Comments on: What to do if your BlackBerry gets water damage

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:32:10 +0000

Too bad I was fishing when getting mine wet and couldn’t look this site up. Great ideas in the comments. I believe mine’s dead for good now though.

By: Mark H

Mark H — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:57:01 +0000

My wife dropped her blackberry in water. We immediately removed the battery, and used a vacuum to suck out the water. It worked great, you could see the water being pulled out of the screen. continued to use the vacuum for about 10 minutes to get as much water out as possible. Then put the phone and battery in a tupperware container with white rice and let it sit for 2 days. It started right up when the battery was installed, and works fine!!!
I think the secret is to get the battery out and remove the water with a vacuum before it can damage/corrode the phone

By: Bill Wright

Bill Wright — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:46:53 +0000

Silica Gel is strongly required for drying cell phones. It is the most absorbent commercially available material out there. It will dry out anything, I got my original iPhone (don’t laugh at me) wet and was not covered under warranty because of their moisture sensor. I covered the phone in silica gel and it worked wonders and it actually worked again! It seems like that the Silica Gel option is the most effective, thus why they use this in every electronics package you get when you buy something new!

Just google the terms: Silica Gel Packets and you will find plenty of suppliers, I used http://www.SilicaGelPackets.com and worked well for me.

By: Planet Android » Blog Archive » What To Do If Your Android Phone Gets Water Damage

Fri, 29 May 2009 01:18:12 +0000

[...] I got this from one of the Blackberry blogs I still read. But it’s good all around advice for owners of expensive phones. I know first, [...]

By: What To Do If Your Android Phone Gets Water Damage | The Android Site

What To Do If Your Android Phone Gets Water Damage | The Android Site — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:02:25 +0000

[...] I got this from one of the Blackberry blogs I still read. But it’s good all around advice for owners of expensive phones. I know first, [...]

By: gmbnard (Nard)

gmbnard (Nard) — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:16:55 +0000

What to do if your BlackBerry gets water damage http://bit.ly/rxz1J

By: JennaGlynn (Jenna Glynn)

JennaGlynn (Jenna Glynn) — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:17:19 +0000

RT @BlackBerryCool What to do if your BlackBerry gets water damage http://bit.ly/rxz1J

By: MixedBunny (Mixed Bunny)

MixedBunny (Mixed Bunny) — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:15:25 +0000

Just happened to me!!! RT @BlackBerryCool: What to do if your BlackBerry gets water damage http://bit.ly/rxz1J

By: mjmclean (Martha McLean)

mjmclean (Martha McLean) — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:14:14 +0000

What about dim sum sauce?? RT @BlackBerryCool: What to do if your BlackBerry gets water damage http://bit.ly/rxz1J

By: j chicago

j chicago — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:44:49 +0000

Horrible method.At very best you would have an hour when the sun is directly above you to be able to have sunlight on all sides of your phone, and someone would probably steal it as it was baking outside. And this would require a trip towards the North Pole during summer to be able to leave it in sunlight 24 hours.

By: Pederson

Pederson — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:37:04 +0000

oh my god BlackBerryCool is pathetic. I have to unsubscribe to all these horrible Blackberry sites.

By: hiroprotagonist

hiroprotagonist — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:07:23 +0000

The advice isn’t really all that great, and is the same re-hash of a millon other sites.

You need to pull the device apart to get ALL the water out from inside it, and clean some of the sensitive areas with a cue-tip, and even with a cleaning solvent that is safe for electronics. Sunlight on the outer surface is not going to guarantee it is dry on the inside completely. And worse still, corrosion can occur in spots that were not properly swabbed clean.

There are many tutorials on how to safely disassemble a blackberry, including full videos. The devices are remarkably modular and a full tear-down can be done by anyone in a matter of minutes. The bottom anteanna assembly is the only super-sensitive area you need to be careful of. The rest is plug-and-play.

Additionally, it is wise to invest in some spare / backup parts for the blackberry. Many online stores offer them. Any of the major components can be bought as spare parts except for the mainboard. And these are for very reasonable prices. If you do a tear-down of the Blackberry and make sure the mainboard gets clean, you can replace any other part of the device that is fried and restore to brand new condition.

And finally, I would not recommend re-using the battery. Get a new one, they are cheap. It is not worth your own safety to attempt to reuse it. You cannot guarantee that it is perfectly sealed and that water did not seep into the battery. Paranoid? Maybe. But you don’t want one of those things blowing up on you, that’s for sure.

By: raymond bell

raymond bell — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:48:19 +0000

Wow all you healthy people who must drink water! I would imagine tea,coffee, beer etc more likely (and all being more damaging than water). 1 week ago I spilt hot ginger tea.step:
1. Scream F++++
2. Pull battery sim and mini sd
3. Leave for 10 mins in sink of water
4. Dry off and disasemble
5. Clean and leave to dry for 3 days
6. Re asemble
…And with the exception of the track ball jobs all good.
7. For the next 4 days persistantly press the trackball until it eventually springs back to life.

By: Thomas M

Thomas M — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:28:13 +0000

Advanced techniques? Don’t they just need to look at the white box on the side of the battery which reveals a red stripe on it if exposed to water?

By: Steven B.

Steven B. — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:05:25 +0000

hmm, maybe because they saw a colored stain, but it wasn’t sticky? — no sugar. DUH, such good CSI techniques. I’m 22 and even I knew that.

By: Steven B.

Steven B. — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:03:37 +0000

It seems as though all BlackBerryCool.com news and posts just so happen to be the exact same as CrackBerry.com, just a couple hours later. How do you guys seem to still have jobs?