Can a Cellphone or Other Electronic Device Withstand Being Submerged in Water?

Can a cellphone or other electronic device withstand being submerged in water

Who hasn’t experience this situation, an electronic equipment getting wet and stop functioning. Electronic gadgets being so popular and smaller year after year seem to be water-accident-prone. So what happens when they get wet, either partially or submerged?

The most typical, or at least funny, situation is, person goes to bathroom, cell in pocket, person approaches toilet, cellphone dives, submarine cellphone. For those who dare get it out of the waters, and I am not proposing you do one or the other, or anyone that has suffered this situation, seeing their device dead right away seems to be inevitable.

First reaction the electronic device may have is function for a small period of time, such as a few minutes, and the it will go off, no questions asked. But there still is some hope.

Just as if you were practicing first aid to it, you need to act quick. Go for the heart of the equipment, which is clearly the battery. The battery takes a bit of its time to acknowledge the problem, but if it keeps in contact with the device and supplying energy while the reality sets in, it may suffer irreversible damage. The only good thing about this is that it may be feasible a transplant, unless you are carrying a product that does not allow for battery replacement such as an iphone, ipod, or other branded equipment with similar characteristics. If you are able to open the device and take the battery away, although you may loose a battery, you may save your equipment. I saw this happen some 10 years ago with a colleague that dropped his cell in the street on a rainy day. The cost was some worries, some time to dry, and a battery replacement.

In any case, either when you can’t remove the battery, if the device is still on, turn it off, knowing that it will be a while until you may see it living again.

Second step is drying the device. You can accomplish this in different ways. I have seen placing it in front of a fan, at direct sunlight, in hot places such as a parked car, and whatnot. If you are able to open any compartment, remove lids, or do anything that may help dry the circuits, much better.

This combination of replacing battery and drying was used when another colleague drop her blackberry in the toilet last year, and it worked like a charm. Less than a week later I ran into her and she was using her cell like it never even happened. I told her she should keep it forever or send it to a museum.

The trick is, the device will take some time to dry, so you also need patience. The quicker you try to turn it on, the less chances it will survive. Based on my experiences, you should not give it a try for a day or two, although you may be lucky. If it recovers full or partial life, I would still recommend you turn it off again and give it more time to heal.

This may help unless it gets wet with liquids other than water, as they may do some damages, and may also not work with salt water also beware of the sea. And with the latest technology placed for the benefit of human kind confort, you also need to consider where it is that the cell fell. Odd as it sounds, I know of two people that drop their cell in an automatic toilet so when they went for grabbing it, the auto-flush took it away. True story, probably a disgusting one, but true.