I just dropped my iPhone in water! What do I do?
So you just dropped your iPhone in water and you're worried you have just lost one of the most important pieces of technology in your everyday life. Well the good news for you is that most iPhones today are made with some level of water resistance so as long as your iPhone wasn’t in the water for very long you should be fine.
iPhones that have an official water resistance are the iPhone 7. 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, X, XR, Xs and Max. The iPhone 6s also has a water seal between the screen and the body of the phone but we wouldn’t trust it’s water resistance because Apple doesn’t officially endorse the iPhone 6s/6s Plus with any level of water resistance.
If you have an iPhone with water resistance protection your phone should be okay if it wasn’t in the water for very long. There is one thing however to be careful of with this “water resistance” that your iPhone has. The seal that is used to keep the water out of your phone wears down overtime and becomes far less effective. In fact your phone is only at its peak water resistance the moment you take it out of the box.
Every day that your use your phone and expose it to the elements it loses just a little bit of its water resistance capability. That’s one of the main reasons that we don’t suggest that your ever intentionally expose your phone to water, even if it is back by an IP rating.
In case you didn’t know ,IP stands for International Protection and consist of two digits sometimes followed by an optional letter according to DSMT.com . It refers to a device’s degrees of protection against the intrusion of solid objects, dust, accidental contact, and water.
The most common IP rating for cell phones these days is IP67. Many people confuse the numbers as being the number “67” when in fact they are the numbers “6” and “7”. The first digit refers to the device’s ability to keep out solid objects such as dust, this ranges from values 0 to 6 (with 6 being the best).
The second digit refers to a device’s availability to keep out liquids, these values range from 0 to 8 (again with 8 being the best). So for example a device with an IP67 rating is fully resistant to dust particles and can be immersed in water up to 1m for 30 minutes or less.
From this you can see why you shouldn’t expose your iPhone to any water at all. Even in its best condition the phone can only be placed in 1m of water for under 30 minutes and make it out alive.
So what should you do if you just dropped your iPhone in water? Bring it to repair shop as fast as you can. DON’T follow the old fairytale and place your phone in rice. That actually causes the water the set into your motherboard and cause corrosion.
At that point your phone is as good as gone. I have seen so many people do what many have believed for decades to be right and lose everything. So what will a repair shop do that you can’t? Well for starters they will open your phone and dry out any water that laying around in there.
This will prevent water from settling on the vital components of your cell phone and cause corrosion. Next most repair shops will perform what is known as Ultrasonic Cleaning to remove water that may be trapped in hard to reach areas.
The combination of both of these techniques is the best chance that your iPhone has of surviving its plunge in water.
In the end you should always remember that while smartphone manufacturers like Apple take steps to prevent your phone from dying when exposed to water, these steps aren’t 100% and aren’t permanent.
If your iPhone does happen to take a plunge and you are in the Athens, GA area be sure to stop by Bulldog Mobile Repair and we can make your cell phone accident “unhappen!”