Why DIY Methods Can't Save Your iPhone After Water Damage
Why DIY Methods Can't Save Your iPhone After Water Damage
iPhone Water Damage: Why See a Professional
Dropped your iPhone in water? Ever heard of keeping it buried in rice or silica gel packets to fix it like nothing ever happened?
You'll find a lot of these DIY techniques all over the Internet, but the truth is none of them work as advertised. When your phone gets wet, seek a professional and get it repaired. iPhone water damage is not as small an issue as you'd think.
Think these DIY tactics work? Heard of a friend or colleague who got their iPhone working after leaving it off for a day or two? Those people feed the rumor mill instead of dealing with the main issues that DIY methods don't address.
One of those issues is that of a short circuit.
The Issue of Short Circuits
A short circuit, in the basic sense of things, is when two wires that form a running circuit meet. This causes an overload of energy due to the lack of resistance, which would have been powering up the phone. This is what causes phones with short circuits to burn out and die or even explode.
When your iPhone gets wet, the first step is to turn it off. The second step is to go to a professional for iPhone water damage repairs. These experts can open up your phone and check for possibilities of a short circuit.
But why turn it off first? If the phone seems to be working after pulling it out of the water, shouldn't it be fine?
The answer is a flat no.
You need to let the water evaporate and then let the experts look for damage. If you keep the phone on while it's wet, the water will block the passage of electrical currents on the phone's board and this will damage the internal wires.
That's what leads to short circuits.
Even if there are no burns or sparks, there could be other little issues you can't see with the naked eye. One such issue is corrosion. This is more common when you drop your iPhone in saltwater, like at the beach.
Corrosion is a Hidden Enemy of iPhone Water Damage
Salt in ocean water is a death sentence for your iPhone.
There are two reasons why salt water can damage your iPhone in an instant. First off, it's highly conductive. This means electricity passes even faster and this leads to a destructive short circuit that will fry your iPhone.
Secondly, salt is corrosive. The damage it does is difficult to spot and might not surface at once. If you do DIY techniques like keeping your phone in rice for 48 hours, the water is gone but the salt still ate away the interiors of your phone.
This explains why a phone dropped in water might run fine for a few days but then start acting up later. It might not get reception or the battery might die too soon even after charging the phone for hours. Later on, the phone may give up and refuse to turn on because the salt destroyed the connections that let the battery power up the device.
No DIY technique is going to treat the salt exposure. Seeking a professional is the only way to salvage your iPhone. Don't bring a wet iPhone to Apple either because even they won't work on it.
Warranty Doesn't Cover iPhone Water Damage
The most painful fact that a lot of people don't know is that Apple won't repair your phone for free when it gets wet.
Most people think that Apple will repair their phones when their DIY strategies fail but this isn't the case. The one-year repair warrant doesn't include iPhone water damage. You can't lie either because the iPhone has a built-in indicator.
Called the Liquid Contact Indicator (LCI), it notifies you and Apple employees that the phone got exposed to water. As soon as they see this indicator turned on, they will refuse to repair your iPhone for free.
This indicator is in every major mobile Apple product. You'll even find it present in the original iPhone, iPod Classic, and the 3rd generation iPod Shuffle. If you got your Apple device wet, they won't fix it for free.
As a matter of fact, Apple won't repair your phone at all. If you send your phone in for repairs, even if you pay for the maintenance, they won't work on it. Instead, they'll send you a brand new device but you'll have to restore all the content on your own.
This is why seeking a professional repair service is the better option. You don't have to spend much and you get to keep the same device.
No, Rice Doesn't Work
For many years, the rumor that keeping your wet iPhone buried in uncooked rice is the best solution. The theory goes that the rice grains will absorb the water but you have to keep the phone off and buried for 24-48 hours for this trick to work.
Some variations of this rumor include keeping the phone buried in silica gel packets or dehumidifying crystals. The general idea is that they absorb water better than uncooked rice.
The simple truth is that the rice trick technique doesn't work.
As a matter of fact, turning the phone off and letting it dry out in the open air is a better solution. Allowing the water to evaporate will do your iPhone a favor compared to keeping it in rice that may not absorb all the droplets.
Even if the phone turns back on after dipping it in rice for a day or two, there is always a chance that the water already damaged the device. If you keep it on without seeking a professional, it may experience even more serious, long-term damage.
Seek Professional iPhone Repair
DIY methods to fix a wet iPhone aren't reliable. If you don't want to risk your phone suffering from permanent damage, drop the DIY ideas and seek professional repairs.
The fortunate thing is that you don't have to look far. Feel free to contact us and we'll get your iPhone back in running condition. We even recovered data from a phone that caught on fire!
Book a Water Damage Repair at iFixOmaha and we can help today!
