A Very Wet Phone and 5 Rules to Dry it

Does your mobile phone float? Mine fell into the loo. I had a very wet phone. A very wet phone and 5 rules to dry it.

My Nokia Lumia phone got very wet

Let’s start at the beginning

I’m a bloke and I keep my phone in the breast pocket of my shirt. If I bend over at the waist I will fall over unless I am holding onto something; that’s ‘cos my balance is no good thanks to MS.

I went to the loo

I bent over to pick something up from the floor in the bathroom making sure that I was holding onto something. As I bent over my mobile phone slid out of my pocket and fell into the loo. I moved really fast but not quite fast enough. Yup, it got very wet. Women often keep their mobile phone in the back pocket of their jeans and their phones also get dumped into the loo when pulling down their jeans. It’s happened to both my daughters.

Back to my story

I dried the outside of the phone and checked it was still working; it was, so I slipped it back into my breast pocket. About an hour and a half later I went to make a phone call. Guess what? The screen remained blank after I turned it on. Water gets inside the mobile phone case very easily, oh dear!  Only then did I confess to The Wife about the watery  accident.

A very wet phone and 5 rules to dry it

The Wife said there are a five rules to follow that might prevent it becoming an ex-phone.

1. Do NOT turn it on
2. Open up the phone and remove the battery
3. Dry the inside as well as possible
4. Take the Sim card out, dry it and put it somewhere safe
5. Put the phone it into a plastic bag, bury it in rice, seal the bag then leave it for 48 hours in a warm place

I’m not too sure where she learnt these tips but I thought I would test them out.

I ‘phoned up my provider

I told them that the phone had water damage. it is insuranced so I immediately ordered a replacement but had to wait a couple of days before it could be delivered. This was going to be my third replacement in less than 12 months.

48 hours later

I thought I would check to see if the phone would spring into life. I put it together, plugged in a charger and switched it on. It thought about things and then turned itself off. I turned it on again, it churned and again it turned itself off. On about the sixth attempt the battery started to soak up the power, yes it worked!! The screen does look as if some faint clouds are superimposed upon it. I quite like the effect; apparently it is a classic tale-tale sign of water damage.

Better still

The mobile and camera were now working – GREAT RESULT. The camera part had died at the end of May when I had my sixtieth birthday present, a day’s sailing on a tall ship boat. So combined with the return of my Travelsoot  this was a very lucky week.

June 2015

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