Place your handset in 2lbs of rice

Good roast potato recipes - nice

It's often the dirt, salts and other things in the water that stop equipment working when it has been wet and dried off. A quick rinse with distilled water before drying can help.

so we realised that the Nokia 8210 (tiny) was still in the jeans inside the washing machine. Most of the wash cycle, (soap, agitation, 60degC) was complete! Phone was removed, *battery taken out immediately* and the phone parts were rinsed under cold running water. (like during manufacture - to remove soldering chemicals - except Nokia probably use de-everythinged water) Then it was required to slowly dry the phone avoiding spot heat like a hot radiator or hair-dryer, rice/beans might work, "airing cupboard" might work, I chose a good German Leybold-Heraeus Vacuum Furnace.
Set to just 40degC!!!!! I pumped down to a few millibars oxygen partial pressure and left the phone for a couple of hours. [CAUTION: Don't try this at home!] I was lucky and no components of the phone were upset (i.e. exploded) by either the washing, or the cure. The speaker volume was stuck at 50% of the pre-wash level, and the phone eventually stopped 3 months later. (probably catalytic dendritic corrosion creep) Remember that most modern phones have a special "I was wet" indicator inside their shells somewhere, so it might be a good idea to not let them get wet!

Took my blackberry pearl into Lake Michigan this summer... Took out the battery, left it on the dash to dry in the sun, and after about 4 hrs it powered up just fine - after a couple days all of the moisture was gone from behind the faceplate and I haven't noticed any problems since then. I guess I just got lucky - it was in the water for a good 4 mins or so before I realized I had it on my hip.

The most important thing is don't try and power it up when it gets wet! That's where the damage occurs.. when things short out.

If it gets wet, leave it off, dry it out with whatever method, then after a couple of days, power it up. 


What is this person THINKING?

If you want to fry your phone, sure.

If you drop your phone in the toilet, the best thing to do is get de-ionized water and rinse whatever the item is a few times, using latex globes and CLEAN glassware (rinsed with DI water before putting the phone in).

The water doesn't fry it, the ions in the water do. Remove the ions that are leeching the circuitry, problem solved. (You can never remove all of it...so it'll still die eventually. This just prolongs life.)

I have taken a motherboard out of a computer and cleaned it in an ultrasonic cleaner (think the jewelry store kind times 1000) and it came out mint. Actually that motherboard is a socket 754 ASUS K8VSE that's still running, imagine that!

Over the years I have found that many things can be fixed when it has liquid spilled on and in it. 

I have taken apart about everything and cleaned it. 

One thing I have learned to do is wash it in warm soapy water and then blow it off with a dryer not set on top heat , I have done keyboards and video cards. Motherboards and others, it does work. 

You just have to make sure that there is no power to the item. Don't laugh, I have had people ruin them by doing it with the item still hooked to a powered up computer lol.

But I have had very good luck with this. 

[Don't try this at home. Ed. The INQ takes no responsibility for it whatever.]

Also I have used beans to dry out items also. It does work if you just take your time.

Using bags of silica gel also works, use a sandwich bag, put the phone and a handful of small silica sachets inside, tie it up, and leave it for a few days. [We also do not endorse any method, OK? Ed.]