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iphone4 dunked in coffee

NathalieM

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Hi all! Im new to this forum so i apologize if this post has already been covered but after searching for hours I cannot find a solution to my problem.


So basically what happened was that I dropped my iphone 4 into a large cup of coffee on Sat afternoon. I did what any normal human being would do and freaked the f**k out! I removed it immediately and began to shake it trying to get most of the coffee out of the phone (it had milk and sugar in it as well). I thought the Otterbox case that I had on the phone would protect any openings from getting wet, but for some reason my otterbox didnt cover the headphone jack or the docking part at the bottom too well. At this point the phone went a little crazy. It vibrated a few times, and the volume level turned on and off all by itself. But all seemed well to me. I thought i was one of the lucky few who saved their phone.

Boy was I wrong! The phone stayed on and seemed to be working fine, so not thinking (DUH) I continued using the phone. I should've turned the phone off immediately but I obviously didnt think and was just thrilled that my precious iphone was ok. A few minutes later, the little pinwheel came on and the phone turned off by itself. Like an idiot, again, I tried to turn the phone on but no luck. So as I frantically googled what to do to fix the phone, I placed my hairdryer about 5 inches away from the phone on low heat and tried to dry the phone.

After all that, I put the phone in a plastic bag filled with uncooked rice. It's been in there since Sat around 5pm, so a little over 48hours. I tried to turn the phone on and no luck :( . My next question was is there anything i can do at this point to try to save my iphone? Any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Im sure I short-circuited it by continuing to use it after it got wet but i didnt know any better at the time *kicking myself right now*. Help :(
 
First, Otterbox's aren't waterproof.

You have two options. Sell it on ebay for $100 or disassemble it and clean it up with rubbing alcohol. Probably wouldn't fix it though.

I'd sell it and buy a used one for $250. Make sure you remove your sim card before you sell it, if you choose to.
 
If it was just water if be willing to bet the phone could be saved...but coffee. All that gunk, milk and sugar. That's another story.. You can remove the moisture by the rice trick which you've done...but coffee has a few more things in it the. Just water.. You're phone is probably toast.
 
Spilled beer on mine sucked it out of all the holes straight away and left it on I must of been lucky because that was a month ago and it still lives
 
Unfortunately there's not much that can be done. Once an iPhone, or any type of electronic device, becomes submerged in liquid the soldered components and connects almost immediately begin to corrode. Yes it may dry and give the user a false sense of "hey my phone is good to go." However, it's almost always bet w/ demise in the near future as the corrosion starts to run it's course. Sorry for your misfortune... :-(
 
Thomasjtsi said:
Unfortunately there's not much that can be done. Once an iPhone, or any type of electronic device, becomes submerged in liquid the soldered components and connects almost immediately begin to corrode. Yes it may dry and give the user a false sense of "hey my phone is good to go." However, it's almost always bet w/ demise in the near future as the corrosion starts to run it's course. Sorry for your misfortune... :-(

Plus 1.

Hopefully manufacturers will start using liquipel, or another process like it in the near future to help prevent liquid damage like this.

Sure would save a lot of devices. Lol.
 
sorry to hear,the moisture sensors will have turned red too.
 
Please don't try to sell it on Ebay. The phone is beyond help and can't even be used for parts. It would be dishonest to sell it for any purpose.
 
Im just going to bring it to Apple today and pay for a replacement. Thanks for the replies!
 
Please don't try to sell it on Ebay. The phone is beyond help and can't even be used for parts. It would be dishonest to sell it for any purpose.

Can you explain to me how it is "dishonest" to sell a phone "as-is, has liquid damage" on eBay. I didn't state list it on eBay and sell it like it's a 100% working phone. Obviously, if you want don't want to have the buyer contact PayPal and get their money back, you must describe it accurately. I'd probably listed it as, "Broken, has liquid damage. Sold As-Is".
 
I think what enlightened is trying to point out is that, it could be sold, but in no way would the phone be usable for parts. I have to disagree because the antenna band and back covers can be cleaned and reused if needed. The screen and internals are most definitely beyond repair.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
 
I went to apple, handed them my phone, was straight up about the damage. The guy took it in the back, he said he opened it and cleaned it but it still would not power on.

He offered me a replacement for $149 (even though I expected to pay $199 for my 32gb iphone4) so I purchased it and walked out a happy customer. I asked him if it was refurbished and he said "no it's new" but who really knows.

Thanks again to everyone who replied, I appreciate it :)
 
NathalieM said:
I went to apple, handed them my phone, was straight up about the damage. The guy took it in the back, he said he opened it and cleaned it but it still would not power on.

He offered me a replacement for $149 (even though I expected to pay $199 for my 32gb iphone4) so I purchased it and walked out a happy customer. I asked him if it was refurbished and he said "no it's new" but who really knows.

Thanks again to everyone who replied, I appreciate it :)

Thumbs up.
 
Glad to hear it! And Quick, thanks for pointing out that some parts may be salvageable. I wasn't aware of that.
 
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