iPhone spent night in pond – now what?

As above, iPhone 5 spent the night about 5 inches underwater…

Currently simcard out, phone sitting in airing cupboard. Planning on waiting a day or two before trying to plug in/turn on…

What else can I do?

Any suggestions (except fill in pond, be more careful etc)?

Take any covers off and leave it in a bag of rice for a few days?

I wouldn’t wait.

Get it to someone who can pop it open and dry the insides quickly before there’s any corrosion.

Experience says the screen will be damaged but that’s only from a brief dunk rather than prolonged immersion…

what on earth made you think of looking in the pond?
surely that was a last ditch attempt!!

Any way….i think this is what you need

I’m not sure when the cut-off was, around the time of the iPhone 5 I think – anyway, on the older ones if you got them dry, they’d usually come back to life – on the later ones if it hits the water whilst it’s turned on, it’s 90% likely to be dead.

That’s coming from our hardware repair guy who fixes dozens of them a day.

He takes the screen and back cover off and lets them dry in a ‘drying box’ he has for 48 hours.

I was clearing the pond yesterday and heard a small splash, thought I had kicked in a stone. No ripples, didn’t seem big enough to investigate.

I always lose my phone, so when I couldn’t find it at night thought it was probably in the car… woke in night thinking the worst, it wasn’t in the car this am, so I checked the pond.

Will see what happens but I fear it may be new phone time…

now I know how to break it open, I’ll open it up tonight and chuck it in the rice/silica beads.

Thanks everyone

Wow you have an iPond.

Does it have Lilly iPads

Go and kill a load of people in the US and let the FBI get hold of your phone?

The rice is a bit of an urban myth. Silica does work though and good reason to keep all them little bags. From recent experience best thing, take apart and put in airing cupboard for a good few days….

Overnight.. If it ever fires up you’ll need a new display at least. Best way to get it dry is to get it wetter. Submerge in deionised water or pure alcohol

My lad’s iPod touch once went through a full 40 degree wash cycle in the washing machine. The spin did the case in a bit, but after being left for a few days in a bag of rice, it came back to life. Worth a try!

Yeah…. But there’s a lot more in an iPhone.

Not my area at all, but have you checked it’s not covered by house insurance etc?

Thats why you need a Lifeproof case.
My first 5 went through the wash twice, in the loo once (post flush) and over 30mts into a stream.
Worked perfectly and still is now for the guy who bought it.
Second 5 is currently sat in the drawer in another Lifeproof case and is spotless.
Same as my 6 – straight into the case before even being switched on and has remained perfect.

iPhone now in bits. Who knew it would be that easy!

who knows if I can post this

Just hope it is as easy to reassemble…

WYSIWIG – from memory, you do this kinda thing regularly. If no access to pure alcohol/de ionised water, should I just let it all dry out in the airing cupboard?

I’ve got a kilo of silica beads somewhere, but after a house move, all the useful stuff seems to have gone into hiding!

Disconnect the battery and leave it to dry. It won’t take long in bits. There’s pretty much guaranteed to be water between the layers of the lcd

No, don’t just let it dry out. The alcohol is to wash it as much as anything. If gunk dries onto the boards and you power it up, you run the risk of shorting things.

I thought I’d killed my iPhone 6 last week swapping the battery. It wouldn’t come out as it was glued so I tried a screwdriver to lift it out. Which naturally pierced the battery which then started smoking. Oops. All sorted now though.

Edit – this post aimed at the OP, not wysiwyg who ninja posted before I’d finished typing.

As above its not the water that kills it, its electricity and minerals etc. I’d go to halfords and get some deionised or chemists and try ipa, not the beer. Stick it in a container with the display off and submerge it for a while. Don’t we why with a paintbrush if there’s corrosion already.

Will get alcohol tomorrow and wash down the logic board.

As it’ll be 36 hours out of the water at that point, is it worth rinsing in water first, then the IPA? Its currently in the airing cupboard in almost as many bits as I could make (see photo above).

And is that don’t worry about the paintbrush if there’s already corrosion? I’ve seen a YouTube vid of gently brushing logic board etc with IPA and a toothbrush…

If the screen is fubarred, how much is a new screen? I’m out of contract, so new phone is fairly easy, but would love the info off this phone if possible/not too expensive.

A five display is £30 ballpark.
Just wang it in the ipa. I meant don’t be shy with it, paint or tooth they’re pretty resilient

You could try planting it, you never know your luck…

Good news – it seems pulling it apart and drying it has given me a second chance, I can live with a ‘streaky’ screen.

Bad news – the home button doesn’t work :(

So I can’t do anything!

Should I pull that apart? Or can I get a new one?

You don’t need the home button. There’s a setting in the phone which puts a digital one onto the screen instead.

The chap in the Apple Store put it on my aging iPhone 4 as the home button is hit and miss.

Edit. Go to settings, then accessibility and turn on assistive touch.

Apparently it was designed to help people with disablement to their hands.

Thanks mr tall!

Now I just need to press the home button to get back to access the setting page :oops:

Mr Tall you are a genius!

Man I love this forum!

Not only can it help me prevaricate for months over which CX/gravel bike I’ll never buy, but it’s made my phone live again. Which in full circle allows me to browse STW when I should be doing other things….

Even the wife is impressed “you should invite them all on a bike ride” – she’s not into bikes…

Now I just need to close the case without shattering the screen.

Or make a new ‘case’ just by wrapping the whole sorry lot in gaffa

You can buy a replacement home button off ebay for a few quid. Fitting it might be tricky – it certainly was when I did it on my old iPhone 4. See ifixit.com. Or take it to a local phone repair shop.

I found the on-screen home button substitute highly irritating for long-term use.

I feel sorry for your loss

Not only can it help me prevaricate for months over which CX/gravel bike I’ll never buy, but it’s made my phone live again. Which in full circle allows me to browse STW when I should be doing other things…

No need to lie about it, it might help you procrastinate though

to be I would have thought leaving it in the pond overnight would have killed it.
It seems ‘sleeps with the fishes’ doesn’t have the same meaning anymore

It is prevarication – I am lying to myself that I am allowed a new bike… :cry:

Especially as I could do with a new phone now as well.