Monday, August 12, 2013

How to Revive a Drowned Cell (Smartphones) Phone!

1.

Disconnect the battery

Immediately remove the battery do not push ANY buttons.
iPhone or iPad? you are out of luck. you can try this and it may still work but I wouldn't count on it.
2.

Buy a jar of Silica Gel

You can find Silica Gel at craft stores, a Jar is about $10-$20 and contains enough Silica Gel crystals to dry many cell phone sized devices. Granule size varies, I could only find it with granules the size of Kosher Salt. if you can find the stuff aquarium gravel size then you can be much less diligent with step 4.
3.

Vacuum out excess moisture

You might be tempted to use a can of air but that will just push the moisture in deeper into the device where it can take longer to extract and the longer moisture is there, the longer it has to damage the circuits.
Use a vacuum, either a shop vac or a bag-less is best depending on how much water is left in the device. use a crevice tool working around all of the openings. open all port covers at this point and vacuum them too.
4.

Wrap the device in a paper towel or tightly woven cloth.

Use a single layer only. This is to protect the device from the silica gel. step. use scotch tape to seal all of the seams in your covering so no granules can penetrate to the phone
5.

Put the silica Gel in a large freezer bag.

Pour it all in there.Be careful to observe all the handling precautions for Silica Gel,. it is a skin irritant.
6.

Immerse the wrapped phone

In the bag of Silica Gel and seal it in for 48 hours.
7.

Remove the phone

At the end of 48 hours, pull the phone out of the bag and unwrap it carefully. Avoid contact with the Silica gel and use a fine cloth to remove and that managed to get through your covering. you can also vacuum off any stray gel crystals.
8.

Put the battery back in.


This really works, as I used this for one of my clients Blackberry phone.  I would assume sea water is an exception.

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