Save a Wet Cell Phone

I saw this article on Yahoo! News today about saving a wet cell phone.  It reminded me of my own wet cell phone experience.  One morning, I threw a bunch of clothes in the wash.  For whatever reason, I decided not to check the pockets...I guess it's because I normally do and there usually isn't anything there.  My kids are actually really good about not sticking things in their pockets, and I am too. Anways, after a complete wash cycle, I discovered my cell phone at the bottom of the machine after I had taken all the wet clothes out to transfer them to the dryer.  I knew that I had left my cell phone on too because I rarely turn it off.  I wondered what the chances were that a wet cell phone could be saved.

I googled how to save a wet cell phone and found all sorts of crazy ideas from baking the phone in the oven to putting it inside a sock and throwing it in the dryer. I sheepishly admitted to washing my cell phone on facebook and my friends said they heard that putting the phone in a bag/container of rice might work to dry out the phone.  This was just before Thanksgiving last year.  I took the battery out of the cell phone and placed the battery and the phone in a container of rice.  I made sure the phone and battery were completely covered by the dry rice grains. 

We left home for Thanksgiving so I think my phone stayed in the rice for 4 to 5 days.  The article in Yahoo! News recommended leaving the phones in rice for 24 to 48 hours.  When I got back from Thanksgiving, I put the battery back in the phone and turned it on.  Nothing happened so I put the phone on the charger and it said the battery was bad. 

I called verizon to see how much a new battery would cost for my run of the mill LG flip phone.  They said roughly $50.00.  I sent DH to radio shack and they wanted $50.00 as well.  I didn't want to spend $50.00 if my phone wasn't functional so I looked online to see if anyone had the battery for cheaper.  I got a genuine LG battery off of Amazon for around 5.00 and I got free shipping.  I did have to wait a few more days to see if the phone would function though.

After I put in the new battery and charged it, I turned on the phone.  The phone worked exactly like it had before it went through the wash.  I tried out all the functions and everything worked...even the camera function. I was so impressed!

So let me give you one more reason to try the rice thing before throwing something like a cell phone out the door.  For Christmas, my kids got Zhu Zhu pets.  The first thing my 2-year old did at bath time was to take 2 of the new Zhu Zhu pets and throw them in the bath.  They stopped functioning of course.  My husband took out the batteries and the motor box in each Zhu Zhu pet.  He put everything in rice for a couple of days again.  After he reassembled the Zhu Zhu pets a few days later, I put in some fresh batteries and amazingly, the little critters came back to life.

So the moral of this story is, try to salvage the things that you can.  Only consider throwing something out as a last resort.  As far as cell phones, batteries, and chargers, the EPA has a page about ecycling cell phones.  Places like Best Buy and Office Depot will accept old phones.  They do not have to be functional.

Here's my run of the mill LG flip phone.  It's not on because I can't use it in Jakarta and haven't charged it in 3 months.  It really does work :)

One of the 2 resurrected Zhu Zhu pets that made the trip from the U.S. all the way to Jakarta! I can't seem to locate the other one...I wonder where the kids have stashed it?