Liquid Damage- General Information
What to do after your cell phone gets wet
For best results, follow these three steps:
1. Remove the battery
2. Dry the phone out
3. Mail it to us for repair
Believe it or not, it is not liquid that causes most liquid damage. What causes damage 99% of the time, is electricity running through the device ether when the device is still wet, or after it has dried out. Most people understand the concept that if the electronic device gets wet, the circuits will be shorted out, causing major problems so they figure once its dry, the device may work like normal again. However if you power the device up even after it has dried, you still run the risk of causing irreversible damage to your phone because even if the liquid inside dries, a substance called oxidation is still left behind. More information on oxidation can be found below.
So the first thing to do if your phone gets wet, is to stop the electricity flow by simply removing the phones battery. Don't worry about the battery getting wet, although it may discharge slightly, the cells usually are not permanently damaged, unless the battery is completely submerged under liquid for at least ten minutes or longer. So now that the battery is removed, the next thing to do is stop any more oxidation from forming. The more oxidation that forms, the more short outs on the circuit board will occur. So to stop any more oxidation from forming, the circuit needs to dry out.
The best way to dry your phone out is to put it on the dashboard of your car (if its hot outside- just park your car facing the sun), or you can put the phone under a warm lamp for several hours (just check it every so often to ensure it does not get too hot!). Some web sites suggest drying the phone out in a box of rice to absorb the moisture (which may sound like a creative way to draw out moisture, but it is not very effective).
Although drying the phone out is critical, its certainly not the final step in getting the phone repaired. Drying the phone out does one thing- it stops the oxidation process from oxidizing the area of the phones circuit board that got wet. Once the the board is dry, no more oxidation will form. During off the circuit board does not remove any oxidation that has already built up though, so before you power the device up, the oxidation has to be removed by a liquid damage repair facility. We offer the lowest prices on liquid damage repair, guaranteed. Simply fill out this form to initiate a repair request. Or contact us if you have any questions that are not answered on this web site.
What is oxidation?
Oxidation is similar to rust, just not as severe. As soon as metal, liquid, and oxygen combine, the oxidation process starts.
So when the circuit board's metal chips make contact with liquid, it reacts with the oxygen in the environment, causing oxidation.
Below, you can see what an oxidized circuit board looks like, notice the white areas on the micro chips. Place the mouse over the image to the board after a professional cleaning.
Note the debris on the circuit board. This debris is the oxidation. Supplying power to an oxidized circuit puts stress on certain chips, and depending on which circuits are effected, determine which problems you may experience.
How is oxidation removed?
You need to have your phone serviced at a liquid damage repair facility to remove the oxidation. We perform liquid damage repair, and have the lowest prices you will find anywhere, guaranteed.
My phone got wet so I dried it out, and now it appears to work fine!
Although phones may appear to work after being dried out, the circuit is still under severe stress . Eventually you may experience minor problems (such as low service, LCD problems, or sound problems). If you power the phone up with the circuit board oxidized, it can over power and can cause permanent damage to the circuit at any time. If it does overpower and fry a critical circuit, not only would you loose your phone, but you would also loose all your contacts, pictures, as well as any other data on the phone.
For best results, after it gets wet remove the battery and dry the phone out. Don't even try to power it up after it has dried. Just mail it in for service. Permanent damage may take 1 second to occur, but may take as long as several hours, several days, or even several weeks. But one thing is for sure, if your phone got wet and you are using it, it can go dead at any time and at that point even we would not be able to repair it.
What happens if use the phone with oxidation on the chips?
The short answer: You may permanently damage your phone. If permanent damage occurs, all data (phonebook, pictures, videos, etc) may no longer be recoverable.
The long answer: Oxidation is slightly conductive, so it will act as a "bridge" and electricity will pass over the oxidation and will cause a misregulation in voltage. Small amounts of electricity are going to be drained away from some ares, causing the circuit to experience an electrical underpowerage. The voltage that is lost will be picked up in other areas on the circuit board, causing the circuit to experience an electrical overpowerage.
In the above example, each strands pass 2 volts of power across the chip as shown in the image to the left (in reality each strand may have a different voltage, but for this example for simplicity, lets say each strand passes 2 volts of power). As shown in the image to the right, when the circuit is oxidized, power is lost from some areas causing an underpowerage. Extra power is gained in other areas causing an overpowerage.
An electrical underpowerage in a circuit causes a lower power to be passed within the circuit, causing a function to no longer work. However an underpowerage is not going to do any permanent damage to the circuit. Example: if the LCD requires 2 volts of power, but is only receiving 1 volt of power (so 1 volt is being lost) the LCD may not function at all, or the problem may be intermittent.
An electrical overpowerage on the other hand can be very dangerous to the phones circuit. An electrical overpowerage, too much electricity is being passed within a circuit. For example, the phone's camera flash normally receives 2 volts of electricity. With an overpowerage, its going to pick up the extra voltage, delivering 4 volts to the flash instead of 2 volts. This extra 2 volts of electricity is going to harm the circuit because after prolonged use, the flash may finally blow out. Once the flash blows out, 4 volts that went to the flash is not going to be used now, since the flash blew out. Now this 4 volts will go to the next closest circuit. for example maybe to the speaker. The speaker usually receives 2 volts, but now it will also pick up the previous 4 volts as well, leaving it with 6 volts of power, eventually blowing the speaker. This goes on and on, causing an overpowerage among the chips.
If an overpowerage ever makes way to a critical power regulator in the phone, the entire phone will turn off and will not be repairable, and any data on the phone will also be lost. So as you can imagine, the longer the phone is powered up, the lower the chances of recovery are.
So if you get your phone wet and dry it out, the phone may power up and appear to work fine. However internal damage IS occurring (only if electricity is flowing within the phone).
How long will it take for permanent damage to occur?
That all depends on what circuits are involved, and the amount of electricity being passed through them. It may take several seconds, or several minutes, or may take as long as several days, or even several weeks before you notice a problem, but eventually you will have a problem with your phone.
If you are lucky, the damage may be able to be repaired. We have repaired and restored literally hundreds of cell phones with liquid damage, at the very least, we can usually at least recover your phones data. If you are not so lucky, the damage may be so extensive that the circuit may not be repairable. So for best results, the sooner you remove the battery from the phone, the higher your chances of recovery are.
Is my phone permanently damaged? Should I send it in for service?
Its impossible to estimate the extent of the damage without us actually seeing the phone, but by answering some basic questions, we can help you estimate what the chances of us making a successful repair. If we cant repair the phone or if we are unable to recover the data you need, we only charge a $13.85 processing fee (processing includes labor + return shipping to mail the broken phone back to you).
How is a wet phone repaired?
We have constantly been improving our repair procedure since 2004, In 2004 our recovery rate was around 50%. Today our recovery rate is around 85%. Click here to see our repair procedure.