Smartphone - water interfacing

[nikki]

I dropped my phone into a bleachy toilet bowl earlier today. Sealed unit, so couldn't take out the battery, couldn't switch it off either, and only just got home from work now.

It's buggered, isn't it.


Related: WhyTF aren't girls allowed trousers with decent pockets?!?

[Dibdib]

Probably

I'd still try it in a tub of rice and an airing cupboard, though. Nothing to lose.

[nikki]

I've got some brown rice. Brown rice takes aaaaages to absorb any water; even when it's in a pan of the boiling stuff!   

[Kim]

Doesn't bode well.  Did it get a rinse in tapwater?  Sodium hypocholorite breaks down to sodium chloride as it lies around oxidising things, which in electronics terms must be the worst type of toilet bowl contents to go swimming in.

My usual approach to accidental dunkings is power off if possible, tapwater to rinse away any eew or ionic nasties, and follow up with isopropyl alcohol to remove the bulk of the water, then leave it snuggled up with some nice warm computer equipment to dry (the demise of CRT monitors has a lot to answer for in this respect).  But that's easier at home than in a random public toilet.

If you can get the back off and disconnect the battery, that might improve its chances.


Trousers with decent pockets are seemingly only permitted under circumstances that involve flying aircraft and climbing mountains.  Maybe it's an altitude thing?

[nikki]

Did it get a rinse in tapwater?

No rinse. Best I could do was wipe it down with bog roll and then some MacGyver thinking with a museum ID badge to get the SIM and memory card drawer open.

I'd need to get destructive to remove the battery.

[Biggsy]

I think it is usually possible to get the back or front off a sealed phone.  Check YouTube for your model.  Some are just stuck together with double-sided tape.  Heating with a hair drier softens the adhesive, then it can be prised apart, or pulled apart with sucker cups.

The complication comes when trying to disasemble any further, but that might not be necessary if just some fresh air does the trick.

However, I wouldn't surprised if it recovers even if you do nothing at all.  Might take 24 hours.

[L CC]

Not necessarily fecked, the better the waterproofing the worse it is when it's breached. My bog-dropped phones have usually survived.
It takes a sweaty pocket to really do for the electronic devices

[nikki]

I'm on a residency in the Lake District: tubs, airing cupboards and hairdryers are not the sorts of things I have readily available.

*looks around room*

I've got some minty arse lard, a book about geology and a selection of Alpkit drybags...

It takes a sweaty pocket to really do for the electronic devices

 

My room's a bit parky, but I've put it out on the landing where the heating (on the landing on the floor below) is turned up to 11 and I'm hoping that this will also mean I'm less inclined to try fiddling with it.

[Kim]

I'm on a residency in the Lake District: tubs, airing cupboards and hairdryers are not the sorts of things I have readily available.

Not even a drying room full of industrial dehumidifiers?

Lake district: Ur doing it wrong.

[nikki]

There's a thought: maybe I could borrow one of the dehumidifiers from the museum's archive room!

[caerau]

There's a thought: maybe I could borrow one of the dehumidifiers from the museum's archive room!

If it's museum with reasearchy chemistry type seekrit bunkers, someone somewhere might have a vacuum dessicator you could put it in for a while

[nikki]

There is a small door at the base of the tower that I've been wondering about...
I'll ask tomorrow.

[Kim]

There's a thought: maybe I could borrow one of the dehumidifiers from the museum's archive room!

If it's museum with reasearchy chemistry type seekrit bunkers, someone somewhere might have a vacuum dessicator you could put it in for a while

Preferably without the vacuum.  I can't imagine the LCD would enjoy the experience.

[nikki]

Took it to a place for a spritz and a Proper Good Drying Out.

*waits*
*Tries to remember how previous phone works*

[caerau]

There's a thought: maybe I could borrow one of the dehumidifiers from the museum's archive room!

