How to save your water soaked phone from total damage

One of the most frightening moments of a phone user can have is seeing their phone falling into the water and totally soaked wet. First thought that will surely come up is the fact that your favorite phone is going to be unusable the next time you hold it. It could be a distressing loss thinking that you might not be able to retrieve the important data stored on it, after all, your phone costs a bunch of a hard-earned money. But that is unless you owned a much expensive phone with a nice Waterproof feature such as Sony Experia X or a Samsung Galaxy s7/Edge that can make you say "oh it's okay, I'm not gonna be using my phone for a couple of minutes so it's cool to let it stay underwater a little bit..."

Although on this specific issue, waterproof phones are already exceptional, but in general however, it is important and obviously recommended on our phones to be handled properly, taking precautionary measures to avoid such accidents, in an issue like this, is by using safety waterproof pouches or anything. But in most unfortunate way, your phone got wet, now there is no assurance that your phone will be recovered, damage could be fatal, phone might be dead. Well, that's the first thoughts, but on the other hand, you might be thinking if there's still potential ways to save your phone? Yes, there is!

Now here are the tips on saving your water soaked phone from total damage and retrieve your precious data stored on it. Not a 100% guarantee, but if you carefully follow these tips, then this might save your dying phone.

What to do when the phone fall into the water

Right away, take the phone from the water and turn it off. Make sure it's totally off.

To prevent total damage, you need to take your phone out of the water as fast as you can, the longer it stays in the water the less chances you get in saving it. Your phone may look just fine after you took it, do not attempt to turn it on, you need to make sure its totally off.

Do not shake it and do not press any key

As advised on turning your phone off, you have to do it by taking out the battery, do not press any key to avoid more damage on the circuits. Do not shake it either, just hold or put it upright to prevent the water from dispersing in to the sensitive parts of the phone.

Disassemble your phone

By disassembling your wet phone doesn't mean taking the phone apart entirely, your phone has a Liquid Damage Indicator (LDI) that could void your warranty if activated and this could be usually triggered when you open your phone totally. You just have to take basic detachable parts such as the battery, memory cards, sim cards.

Making it dry

Wipe clean each parts of the detached phone with clean tissue or towel. If you assume that blowing will make the water dry, no, do not blow it by any means, blowing will only cause more damage because you are dispersing the water inside.  Do not consider using a blower, it will expose the phone to heat and will compromise the circuits. Wiping it out will be the first move, now by drying it entirely, you need to consider these steps

Use a Vacuum
Use a vacuum to carefully suck out water stuck from the parts that are harder to reach instead of blowing it out and scatter the water inside your wet phone.

Use RICE
You may wonder,  why rice? well, technically rice is a mild desiccant that has the ability of absorbing humidity and moisture. It can help to dry out especially on the inner parts of the phone. But before doing so, you need to consider preparing a bowl of whole grained rice, avoid the broken grains because tiny bits may stuck on any open parts of the phone that will cause more problem.

Use Silica Gel

As we talk about rice as a mild desiccant, Silica Gel works more than mild. It is consider as one of the most effective dehumidifier that contains a nano-porous silica micro-structure, suspended inside a liquid that strongly absorbs most water on any substances. Simply put your phone on a Ziploc bag filled with silica gel packets, it will  help absorb the moisture and make your phone drier inside and out.

Use some rescue products
There are some products available in amazon that helps saving your water damage phone such as Save-A-Phone: Wet Phone Rescue Kit,  Nine Lives Wet Phone Fix or Bheestie Bag. These alternatives are said to be effective, though it may cause you money but still it is best to have it for a quick remedy.

PackFreshUSA 9Lives1 Nine Lives Wet Phone Fix, Water Damage Rapid Drying System
Save-A-Phone SAP-1001 Wet Phone Rescue Kit

Say Goodbye to your phone for awhile and hope for positive outcomes, do not attempt to open your phone right away give it a couple of days to make sure that the internal parts gone totally dry.

After a couple of days, you can check your phone to find out if its fixed, insert the battery into the phone and switch the phone on. If it works, then you succeed, if not then consider replacing the battery first, for it may have been damage all along too. If your phone has revived and running the way it should, still you should pay attention to it, observe it if its really working well, check the sounds to see if the speakers were broken, check the monitor if its still flashing and check other aspects on it if its still properly responding. However if problems still persist, try to take it to a professional to help you out.