SWMBO Just Dropped Her Phone in the Toilet - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 19, 2019, 08:10:23 pm
content: Fortunately it was water in the bowl and I got to it only minutes after the incident.I've stripped it down, washed all the parts I can access in IPA to displace the water and then left it to dry off. It's a clamshell phone and the display half appears to be glued together so that bit has been left alone.Neither the microphone or speaker are MEMS devices so they might survive.Is there anything else I can do ?

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2019, 05:57:52 am
content: Rule number one: Take the battery out ASAP to prevent electrolysis.You infer that you might have removed the battery. And with the battery out, place the phone in an oven on the lowest temperature setting for an hour. Do not let it exceed 70 deg C, because some speakers and mics are only rated to 70 deg C. If you are in Europe, it won't dry out properly at this time. (In Melbourne, it is forecast to reach 44 deg C (111 deg F) today, hence it would dry out here easily).Then have a word to SWMBO and find out why she was using the phone in the toilet. You need to get to the bottom of this.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2019, 06:03:18 am
content: Wow, they still make clamshell phones? How old was it, maybe it was a godsent sign to change it

author: cliffyk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2019, 06:18:20 am
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on December 20, 2019, 05:57:52 amNo pun intended, right!

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 20, 2019, 07:36:40 am
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on December 20, 2019, 05:57:52 amWhere else does one read the EEVblog forum and watch Youtube? ;-)

author: Electro Detective
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2019, 08:52:34 am
content: Not sure about putting a phone in the oven,but a hair drier or small fan heater blowing at the raised up phone in a stiff carton box from a distance has worked for me for other moisture invaded electronicalsNow let's be straight up here, surfing the phone in the womens powder room isn't anything new or illegal,but dropping it in the dunny earns one a heavy dutyWhy is it always the ladies teaching their life support device to swim ?Men rarely do it, if everand they've got more to handle

author: HackedFridgeMagnet
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2019, 09:02:23 am
content: she's in good company

author: SparkyFX
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2019, 11:23:38 am
content: In case the hair dryer and oven sound too risky.... you can place it covered in rice within a container to soak up the humidity.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 20, 2019, 11:34:50 am
content: An oven is perfectly fine as long as it has a "warm" setting. Middle shelf, away from the elements. Limit the temperature to 60-65 degrees. Remove the battery.Otherwise I use a food dehydrator at work to restore circuit boards which have been washed and cleaned after being in the ocean. A few hours at 55 degrees is normally enough.

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 20, 2019, 11:49:52 am
content: I think you did good with rinsing it with IPA and then drying it out. Whether you use an oven or a hair dryer or just leaving it on the radiator doesn't really matter. The most important thing is anyway to switch it off ASAP andremove the battery.Rice doesn't do shit. But after you did all the other things, it won't hurt. It also won't help.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 20, 2019, 12:11:01 pm
content: Quote from: thinkfat on December 20, 2019, 11:49:52 amIt does. It gets rice particles and starch inside every little groove and port.

author: kosine
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2019, 12:35:10 pm
content: Rice grows in paddy fields, which are kind of wet. If it readily absorbed water we wouldn't have to boil it!Anecdotes about it drying phones are mostly due to putting it in a warm environment and letting the water evaporate. Rice by itself doesn't work.Best technique is water gel crystals as used by gardeners. (Sodium polyacrylate / acrylic acid.) Ideally get the coarse stuff rather than the fine granules. Put them in an air-tight container and place the phone on top of the granules. Don't cover it - you need the air space. Seal it and leave it for 24 hours. (Preferably somewhere warm, but I've actually tested this in a fridge and it still works, even at 5C!)The granules will pull moisture from the air in the container, the phone will give up moisture back into the air. I've used this technique many times, and it's pretty effective. The phone may still be damaged, however, and some will lock up having detected a fault. An iPhone 6 I did a year or two ago went into recovery mode, but was accessible by a PC after drying. So you should stand a chance at recovering data if nothing else.

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 20, 2019, 12:35:28 pm
content: Quote from: Halcyon on December 20, 2019, 12:11:01 pm

author: macboy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2019, 03:43:00 pm
content: Definitely reach for distilled/deionized water as the first cleaning agent. Water is polar and will remove salts, acids, and dirt (all present in toilet bowl water!) that non-polar IPA doesn't readily dissolve. And unlike tap water or dirty water (containing urine etc), it isn't conductive. Then hit it with the purest IPA you have (preferably >=99%), and lots of it. The goal is to remove as much water as possible. The IPA will preferentially evaporate until the remaining residue is about 91% IPA to water (the azeotrope point). Then that mixture will evaporate together relatively easily and completely, compared to just water.Some have mentioned using an oven. Mine has a bread dough rising setting, roughly 55 C or 130 F, and this would work nicely.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2019, 04:17:35 pm
content: Quote from: German_EE on December 19, 2019, 08:10:23 pmOr at least this is what she said...

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2019, 06:09:08 pm
content: OK, panic over, I just put it back together and apart from some cosmetic damage on the left side of the display everything is OK. Apparently it slipped out of her jeans as she sat down on the pot.I did consider using an oven after reading some of the comments but I don't know the minimum temperature, so I left it overnight on my GPSDO which is comfortably warm. Thanks for all the suggestions and comments, I'm just grateful that it wasn't an iPhone or something else that is glued together.

author: Gyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2019, 08:07:17 pm
content: As the sign usually says: "Now wash your hands".

author: SparkyFX
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 21, 2019, 04:41:51 pm
content: Quote from: thinkfat on December 20, 2019, 11:49:52 amMaybe you should not try boiled rice...! (remembers me of the collision tests with frozen birds)