[Anyone from a Google Android developer to casual user should keep smartphones away from the toilet]
Rice to the occasion
According to Popular Mechanics, the first thing to do after dropping a phone in the toilet, or in any body of water, is to take the battery out immediately. Time is of the essence, so don’t try to turn it off normally. One must absolutely not try to turn it back on to see if it works; that will fry the components. If the phone has a SIM card, remove that as well.
Do not use a blow dryer or other heated air. The heat can warp the phone’s components. Instead, use a can of compressed air, sucking or blowing using your breath, or a low-pressure vacuum, such as a wet/dry vacuum to get moisture out. Next, to dry it out, place the phone in a bowl of uncooked rice, or on a bed of silica gel packets and leave it to dry overnight. Popular Mechanics also recommends any phone that is dropped in saltwater should be rinsed in fresh water after removing the battery. Salt crystals can form, which can do further damage.
Just in case
There are some waterproof cases that are available for phones, though a great deal of them seem to be only for the iPhone. However, there is a fantastic start-up called Liquipel that has a great solution. Liquipel, according to the company’s website, coats compatible phones in a nanoplastic coating that’s less than 1 millimeter thick. It bonds on the molecular level with the phone’s components on the interior and exterior, and the user will barely be able to tell that it’s there. For $59, before shipping, the company will have compatible devices coated and on the way back to the owner within two days.
Sources
Liquipel: http://www.liquipel.com/
CNET: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20096042-1/35-percent-of-tablet-owners-take-theirs-to-the-toilet/
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