Cell Phone in rice trick

[Starbrite]

DS washed his cell phone. I know I'm supposed to seal it in a baggie of rice but I have 2 questions...

1) Leave the battery alone or take it out?
2) All I have on hand is minute rice will that work?

TIA

 

[mrssmith06]

Take the battery out, yes any dry rice will work.

Did it get washed in the washing machine?!?!

 

[Starbrite]

Take the battery out, yes any dry rice will work.

Did it get washed in the washing machine?!?!

Yep ~ the full wash & rinse cycle.

Should I baggie both the battery & the gutted phone?
What about the SIM card?

This is my first time - but I remember reading about it on the DIS

 

[mrssmith06]

Yikes. Not sure if the phone will survive that. The chemicals in the detergent will most likely have ruined the phone. The sim card and battery are probably good though (not much good without a phone, I know lol)... You can try to rice bag it but I don't think it will come back to life. If it was just plain water that got in it then it would have a chance...

 

[Starbrite]

Yikes. Not sure if the phone will survive that. The chemicals in the detergent will most likely have ruined the phone. The sim card and battery are probably good though (not much good without a phone, I know lol)... You can try to rice bag it but I don't think it will come back to life. If it was just plain water that got in it then it would have a chance...

Thanks for your help!! I'm going to give it a try & hope for the best. I have an old phone sitting around just in case, hope we don't need it.

Maybe he'll learn to check his pockets from now on.

 

[mrssmith06]

IF it's going to work it could take up to a week for the rice to draw all of the moisture out of the phone. Good luck!!

 

[Fyrefly]

Take it as far apart as you can, batteries, cards, everything. Rice it all just to be safe. Honestly I don't bag it, I just leave it in a bowl in the open air but maybe bagging works better?

Don't even try turning it on for a few days. You'll damage it more by trying to turn it on if it's still wet inside.

I'd honestly just not touch it for a week. Then say a prayer or get a rabbit's foot or whatever floats your boat, put it back together and go! Good luck!

 

[SplashMo]

SIM cards are often free to replace....

 

[DebMcDonald]

If you have any of those little packets that comes with shoes (silca maybe) I put those in with our rice too, sealed in a zip lock bag. My DD dropped hers in a toilet bowl and then rinsed it, but we recovered ours.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

My DS's ipod nano went through the whole washing machine cycle once. I put it in rice in a bowl, not covered. 2 days later, I turned it on, and it worked fine.

 

[dawson5]

I'm 1.5/3. I've washed three phones now--I don't check pockets, they know this. The first one was dead, no help. Second one works perfectly. The third one, the battery is shot but the phone works (second battery). The phone will not charge the battery though. We have to pull it out and put it in the separate charger. All with the rice. We left them for days and did our best to resist the urge to just "check and see."

Good luck.

One other thing, we're with Sprint. After I washed the first phone, I found when I went online that there were some phones you could get for free. Refurbs. I don't know how this would impact our upgrade status, but if it doesn't work after the rice, you might be able to get a decent phone for little to no money. (This specifically stated online only, not available in stores.) We also had an older phone sitting here and he was able to just transfer back to it with no problem.

 

[Katy Belle]

I have a phone in rice right now! I washed DSs phone yesterday. I googled it and it said at least 24 hours in rice. I will take others advice and leave it several days. I also read you can cover it in rubbing alcohol, but that makes me nervous.

Good luck to you!

 

[Tinkmom]

My son's phone went through the wash and we took it apart and covered with rice. By the next day, it worked fine. I was amazed (and pleased!)

I would NOT seal it up. The rice absorbs moisture, but also the more air exposure the better. You don't want to trap the water in with the phone.

 

[JB2K]

If it went through a whole wash cycle, chances are the phone, itself was beaten-up (in addition to being waterlogged).

My advice:

Pull the SIM card - and do the rice trick

Go to any retail store and buy a AT&T or T-Mobile (whichever carrier you are with) prepaid handset -- charge it up, insert the old SIM card, and you're back in business!

 

[Tinkmom]

My son's phone looks like new. It stayed in the (deep) pocket of his jeans.

Again, I was just sure it was a loss. The screen had some moisture early the next day, but by day 2 it was like it had never happened.

 

[GinnyEmma]

IF it's going to work it could take up to a week for the rice to draw all of the moisture out of the phone. Good luck!!

I left ours in for the week. Luckily it worked, washed and rinsed.

 

[mdrob214]

If the rice doesn't do the trick, look for a product called Damp Rid. It comes in a little tub with a basket inside. There are flakes of a chemical in there that are intended to help take the moisture out of the air in closets, etc. When we have washed an iPod, a cell phone, AND dropped a camera in water it has done the trick! Take it apart as far as you can and put the pieces in the basket, then put the lid one. Leave it in there for several days and then give it a try. I've used the same bucket for all 3 incidents and it still works--I got in in 2007!

 

[pixiewings71]

DD14 dropped her phone in the toilet, we were driving from CA to ID, I sent DD23 a text message and asked her to have a bag of rice ready, had DD14 take the battery out of her phone, 6 hours later we put the phone in a sealed bag of rice, the battery went into the same bag but was not in the phone, the next day we pulled it out and it powered right up. It's worked fine since and that was in Feb.

 

[gabriellyn]

DS10 got a phone for his b-day and wasn't used to emptying his pockets yet. Ex-husband washed it. We had insurance so we put in a claim, but when I took the original SIM card out I was curious about the phone so I checked to see if it would turn on - it did! There were some navigation issues with the menu and such, but the phone was still water-logged. It was just sitting out, not packed in rice. There was still some water in the display. I am sure if we had put it in rice it would have completely dried out. I guess we could have saved ourselves $40. We'll keep this in mind for next time, because you KNOW there will be a next time.

 

[Lu Ann]

Mu DH dropped his bluetooth in Coke! It wasn't working. We covered it in brown rice (what I had), and left it overnight. It worked like a charm!