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How to Fix a Samsung Galaxy S4 Dropped in Water

No matter how much Smartphone manufacturers warn their customers against bringing their devices near pools or bodies of water, people still do it anyway. Then, a lot of them end up with a submerged device. One question sent to us via Mailbag concerns a Galaxy S4 dropped in water.

So, here are the “do’s and don’ts” when handling a Galaxy S4 dropped in water, starting with the “Don’ts”:

Don’t Do These

1. Powering your phone on or charging it.

2. Pressing any keys, shaking the phone or banging it as the water might continue to seep through its internal hardware.

3. Blowing the water because you might risk sending some water into the sensitive areas of your device.

4. Using a blow drier or putting your phone into the microwave because you might fry its internal parts.

5. Putting it in the freezer because the moist will have the tendency to do more damage inside the device.

What You Should Do

We recommend bringing your phone to a technician to get better chances of saving your device. But if you want to save or you really want to fix the phone all by yourself, here are the things that you should do:

1. If it is still on, turn it off. If it is already off, keep it that way.

2. Detach all its protective films and extra casing.

3. Remove its battery, SIM card, Micro SD card and other accessories.

4. Press an absorbent cloth or material on the surface of the phone and any area that you could reach. Avoid making a wiping motion to prevent water from going into its openings.

5. Some advise using a vacuum cleaning device, but we advise against using strong ones because the strong vacuum might damage its sensitive parts. Use only the low-powered ones.

6. There are actually phone drying materials that you can buy in most electronic stores and department stores. Use them.

7. Get an airtight plastic bag like a ziplock. Fill it with uncooked rice and bury your Galaxy S4 there in an upright position. Make sure that it is at least one-inch high from the base of the rice-filled plastic bag. After that, let it sit for a few days.

If notice that some water has settled in the base of your plastic bag. Remove your device, replace the uncooked rice and bury it back again. Do this for a couple of days until you are sure that it is already dry.

Note that rice actually has high water-absorption rate, so most people use this to dry electronic products which were submerged in water.

8. If you are sure that your device is absolutely dry already, turn it on and test its features. If it won’t turn on, try charging it. When it remains off upon charging, try inserting another battery to test if its battery has been damaged by water. However, when everything fails, you might want to bring it already to a technician.

There are many other ways to dry a Galaxy S4 dropped in water. You can also disassemble it completely to speed up its drying, but do this only if you are confident of your skills and you possess the right amount of technical knowledge to perform this.

Email Us

For more questions about Android devices, email us at [email protected].

Source: AndroidPIT

5 Comments

  1. Hello
    I have a Samsung S4 that got wet and now wont charge. I believe only the bottom of the phone was affected.
    Everything works, it just wont charge.
    It basically got splashed on the beach at Cocoa Beach last week.
    It’s still in service because I have extra batteries and an external charger. I just switch the battery when it is needed.
    The only problem is It wont charge the battery in the phone.
    What should I look for.
    Thanks
    Ed

  2. This is all very helpful. But it is very difficult to remove the battery. How do you do that? Right now the phone is sitting intact in the rice. Every now and then it lets out a shreek. The power light is still green, and the device (as of the moment) is still cool to the touch. Tried to shut it down before reading this advice piece. No luck. It’ll probably die a slow death.

  3. What you do after you take out the battery is submerge it in rubbing alcohol and take it out, it will dry up in a couple of minutes.

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