Put my cell phone through the washing machine.....

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GouletPens

GouletPens

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Ashland, VA
Yup...it was bound to happen eventually. I left my cell phone in my pocket and washed it with my laundry. Miraculously, the phone still turned on afterwards and would even connect a call, but the screen said "car kit", and the mic and speakers weren't working. I took the cover off the front and back of the phone and stuck it in the freeze to dehydrate it and dry it out. I ended up doing the freezer thing a couple of times, with letting it air dry at room temp for 8 hours or so in between. After the 3rd freezer trip and air drying, the phone works again, like new!!! I've been using it for about a day and a half now, and it's flawless. I just saved myself a few hundred dollars!! Woo hoo!!:biggrin:
 
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Wow... You were LUCKY.... And I wouldn't suggest the freezer thing - depending on the screen, etc the cold can do bad things...

For anyone reading this... The #1 recommended way to dry any electronics out that gets wet (phone, mp3 player etc) is a ziplock bag with uncooked rice. The rice does a great job of drawing out moisture.

And if you can... REMOVE the battery until its dry.
 
My daughter dropped one in the toilet, not sure if we had to get a new one because it couldn't be dried, or she couldn't stand the thought of where it had been. I will have to admit that when my son dropped a flashlight down the porta-toilet at a scout campout, I wasn't fishing for it, the tiolet did have a kinda interesting blue glow for the night though.
 
My niece dropped on in the toilet. She took out the battery and stuck the whole thing in rice for a day. It has worked perfectly ever since.
 
I had one go in the drink once, I took it apart and hit it with a hair dryer. The thing worked for another year and then I replaced it with a G'Zone indestructable phone, too bad I am required to carry a damn Blackberry for work.
 
Well I guess I lucked out with the freezer not affecting the screen or anything. I'll try the rice...uh...hopefully never?:wink:
 
I've always found that dissassembly and putting in a dessicant is best (much like the rice, but faster). Of course, most of you do not have a fully functioning chemical and research lab available.

But, I have That Which No Cell Phone Can Survive...a 17 year old daughter. She's gone through at least six handsets in the last year. Started her out with "Way COOL" phone, to the "Harder to Break" model and now we've arrived at the "I Can't Be Seen With THAT Phone" (but it's cheap) model.
 
I know of a guy who, right after the Motorola Razr phones came out, dropped his into the toilet as it was flushing. He then proceded to shout some very harsh words as it went by by. It got stuck in the pipes and we had to have our Engineering department come out, remove the toilet, fish it out, and fix the toilet.

Needless to say, all in the office would snicker about such things as tracking the phone with the GPS, calling it to see if it would ring in the sewer, etc.

In some circles he is still known as Cell Phone Guy.
 
I guess you were talking dirty, huh? had to be washed....

I have heard many storing of phones getting wet and drying out storied. I managed to drop one in a pile of slush once. The most important thing to remember is to remove the battery. Having that juice can cause a short that could fry the phone or cause a lithium battery melt down.
 
Grim Spirit said:
I've always found that dissassembly and putting in a dessicant is best (much like the rice, but faster). Of course, most of you do not have a fully functioning chemical and research lab available.

But, I have That Which No Cell Phone Can Survive...a 17 year old daughter. She's gone through at least six handsets in the last year. Started her out with "Way COOL" phone, to the "Harder to Break" model and now we've arrived at the "I Can't Be Seen With THAT Phone" (but it's cheap) model.
Click to expand...

I'm there with my 17 yo son. he has been through 6 phones in the last year. each one fails about a month after he has it. The warranty people know us on a first name basis now. :redface:
 
You MAY have saved yourself a few hundred bucks! My son fell into the lake in our neighborhood and his Blackberry worked at first, then a few days later failed to. I took it to a cell phone repair shop, they took it apart, cleaned up corrosion that had already occurred, put grease in where needed and it's like new.

Cost? 35 bucks. You may want to find a local repair place and see what they say, because it could still fail if corrosion sets in. 35 bucks was 10 percent of the replacement cost of his, and it's worked flawlessly for several months now.

Dale
 
stolicky said:
I guess you were talking dirty, huh? had to be washed....

I have heard many storing of phones getting wet and drying out storied. I managed to drop one in a pile of slush once. The most important thing to remember is to remove the battery. Having that juice can cause a short that could fry the phone or cause a lithium battery melt down.
Click to expand...

