Tag Archives: Warranties

Water Damaged Cell Phone Tips That May Save Your Phone

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If your cell phone has been submersed in water recently and you have managed to save it yourself, then good for you. But, there are some other tips that you might want to know just in case.

Another method for helping the phone dry out (if you do not have any rice on hand) is to put it on top of the vent on a monitor or a television for at least 24 hours. The low amount of heat put out by these devices should be enough to gently dry out the phone.

If you are the kind of person who keeps the silica packs that come packed in electronics, coats, shoes, and etcetera, you can put the phone into a plastic bag with a couple of these and let them absorb the moisture over a couple of days. If you do not have these on hand, a local craft store should have a flower drying kit that will contain a silica sand-type mixture. Put it in a Tupperware dish, use a dryer sheet, lay the phone on top of it, and seal it.

Corrosion is a definite threat to cell phones and other electronics and some people have suggested that you wash the phone in distilled water to wash away any kind of minerals that might have existed in the water or other liquid the phone was originally submersed in. If you choose to try this, do it only after you have removed the SIM card and battery.

If the battery is wet, do NOT heat it to try and dry it out. Batteries, especially lithium-ion ones, are quite sensitive and they very well may explode if you try to speed up the drying process in this manner.

If you choose to use alcohol to clean off parts of the phone that are sticky with soda or another similar liquid, do not apply heat to the device in any way. Do not reattach the battery until the smell of alcohol is completely gone.

This might also seem like common sense, but do not put any electronic device into the microwave. You will probably destroy not only your device, but even your microwave could be put at risk.

You should be aware that most phone warranties do not cover water damaged phones and that most phones today have special stickers inside them (only one visible to you) that will tell a technician if the phone has come into contact with water or even just too much humidity. Be careful when taking your phone outdoors when humidity is very high. It is possible to void your warranty.

Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood and water damage cleanup and
water damage restoration> companies across the united states.

Your Cell Phone, Water, and a Sticker

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Water is a part of our everyday lives, but most of us who own electronic devices can readily admit that it is not only the source of live, but also the source of some pretty pricey problems.It is every cell phone or blackberry owner’s nightmare: dropping that $400 device into the bathtub or into the pool.

What do you do with it after you drop it into water? How late is too late to save it? And if it can be saved, how do you do it? Well, if you have a newer cell phone, odds are that if you drop it in water, you will not be able to get the phone’s warranty to cover the water damage.

It is not covered under most cell phone warranties and this is one reason that you should be especially careful if you plan on getting your phone anywhere near water. The new phones have been equipped with small white stickers both inside the battery compartments and on the circuit board deeper inside the phone.

When the phone gets wet (or when it is simply exposed to humidity that is just too high), the sticker changes color due to a powdered dye underneath it. When you take your phone to the manufacturer to try and file a claim, they tell you that they cannot give you any compensation because the phone has been water damaged, even if you have not actually dropped the phone in water. If humidity is too high, the sticker trips and you are out of luck.

What can you do to try and remedy this problem? If you live in an area that is subject to pretty high humidity, you can take a piece of satin finished scotch tape and place a piece over the sticker on the battery compartment. The problem is getting to the other sticker that is usually on the phone’s circuit board. If you can manage that, then hats off to you. If your phone stops working and you need to file a claim, remove the tape.

If you do happen to drop your phone in the water, get it out in under 20 seconds and remove the power supply completely. Submerge it in a bowl of uncooked rice at least overnight and do NOT try to power on the phone until you are completely certain it is dry. If you put the battery back in and it works, congratulations. If not, try using it with your AC adapter. If this works, all you need is a new phone battery.

Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Water Damage companies and
Dallas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors

You May Be Able to Save Your Cell Phone If You Accidentally Dropped It Into Water If You Act Quickly

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In this modern highly technological world, there is probably one thing that we rely on even more than a personal computer or a laptop, and that would definitely be our cell phones. They are created in kinds of forms, with loads of neat and handy stuff built right into them.

We can buy them with internet connection, access to music downloads, emails, address books, picture capabilities, and text messaging. They can help us with so many things. Many times if we can not locate them, if they are damaged, lost, or stolen, you can feel so out of touch. The thought of having to locate and use a pay phone is really unthinkable.

Warranties that come with the purchase of a new cell phone might cover a number of things, but many times water damage is not among them. This is usually because this specific incident is through no fault of the manufacturer. The fact that your phone will probably not be replaced under a warranty is bad enough, but one more thing is the knowledge that all your information stored in it is gone, or at least you might think.

Most of the time after someone drops their cell phone in water or if it had something spilled on it you may think that it is lost forever. In most cases they are just thrown away. This is not necessarily what you should do. If the cell phone is only wet by water, there is the hope that when left alone and it has been given several days, it will sometimes dry out and will function perfectly.

This is not a given in every case. If the cell phone was wet by a different liquid, such as soda or fruit juice that will dry sticky, just letting it dry out will not usually make it work.

After you attempt to dry it out and it still will not work, there may be one more option. To go along with the leaps in cell phone technology, the repair methods have gotten better also. There are a lot of businesses that might attempt to repair your cell phone and save it from liquid damage.

In a lot cases they might even get to retrieve the valuable information. This can save you a lot of time reinstalling all that information. It always cost you money for having it fixed, but in the end it may be less costly than buying a new phone. It is much better than throwing it away because with that action there is no hope.

Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Water Damage Restoration and
Charlotte Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.