If it's museum with reasearchy chemistry type seekrit bunkers, someone somewhere might have a vacuum dessicator you could put it in for a while

Preferably without the vacuum.  I can't imagine the LCD would enjoy the experience.

Well if it's not hermetically sealed (which is hard to imagine - if water got in, then it isn't) then there should be no pressure differential between outside or inside.


Having said that - it's the desiccating (drying agents) that do the drying in those things so - yeah, vacuum unnecessary  - and probs best to assume that Kim is right to be concerned

[sojournermike]

good luck - I immersed a phone in sea water chasing a fish that got away. Never worked again. Was staying in Scotland with no elektrickery at the time

[Kim]

There's a thought: maybe I could borrow one of the dehumidifiers from the museum's archive room!

If it's museum with reasearchy chemistry type seekrit bunkers, someone somewhere might have a vacuum dessicator you could put it in for a while

Preferably without the vacuum.  I can't imagine the LCD would enjoy the experience.

Well if it's not hermetically sealed (which is hard to imagine - if water got in, then it isn't) then there should be no pressure differential between outside or inside.

Right.  So what happens to the liquidy components: The liquid crystal in the display, electrolytes in the battery and capacitors, maybe some of the glues used to hold the whole thing together?  I'd expect some outgassing.  I've no idea how much, how quickly, or how destructively.  Actually, it'd be quite interesting to find out.  Anyone got a space-qualified Android device? 

[Kim]

Anyone got a space-qualified Android device?

http://www.sstl.co.uk/Missions/STRaND-1--Launched-2013/STRaND-1/  flew a complete Nexus One.  It mysteriously stopped working partway through the mission.

[Polar Bear]

Nikki,  you'll have to molish deeper pockets on your troos and offer tye service on a commercial basis to other women.

[Wombat]

This story makes me glad I went for a Sony, which is immersible in water without harm.  If it gets icky from consuming comestibles whilst using it, I just wash it under the tap.  However, I suspect its only certain Sonys which exhibit this characteristic!

It was not cheap, however...

[nikki]

Nikki,  you'll have to molish deeper pockets on your troos and offer tye service on a commercial basis to other women.

Victorian tie-on pockets is obviously the way forward:
http://bikesandbloomers.com/many-pockets/

[Kim]

Nikki,  you'll have to molish deeper pockets on your troos and offer tye service on a commercial basis to other women.

Victorian tie-on pockets is obviously the way forward:
http://bikesandbloomers.com/many-pockets/

Barakta uses the Alpkit version, combined with a Garmin PE watch so she can feel the phone.  It's slightly sad that the killer application for smartwatches is making up for the deficiencies of women's clothing.  Particularly as most of them are designed for enormous manly wrists...

[Jacomus]

Nikki,  you'll have to molish deeper pockets on your troos and offer tye service on a commercial basis to other women.

Victorian tie-on pockets is obviously the way forward:
http://bikesandbloomers.com/many-pockets/

Barakta uses the Alpkit version, combined with a Garmin PE watch so she can feel the phone.  It's slightly sad that the killer application for smartwatches is making up for the deficiencies of women's clothing.  Particularly as most of them are designed for enormous manly wrists...

I use one these guys http://www.freakbutik.de/Hip-Bag-Buddy-black-Bumbag-Belly-bag

Also, my phone is in a Survivor case. So should survive drops and brief immersion.

[Biggsy]

This (enterprising young YouTuber in India) makes a good point: https://youtu.be/j4G5BXnGS5A

That is that phones officially rated as waterproof aren't necessarily actually financially guaranteed to be waterproof, and phones not described as waterproof can actually be waterproof, or at least quite resilient.

Nevertheless, like Womby, the IP68 rating of my Sony still makes me feel  

[Cudzoziemiec]

TBH, if my phone had fallen into a *public* toilet I'd probably be inclined not to use it again anyway... But then it's easy for me to say that when mine cost me one old pair of panniers!

In the absence of rice, maybe cous-cous? Good luck with the recovery process (phone and psycho-trauma) anyway.