Hi Guys,

I was camping this weekend and it rained. My beloved iPhone was placed in the side pouch of the tent. I woke up in the morning, found the gadget it a pool of water and it will not switch on. When I plugged it up to the mains, the Apple logo will come on but that is about it.

Apple don't cover water damage with their warranty, so I have placed my phone in a bag of rice with some silica. All of that is now placed in a plastic bag, and I am now playing the waiting game. I have heard that the rice trick works, so I will be leaving it like that for at least 2 days.

Am I doing the right thing? Does this trick really work from anyone else's experience here on DS?

i wouldnt have switched it on ... funnily enough had an email today for this might be worth a try

http://www.prepaymania.co.uk/mobilep..._medium=email#

Nice! I suspect though those could be quite expensive.

I'm not switching my phone on and leaving it in the rice for at least 48 hours. Hopefully tomorrow, this old trick might of worked.

Apple will do an out of warranty repair for about £140. I say repair but if you go into an apple store you will walk out with a reconditioned new phone. You may also be able to blag it for free depending on the genius you see.

Worth considering if attempts to save the device fail

Check your home contents insurance conditions....

A friend of mine put her brand new iPhone 4 through the wash a week after she got it. She went into see the Genius at the Apple store to ask what could be done and walked out with a brand new phone for free.

"Her"

Well done her!

Mine is currently in rice. So far so good. After 24 hours, the water has been soaked up from the camera. Hoping tomorrow, it might switch on.

Fingers crossed, but if all else fails, I will try and see Apple at the genius bar...

I friend of mine dropped one in the toilet and it he just wrapped it in a tea towel on the radiator and it was fine.

Depends how much water gets in I suppose and if you short something out when you switched it on.

the main problem with Iphones is that you can't take the battery out to dry.

Yes

yes as you could then get the case off some how and use a hair dryer on a low setting to dry the pcb.

i would try it on the radiator and wrap it in a towel so the heat doesnt touch the phone directly.

UPDATE:

After two days of being in a bag of rice and silica, my phone is now working again! Most of the functions are behaving the way they should; from the 3G, safari and apps. I now only have one difficulty- the wifi appears to be not working. The device will not even let me search for a hotspot so I am concerned as I make use of the FaceTime feature on the handset a lot.

It may just need more drying out time.

For now, the phone is in full working order. I will see tomorrow if the wifi works.

How brilliant is that? (I know that you had the anicipation of waiting, and the dread of it not working and costly repairs etc) but i am really pleased for you

I have an iPhone, and i am always worried about things like that, the only thing is knowing my luck your tricks won't work.
Last edited by RhiMi : 23-08-2011 at 17:37

OP this may help

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xC47sEXvZs

Thank you very much!

I have spoken to a few people that have been faced with the waterlogged iPhone issue... and it would appear that this trick always works! Rice and Silica would be something that I recommend if you ever find yourself in this sticky situation...

If it always works then why are Apple invalidating warranties of such like as sweaty joggers and phones taken into a misty shower room?

UPDATE- walked into the Apple Store today, saw a genius and he replaced my phone with a new black model. Well, it's fair to say I am a very happy guy and Apple really do deliver the best customer service in the technology business.

Did you tell him it had been water damaged?

I'd write to BBC watchdog with this good news.

They were inundated with people losing iPhone warranties due to moisture indicators triggering for unknown reasons.

No- I did not. He looked down the phone that was in water, then gave me a new handset. So, obviously the damage when I went camping was not enough to fully upset the sensors inside that indicate water damage.

They do! My 4 year old iMac LCD screen developed a falt resulting in a two inch wide strip from top to bottom that was blank. I phoned a local apple approved dealer who quoted £600 for a new screen to be fitted! I phoned apple support for some advice and they said as I had just bought a new iPhone and iPad as a good will gesture they would fix the fault. They told me to take it to the same retailer that quoted the £600. Two days later the place phoned up told me to collect my mac. It was brand new!

That's Apple. You may pay a price when you first purchase the product, but the pay off is the sublime after sales service. I would like to see Sony or Samsung match Apple's level of service...