At last, someone who thinks like I do!!!! I was going to say "No more dirty phone calls!!" :biggrin:
 
I used to have an old work radio that would get shuffled to the bed of the truck instead of the cab from time to time. it would get saturated. We even picked it up out of puddles on occasion. That thing was amazing! it would be dripping water still and we would plug it straight into the wall. the speakers would be terribly distorted for a couple of hours, but once the cones dried out, it sounded fine again.

Of course i wouldn't advise plugging any dripping wet appliance into a socket, but we didn't care. In fact, we were kinda hoping it would have fried. Good excuse to get a new one!
 
For anyone reading this... The #1 recommended way to dry any electronics out that gets wet (phone, mp3 player etc) is a ziplock bag with uncooked rice. The rice does a great job of drawing out moisture.


I wonder if the rice can dry up a lake? My preacher and i were fishing one morning and when he turned around to get the fish in the boat his seat unlatched his phone holder and the phone went sailing into the water. The funny thing is that we were talking about how much he liked my new blackberry the previous night in front of his wife.
 
jimbob91577 said:
I know of a guy who, right after the Motorola Razr phones came out, dropped his into the toilet as it was flushing. He then proceded to shout some very harsh words as it went by by. It got stuck in the pipes and we had to have our Engineering department come out, remove the toilet, fish it out, and fix the toilet.

Needless to say, all in the office would snicker about such things as tracking the phone with the GPS, calling it to see if it would ring in the sewer, etc.

In some circles he is still known as Cell Phone Guy.
Click to expand...
I can relate. I dropped mine in a toilet once but retrieved it only to watch it die an agonizing death.
 
The best luck I've had with wet electronics is to flush it with distilled water
(and denatured alcohol if you have it) and then the dessicant. (rice will work)
The distilled water is pure and will flush out contaminants. The denatured
alcohol should flash off without leaving any residue.

The damage isn't usually caused by the water itself, but the minerals in it.
Get the dirty stuff out by flushing it with clean stuff and dry it.

Battery removal is a must, though.
 
NewLondon88 said:
The best luck I've had with wet electronics is to flush it with distilled water
(and denatured alcohol if you have it) and then the dessicant. (rice will work)
The distilled water is pure and will flush out contaminants. The denatured
alcohol should flash off without leaving any residue.

The damage isn't usually caused by the water itself, but the minerals in it.
Get the dirty stuff out by flushing it with clean stuff and dry it.

Battery removal is a must, though.
Click to expand...
I guess running my phone through the wash got all the minerals out:tongue: My phone's working great still after almost a week!!
 
My Phone went thru the wash also, I dried it by puting the phone into the dryer........
wouldnt turn on or anything, got a new phone a few weeks later.
 
el_d said:
My Phone went thru the wash also, I dried it by puting the phone into the dryer........
wouldnt turn on or anything, got a new phone a few weeks later.
Click to expand...

You probably forgot the dryer sheet.
I forget that all the time..
 
I had my own phone mishap the other day. Dropped the durn thing in my buddies driveway when I stopped to pick him up to go turkey hunting. We found it when we pulled in his driveway later in the day........after a thunderstorm. When I picked it up the water ran out. I immediatly pulled the battery and took it home and stuck it on the radiator. A day later it fired right up and worked fine. Went out tonight to check the steelhead population and when I was retying some terminal tackle I heard something go "ploop" in the stream. An hour later when i looked for the phone...........Dang it the durn thing went missing. I guess I used up the last remaining life it had. It's off to the phone store tomorrow.
 
Now I can finally reply. I was just out mowing the lawn. I noticed something odd I was about to drive over, didn't think much of it. Well, that was my cell phone. Still in it's case, somehow the whole thing fell off my belt. 5000lb John Deere 24 hp diesel 3 blades, 72 inch deck powered by a drive shaft...the phone doesn't work any more. I don't know where the battery went, I did find the screen portion. I'm currently looking through my phone contract..I can't seem to find anything that warranty's the phone against a lawnmower attack. You'd think that would be covered.
 
Yeah....I wouldn't think much would stand up to that mower. Happy phone shopping:tongue:

As an update, my phone has been working great like it never went through the wash. I have my older phone that I could always use as a backup. My wife got the 'screen of death' on her phone a couple of months ago so she switched the service to her old phone and is rocking it. If I wash my phone again I might not get so lucky and I'll have to boot up the old one. I would love to get emails on my phone and I think the newer phones are awesome, but I just can't justify the cost. Currently I'm latched on to my parents' family plan and I pay about $20 a month for both me and my wife's phone service, with unlimited calling to everyone in our family except my sister (we're on the Verizon IN network). Basically, unlimted calling for $20 a month!! I just can't beat that with anything else!!!!
 
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