Recipe for Saving a Wet Cell Phone

How do you dry out a cell phone?

If you have never soaked a cell phone in the outdoors, you probably don’t fish enough to read this blog or its going to happen this weekend and just jinxed yourself!  All kidding aside, I actually have a recipe for recovering a soaked cell phone.

Whether it was left in a boat compartment that wasn’t so water tight, your rain coat pockets took on a little water or you just fell in the water with your phone in your pocket.  Unfortunately, I think I have had all these happen to me.

So below you will find a 10 step recipe to saving your expensive cell phone:

Step 1 – Get yourself out of the water. (Feel free to skip step 1 if you did not fall in)
Step 2 – Get phone out of water and open it up & take battery and memory cards out.
Step 3 – Wrap everything in something dry; keep it away from any more moisture
Step 4 – Wait until your wife is out of the kitchen
Step 5 – Place battery in a bag of white rice & seal it up
Step 6 – Get two cookie sheets
Step 7 – Place empty cookie sheet on bottom rack closest to burners (see setup photo above)
Step 8 – Spread out all components of your phone except for battery on cookie sheet & place on top rack
Step 9 – Set oven to 150°F & bake for 8-12 hours
Step 10 – Let it cool and put back together, fire it up and smile, you just saved $300!

This is no joke, it really works.  If your oven won’t go down that low with its settings like mine, get an oven thermometer with an external display and then you can cycle it on and off to keep the temperature low enough.  Cell phones are designed to operate at temperatures around 160°F so that is why baking the moisture out of it works so well.

Try it, it should save you some money and some headaches!  Comment below if you have some better tips, but I don't really think the bag of rice thing works that well.  I think this is the Best Way to dry out a mobile phone that gets soaked whether in a lake, your pocket or the washing machine.


 
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  • 6/27/2011 6:54 AM MNAngler wrote:
    A very timely post. I read this on Friday and my digital camera got water logged over the weekend. I'm hoping the process can work for electronics other than cell phones.
    Reply to this
    1. 6/29/2011 10:22 PM Rich Lindgren wrote:
      I do not see why not, after all, cell phones have digital cameras in them and I would assume they are designed to operate under similar temperatures.  Got nothing to lose!
      Reply to this
  • 7/4/2011 2:59 PM MN GH wrote:
    This reminds me when I lost my phone in a snow bank. I found it three weeks later, and used the stove. Only half the phone worked but I tried.
    Reply to this
  • 7/14/2011 6:02 PM jerry trail wrote:
    i have probably done just about everything to a cell phone that you can do.dropped in water,dropped in a bucket of anti freeze,and actually ran over one pulling a car up onto a rollback.needless to say,i was very interested in your article.
    Reply to this
  • 7/26/2011 3:14 PM Kevin wrote:
    Sounds like a neat trick, but I'm confused about the purpose of the empty cookie sheet on the bottom rack. Is that just reflecting heat?
    Reply to this
    1. 7/26/2011 7:31 PM Rich Lindgren wrote:
      Yep, just to keep the phone from getting too much of a direct heat blast when the oven cycles.
      Reply to this
  • 8/14/2011 8:08 PM tony wrote:
    Great trick got to try it,could save me so money.
    Reply to this
  • 8/26/2011 1:57 AM Tom wrote:
    If I get my phone wet, what's the best way to bring it back to life?
    Reply to this
  • 3/27/2012 9:30 AM Terry wrote:
    The most important thing is not to try to turn it on once it's been wet. You have to dry it out first before even attempting to turn it on.
    Reply to this

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