The iPhone Swirley

Oh NO!!!!! It happens every single day. Someone goes to answer their iPhone while in the bathroom and losses their grip... *SPLOSH* the iPhone lands in some very dirty water. This very scenario just happened to one of my clients. It always is a gut wrenching feeling, watching your shiny new iPhone quickly sink to the bottom of the porcelain bowl, as it still rings, low muffled tones from beneath the murky and questionable water.

So what do you do when this happens?
Well, assuming that you do not have accidental warranty coverage, the very FIRST thing you do is reach into that nasty water and pull it out as fast as you can. Then, you turn it off!! If it is already off, leave it off. However, usually it will stay on during the immersion. So in that case, power it down. Hold the power button and hopefully you can slide to turn off when it prompts. If not, Hold down the power and home button until it goes off.

The next step is more of a Hail Mary than a fix. Chances are, you have ruined at least some parts of your iPhone. But, you MAY be in luck too. Take your iPhone and put it in a bowl of dried rice. Make sure the rice completely covers it. I usually use a ziploc baggie myself. Leave it in the rice for at least 3 days.  The rice works to absorb the moisture from the phone itself. Some people also use a hair dryer on low each day for 10-15 minutes, in addition to the rice. But I do not recommend this as it will be too easy to get the components too hot and damage them further.

So what is the best way to avoid this damage? Do not use your iPhone near any sources of water. But should you just HAVE to take that call while in the bathroom... Please try not to drop it. I know from first hand experience just how heart breaking it can be.

In case this repair does not work, you can also send it in to a third party repair company, like http://www.ifixyouri.com who claims to be able to fix such damage for $39.99