How many times have you heard of people dropping their phones in water. Maybe it slipped in the sink, maybe they got thrown in the pool by an obnoxious friend, whatever the reason it can be an expensive problem to fix. Usually when someone drops their phone in water their initial reactions is to get a hair dryer and dry it out. Below I will show you five simple steps that are the best way to recovery. Using a hair dryer is not only not on my list, it does not help your problem at all.

Step one- Get it out of the water as fast as possible and take the battery out right away. Power and water just don’t mix. The faster you get the battery out the better chance you have of using the phone again. Many circuits inside the phone can survive being wet but not being wet and powered.

Step two- If you have a GSM carrier you need to remove your Sim card immediately. Sim cards hold  your contacts and other valuable information. After removing the Sim card do not try to dry it with heat. Just Pad dry it and leave it out to air dry.

Step three- Try to dry your phone using a paper towel and by shaking it (don’t get paper stuck in the phone). Do not use a Hair Dryer! Hair dryer pushes the water further into the phone, the idea being not to get any water further in to it. After hand drying open up any gaps and opening to your phone. Then using a vacuum cleaner try to suck the water out of your phone. Use the Vacuum method for about 20mins sucking any water out of your phone. Do not put the vacuum right up against your phone because you don’t want any static electricity.

Step four- Leave your phone in a bag of dry rice or preferably desiccant (sometimes called Dry All, Damp Dry) over night. This will draw out any additional moisture. I know this might sound a little crazy but it could help. You can also just leave it on a towel over night.

Step five- After your phone looks dry put the battery back in and try to turn it on. If this does not work take the battery out and plug your phone into it’s charger. If it only works plugged into the charger it means you just have a bad battery. If it does not work at all looks like you are going to the phone store.