Dropped phone in toilet, it's still working.

[CaptainDumbDumb]

Hi everyone,

Two and a half weeks ago, I dropped my phone in the toilet (water was not clean). After eventually removing the SIM card and SD card, I put it in some rice (it took me 30 minutes to realise this is what I needed to do.)

I waited a day and then turned it back on. The screen slowly greyed out and died over the course of a few minutes.

I left it in the box of rice and after a week. Nothing worked.

Until this evening, where I accidentally hit the on button whilst moving it. And everything is in working order. Screen, audio, touchpad, battery all appear to be fine.

So is it safe to use that phone and apply my SIM card?

Kind regards,

Broderick

[Jonas · Accepted solution]

Hi @CaptainDumbDumb, sorry to hear about what has happened.

There could of course be damage inside the device that you can't see but I don't say a reason for why it would be unsafe to use the device.

Have you had it powered on since yesterday evening without the SIM card inserted and has it continued to work fine? If it has, try inserting the SIM card and see if is detected and you get a network connection.

Since the device doesn't have any IP-rating, it's not really worth sending it to service since in most cases, water damaged devices aren't repaired, they are instead replaced. You should keep in mind that it can stop working later on though and "for now", the damage is in the right spots where is still works. I'm fairly sure that you are already aware of this but you want to keep using it as long as possible without having to replace it with a new device.

If you notice any strange behaviour when you start using the device, I would recommend that you stop using the device, for your own safety.

I hope that helps and have a nice weekend!