Water damaged iPhone? Phone doesn’t respond? Read this.
If you dropped your phone in the water or spilled any types of liquid on it, remove the battery if you can, or turn it off IMMEDIATELY! Please do not try to turn it on as it may damage your device further. Putting it in rice will NOT dry it completely.
DO NOT PUT YOUR PHONE IN A BAG OF RICE. HERE IS WHY!
You probably read or heard to put your phone in a bag of rice to dry it after liquid damage. Sure, it might dry the liquid, but what doesn’t rice do?
My phone has come in contact with liquid. What should I do?
If your phone has encountered liquid it is highly recommended that you replace the phone instead of spending money on repairing it. Forget about the rice as this is not a proper method of fixing the damage. If the phone still turns on and functions you may want to back it up as soon as possible in case the phone becomes unusable in the time following. After everything is backed up you are no longer in danger of losing valuable data. At this time the phone could be replaced and the data restored back to a new phone.
Why replacing the phone is the best option after liquid damage.
Currently there are many options either through the phone’s manufacturer or through the phone carrier to exchange the phone through the “Out of warranty” replacement. The cost for replacements may very depending on how old/new the phone is but may be under half the cost of the phone itself instead of the full retail price. We know that there are many different plans people are on with their phone and carriers so this may not apply to everyone. With an “out of warranty” replacement you will have the peace of mind of a new phone with a new warranty and not have to worry about possible future cost for repair or that the phone may cease to function at anytime.
Why we don’t repair liquid damaged phones.
The short answer is that it is not cost effective and it waste of not only our time but also our customers. There was a time when the options for liquid damaged phones were very limited. Many people were faced with the only option being a replacement of the phone at the full retail cost. When this was the case the options for repairing a phone was worth the cost. Even spending over $200 in labor and replacement parts was worth it since it would be much cheaper than the retail cost. Another problem with spending money of a liquid damaged phone is that even is the phone is able to start working after proper cleaning and replacement of parts i.e charging port, LCD screen and battery there is no guarantee that entire phone will function as normal. One scenario would be that someone pays to have proper cleaning done with an ultrasonic cleaning machine as well as a replacement battery and screen due to damage. Now that have spent over $200 plus tax on the parts and everything seems fine until a while later when the phone stops accepting the SIM card. This may render many phones useless if there celular provider requires service activation through the sim card. Now this issue may be able to be resolved by a board level repair however this would most likely cost additional since this is a more time consuming and difficult job, not something that could be done under warranty given the unreliability of a liquid damaged phone.
Now this person is out several hundred dollars and has made multiple trips to a repair shop to have this same phone worked on. Is they had gone with an out of warranty replacement they may be spending the same amount but on a new phone.
The downside to replacing phones under the “Out-of-Warranty” cost.
As you can probably guessed, the downside to replacing the entire phone is that any data that has not been backed up is still stored on the liquid damaged phone and will be lost forever if not restored to a functioning state in order to back it up. If your phone has become liquid damaged and is not turning there may still be chances to retrieve the data.
How our data recovery process works.
Since many smartphones (with the exception of ones that take SD cards) store the data on the logic board of the phone the only way to recover this data is to bring the phone to a functional state. There are no hard drives located on these phones that can be removed and plugged in elsewhere. What we do involves proper cleaning of the logic board and the components located on them with an ultrasonic cleaning machine. Sometimes this alone solves the problem and the phone is able to function once all corrosion has been removed. The more common problem is that the liquid caused damage to the board causing lots of shots and damage to the chips rendering the phone unusable and unable to power on at all. We are able to identify the shorts and often replace the damaged components so that it will turn on and the data can be backed up.
What will this type of data recovery cost me?
If we are successful with the repair of the logic board and we are able to back it up the cost will start at $200 and not exceed $300. This pricing is based off the time and effort going into the work as well as the thousands of dollars we have spent of proper equipment and training to perform this type of recovery. The timing for a phone data recovery may range from 1 days-1 week depending on the severity of damage and if the job of repairing the logic board requires any components that we do not have in stock.