What to do with water damaged gadgets

All sorts of gadgets have become indispensable to our daily lives. All too often phones, iPods and tablets can get dropped in the toilet, the sink or have a drink spilled over them.  Most gadgets now offer at least some level of water resistance. Unfortunately accidents happen so its important to know what to do before hand so you’re ready to act appropriately in the event.

When a device gets wet contaminants in the water get deposited on the electronics with in the device. These contaminants can immediately damage the phone or degrade it overtime and cause it to break. You can either have your phone professionally restored (which can be expensive) or you can dry it out and hope it keep running until your next upgrade.

The most important thing to do is to act quickly when a device gets wet. Remove the gadget from the water and turn if off as quickly as possible. If it has a removable battery, taking the battery out is probably the quickest way to do this, if not power it down as quickly as possible.

Once the device is powered down you should take it apart into as many pieces as possible. Note here that i recommend taking apart the bits that are designed to be taken apart I would not recommend getting a screwdriver and taking the casing apart etc. The aim is to get as much air to the device as possible so it can dry out.

Now that you have taken the device apart it will take roughly 2 days for everything to dry off and I would recommend that you don’t turn your device on for at least 48 hours.

Take a towel or paper towel and remove all of the moisture form the device that you can, make sure to pay special attention to the power ports, headphone jacks as this is where most of the water gets in.

You can use a hoover or vacuum cleaner to try and suck the water out of the device, but small enough nozzles to suck the water out are not commonly found in my homes.

This is a commonly known technique, put the gadget in a bowl of uncooked rice. The rice helps to speed up the evaporation of the water. My recommendation is to put the device in a bowl of rice and then put the bowl in your airing cupboard or another warm place in the house.

This is a commonly known technique, put the gadget in a bowl of uncooked rice. The rice helps to speed up the evaporation of the water. My recommendation is to put the device in a bowl of rice and then put the bowl in your airing cupboard or another warm place in the house.

Once you have waited 48 hours for everything to dry put the phone back together and then power it up. Most modern devices will survive a dunk in the water. if it doest work then you have the option of having it professionally restored or buying a new device.