The signs of water damage on a phone can wreak havoc on both your personal and professional life. Unfortunately, water damage can not only make your phone temporarily inoperable, but it can also void its warranty unless you have arranged for accidental damage protection or additional warranty coverage. If you have reason to believe your cell phone has incurred water damage, but you are not sure, there’s one sign, in particular, you can look for to determine the true state of your phone.
Here’s how to look for signs of water damage on your phone:
Step 1: Open the Back Casing
Open the back casing where the battery is located on your cell phone. Remove the battery. Once you have removed the battery, you will be able to see a small, white dot or square. The size of the dot will depend on the type of cell phone.
Step 2: Examine the White Dot
Examine the dot to determine its color. You are in luck if the dot is still completely white. That means that your phone has not been damaged by water. If, on the other hand, the dot is stained, discolored, or has turned red, you probably have a water damaged cell phone on your hands.
If you have determined your phone is water damaged, here’s what to do and what not to do:
- Never press buttons on a wet cell phone/ Smartphone or Electronic tablet, or plugin either of these; doing this can cause irreparable damage. This is because when you press buttons on a wet item you are sending an electrical current through the circuitry which will, in turn, cause those circuits to short out. (Think of it like a wet hairdryer, you would never plug it in to see if it still works.)
- Remove the battery immediately, or if you can’t remove the battery quickly (as with an iPhone or tablet), you will just need to turn it off immediately.
- If your cell phone/ smartphone or tablet is wet by soda, beer, snow, or saltwater, once the item’s battery has been removed or it has been turned off, rinse the item with distilled water to remove the corrosive liquid.
- Do NOT use a hairdryer, because this blows the water further into the phone and heats the phone up.
- Do NOT place the damaged phone in the sun. Yes, you want to warm up your phone, you don’t want it to become too hot.
- Do NOT pop it in the microwave; it’s dangerous to put metal in the microwave and can damage both devices.
- Do NOT put in the freezer, because the reduction in temperature can damage the LCD screen.
How to Get Repair for Your Water Damaged Device
Though Apple or another manufacture will refuse warranty service if your water damage sensors are tripped, North Georgia Cell Phone Repair offers expert assessment and repair services for cell phone problems. Need to know more about signs of water damage on your phone? Click to get a free estimate on phone repair, or call 770-569-2002 to ask questions about the signs to watch for. We can fix that phone!
