Question regarding silica, vacuum, and a wet iphone 3g

[chadomaly]

So today I was in the park with my dog, she was swimming for a tennis ball in the creek. She got caught up on some sticks/branches that were underwater and I had to jump in to get her out. I did this with my iPhone in my pocket, which has now had its warranty voided and I'm basically screwed.

I am putting it in a bag with silica gel packets scavenged from various sources in the hopes of drying it out, some people have had success. I am assuming that a bunch of these packets from aspirin bottles and candy boxes and other places will be more suited to draw moisture than the usual uncooked rice method. My question is this:

I have at my disposal regular ziplock bags or the vacuum ones that you can suck the air out of. I am putting the phone in the bag with these packets, but I'm not sure if the silica would be more effective with or without air. My first thought was that the vacuum bags would be better because that would afford less air volume for the moisture to disperse into, thus drawing it more directly into the silica packets and out of the phone. However later I considered that maybe without the air volume there is no room for the humidity to circulate around the packets and thus be absorbed.

Does anyone have any idea which is more effective... vacuum or no, and please back it up. I'm not looking for hunches or guesses here, I can do that myself. I'm looking for an expert opinion and/or a reference to look at.

Thanks in advance and please be speedy!

 

[chadomaly]

To clarify... the vacuum bags are not vacuum enough that they are going to seal up the openings in the phone (headphone, speaker, mic, and around buttons). There will still be a way for air to escape the phone and come in contact with the silica, so I'm not sealing the moisture in the phone.

 

[mpilchfamily]

You are better off leaving the phone out in the open to dry out. The silica is only good for removing humidity from a small area. DO NOT seal it in a bag. You woul dbe better of drying it out with a hair dryer on the back side. But keep about 1 foot of space between the hair dryer and the phone if not more. only point it at the back side of the phone. If it gets hot to the touch then stop and let it cool.

Your biggest problem is any dirt left behind. Its one thing for it to fall into the sink or a bath but a sream could have put allot of dirt into the unit possibly destroying the touch abilities of the screen. Even worse is the wqatter probably shorted the phonw and bamaged it for good. Unless it was completly off by chance.

 

[Muadib]

I agree with mpilchfamily. Just leave it out in the open for 2 days or more. If it didn't short & die, you might get lucky.

I don't want to say how many co-workers drop their phones in the toilet. Based on that, I'd say you have a 50% chance of happiness.

 

[pm]

I'd say leave it out on a window sill out of direct sunlight for a week or so. Those silica things are fine, but they quickly saturate... dry rice works ok... but I think a warm spot with a bit of a breeze is best unless you are in a humid climate.

But the fastest way to dry it is out is to take it apart. On an original iPhone, get something thin, hard and plastic like a guitar pick and push down firmly on the gap between the the black plastic and the silver metal, but press on the plastic side, and then twist. With a fair amount of force, the black plastic slides off then you can unscrew the rest of it.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1z0pw2VK7M

Regardless of what you decide, my advice is to be very, very patient. Don't try turning it on for a while - at least a week.

I know someone who put their iPhone though an entire laundry cycle while it was turned off, and it worked fine with the exception of some problems docking it.

 

[BabaBooey]

Put it in a bag of white rice is your best bet but you are probably holding a parts phone by now.

 

[MadAmos]

Originally posted by: pm
I'd say leave it out on a window sill out of direct sunlight for a week or so. Those silica things are fine, but they quickly saturate... dry rice works ok... but I think a warm spot with a bit of a breeze is best unless you are in a humid climate.

But the fastest way to dry it is out is to take it apart. On an original iPhone, get something thin, hard and plastic like a guitar pick and push down firmly on the gap between the the black plastic and the silver metal, but press on the plastic side, and then twist. With a fair amount of force, the black plastic slides off then you can unscrew the rest of it.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1z0pw2VK7M

Regardless of what you decide, my advice is to be very, very patient. Don't try turning it on for a while - at least a week.

I know someone who put their iPhone though an entire laundry cycle while it was turned off, and it worked fine with the exception of some problems docking it.

+1 patience will be your friend and hopefully the technology gods will smile on you for doing the right thing and putting you friend above your phone, after all a phone can always be replaced it's only money a friend and companion can't.

 

[chadomaly]

well for those of you who want/care for an update, I stuck it in rice an hour after emerging from the stream, since that's what I had in the house. As it sat there, I ran to walmart that evening and took all the silica bags I could find out of the candy racks, got about 8 largish bags of silica and all the capsules of silica from my aspirin/ibuprofin bottles. Since then it has been in an open baggie with all this silica sitting on my cable box for a few hours at a time, usually overnight (the cable box gets consistently warm but not overly hot).

When I first got out of the creek, the screen was still on but not backlit, and I tried to turn it off but the touchscreen wasn't responding. All through the evening it sat powercycling over and over (I couldn't stop it) until the battery finally died. As of now, there is no longer visible condensation around the screen edges or in the camera lens, and half of the water sensor in the headphone jack is pink ( a perfect line halfway through, half very light pink, the other half white). If I shine a flashlight on the screen I can see some lines between the layers... they are very straight and there are several, I am assuming this is water pockets between the screen. I'm going to leave it in the silica bag for a couple more days and try plugging it in Friday or Saturday. Either way, I figure I'm not TERRIBLY screwed. I called the Apple store and they said worst-case I'd pay $500 for a new one purchased outright. Assuming I get to keep the broken one (which I wouldn't see why not), even broken ones are selling for around 250 on ebay (apparently by crazy people)... so I can hopefully recover around half of the replacement cost.. Either way, I'm happy and lucky to still have my dog sitting next to me watching my phone dry MadAmos is right, I'd let everything I own burn to the ground to keep that dog in my life.

 

[pm]

If you need to power it off when the touchscreen isn't working, hold down home and the power on/off button down simultaneously for about 15-20 seconds.

Best of luck, crleap. I hope it comes back to life for you.

 

[chadomaly]

well i turned it on today, plugged it in and did a restore on itunes. it works fine, the whole touchscreen works and i havent found any errors. however, the streaks are still in the screen and visible at an angle. if you view the screen STRAIGHT on, they disappear, but at any angle you can see em.

 

[Raduque]

I guess you got lucky in that no minerals from the very dirty water of the creek got caught anywhere in the phone they could do damage. I'd have given the phone a rinse/dip in RODI water or alcohol to displace the minerals - it's not the water that's the problem, it's the crap dissolved in the water!