I get love for saving some wet iPhones

I've been blogging regularly for about ten years. That's about 100 years in Internet time, since most bloggers either haven't been at it for very long, or don't keep on blogging for very long.

Early on I learned that when I labor at writing something seriously profound on a meaningful subject, it isn't going to get much attention. Yawn, say the denizens of cyberspace. You're not a cute kitten video. 

Or a tip about how to save your iPhone if it gets dumped in water.

But hah!, last year I covered that base in "My iPhone speaker survives toilet water. Here's how." Some of what I suggested was stolen borrowed from other web sites. 

However, I had one tip that was pretty damn original: using a blow dryer.

The simple advice was to strip some cotton off of the end of q-tips, insert them into the headphone jack, rotate, and remove. I did this several times, with no success (other than getting the headphone jack really clean).

...These led me to a couple of other attempted fixes: inserting a credit card in the charging slot at the other end of the phone from the headphone jack, and blow-drying the headphone jack. I also blow-dried the charging slot for good measure.

I don't know what worked, one, some, or all of these fixes. Regardless, after the last blow-drying my iPhone had recovered it's soundability. Bliss!

...If you use a blow dryer, be judicious and don't run it too long.

I left my iPhone on a counter with the dryer on high pointing at it from about six inches way. When I checked back after a few minutes the metal phone casing was really hot. When I tried to turn on the phone, I got a "too hot to use; allow to cool" sort of message. After I waited a while, the iPhone worked normally, so maybe it was the final blow-drying that did it. 

Just don't overdo it, or you might have a bigger problem than a speakerless phone -- a cooked phone.

In a year and four months I've gotten sixty comments on that post. Many show how attached people are to their iPhones, and how happy/thankful they are when a drowned phone springs back to life. 

Here's some examples:

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

i love you i love you i love you i love you
the blow dryer worked and i love you so much

OMG I LOVE YOU SOO MUCH IT WORKRD:)))) thank you soooo much!! it was the q-tip! :)))) THANKS A BUNCHHH

Thank you, thank you! I had the unvortunate disaster of spilling a cup of water on my phone ad had this same problem. Thankfully after your tips (I think it was the hair dryer mainly) it is back to working order. Thank you again!

You are so great!!! Thank you so much!!!! 

best frekin tip ever!!!!!!!! u savedddd my iPhones sound life!!!!! thank u thank uuuuu!

thank you so much for your assistance!!!You just saved my IPhone4!!!THANKS!!!!

I know it's just my phone, but I feel like you just saved my life. Hahaha thanks so much!

Qtip worked in two seconds!!!! Thank you so much, you saved my phone and saved me $200!!!!

Bloody LEGEND!! My iPhone and I cannot thank-you enough; the hairdryer worked a treat :D :D :D

Oh my gosh! This post also helped me! I am so grateful to have found it!!! I was so disappointed in myself for breaking my phone. I feel much better now! Guess I wont be putting it back on the same ledge again! Thank you very much again! Oh and for me, it was most definitely the hair dryer!

Looks like you earned yourself a bunch of good karma from writing this article ;-)

Thanks so much. You are da man!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you so so so much for posting this! I can now breathe again... :)

God bless you sr. This work like a charm!!! Muchas gracias es lo mejor! You are the best for sharing this, you safe us all here big money that maybe we don't have and with hard work we buy phones that had the bad luck with water. Did I mention thank you ones again :)

THANK YOU THANK YOU I LITTERALLY SCREAMED AND STARRED JUMPING BEST TIP EVER THANK YOU!!!!

Comments

[Ty Davison]

Also good: Put iPhone in bag of rice for a day or two. Rice will remove internal moisture with none of the temperature-related danger of a blow dryer. Thrilled that it's working for people, though.