How To Save Your Phone After You Get It Wet

For long we've thought that the best way to try and salvage your phone after spilling a drink on it or god forbid, dropping it in the toilet, is to put it in rice.

Science magazine BBC Focus suggests that while using rice DOES work – especially if you put the phone in a sealed plastic bag – using pure alcohol might be better.

‘Rice will draw out the moisture, but that doesn’t necessarily mean your phone will work properly afterwards.

The water may already have fused the phone’s circuits or left behind traces of minerals that corrode the electronics. Also, rice may get stuck in the headphone socket.

Soaking the phone in pure alcohol may be a better bet. The alcohol drives water out and removes any mineral deposits. But pure alcohol is highly flammable and must be treated with the utmost care.'

WHAT TO DO:

• We should point out that this won’t work for all phones – and isopropyl alcohol is very flammable, so it’s risky.
• You can buy isopropyl alcohol as a cleaning agent in tech stores such as Maplin.
• If your phone gets wet, immediately pull the battery out, and then swish the phone around in isopropyl alcohol.
• It’s not conductive, and will (in theory) drive the water out of the components, giving your phone a chance to survive.

Image: Thinkstock