While doing something on your smartphone in the bathroom or toilet, you may absentmindedly forget where you were and the phone slips. Sometimes you are cooking and the phone just slips into the pot of soup or boiling water…ahgrrr… Other times, it’s totally not your fault. You could be caught by a rainstorm on your way home or something. There are endless ways by which your phone’s charging port can get water or moisture in them. Let us know more detail about ‘How To Get Water Out Of The Charging Port?’.
How To Get Water Out Of The Charging Port?
An iPhone with recent system updates will most likely alert you to liquid in your charging point the moment you plug it in to charge. Smartphones from other manufacturers simply do not have that technology yet. However, if you find that there is water or moisture in your phone’s charging point, allowing it to dry out in the air at room temperature is a very easy way to get it dry.
There are other methods that you can use and these will be discussed in the remaining part of this article. Have an enjoyable read.
6 ways to get water out of a smartphone’s charging port
Apart from allowing the phone to dry out normally by opening the back cover and allowing air at room temperature to dry it out, here are a few other methods you can try.
1. Place in rice (couscous rice, not white)
Yes. You have probably heard this said a few times by friends around and you are wondering what in the world it could be all about. Putting the phone in rice is a thing and it has some scientific reasoning to it too. Using couscous rice instead of uncooked white rice is simply because couscous absorbs water faster than uncooked rice
Also, note that while we may not outrightly recommend this option because tiny rice particles could get into your phone, it is still a valid option that people have tested and tried.
All you need to do is open the back and put it in your sac or bowl of couscous rice, making sure it is well covered. Leave it for a few minutes to several hours, depending on how much water is in there.
How does couscous rice remove the water from the phone, you may ask. Couscous rice is naturally dry and will always absorb water from the airspaces around it. This is why we keep our uncooked rice on shelves and pantries away from water.
So, when you place your phone in the couscous rice, the dry rice creates an osmotic pressure that allows the water molecules to move into them away from the phone. Viola! Your phone begins to dry up. It is best to do this at night and leave the phone in the rice overnight though to allow proper drying.
This method is especially useful if you cannot find someone to open up and remove the inbuilt battery from the phone for proper drying. Also, if there is no sunlight to help with the drying, maybe it happened at night or during winter or rainy seasons, this method is great and yields good results.
2. Dry under the sun
Avoid exposing the phone to direct heat, from a stove, iron, or any other source. The phone’s processing units have threshold temperatures under which they can properly function. When you expose it to open heat, you are risking the phone getting spoilt altogether.
You can simply air dry the phone under the sun instead if there is enough sunshine for the day. However, do not leave it out in the sun for too long too or else the ultraviolet radiation or the heat itself can affect the screen, battery, or circuit board.
3. Allow the phone to dry while standing erect.
This can be done in conjunction with air drying or sun drying. Holding the phone in an upright position, charging point downwards, allows the water to flow out through the pressure of gravity. This makes the phone dry out quicker.
You can also tap the charging point gently against your hand to increase the chance of the water getting out. Leave the phone standing for about 30 minutes before charging again. It can sometimes take up to 24 hours for your smartphone to dry out completely this way though.
4. Use silica gel
The silica gel has been used by manufacturers of shoes, bags, and virtually any product that could be damaged by the smallest of moisture to protect their wares before it gets to the final consumer. Silica gel is a good desiccant
What that implies is that you can go look for the packets of silica gel you have removed from the shoe or bag purchased recently. Find several of them if you can. Look for an airtight container and place them in it with the smartphone too.
Cover the container and leave for about an hour or more. It can take up to 3 days or more for the phone to completely dry out, depending on the amount of water that has entered the phone as a whole.
5. Allow drying under the fan or hair dryer
Both these options work by allowing dry or slightly-hot air to blow on the smartphone. The fan, preferably a ceiling fan, will allow dry air to blow on the phone and the water can dry out faster. The hair dryer, on the other hand, blows slightly hot air on the smartphone which can be a very effective way to get the water out quickly too.
Just make sure that the hair dryer is set to the lowest spin speed so that the blowing is not too much. The same goes if you are using a fan. Tunning them to the highest speed may get them dry faster but could also damage your phone. So, try to endure the wait.
Things you do that will not get water out of a charging port but damage it
There are many times we take some actions that we think should work but are only causing more damage. The following are some examples of things people do that damage wet charging ports instead of drying them out.
1. Charging the phone while the charging port is wet
This is probably the most damaging action people take unwittingly. You may think that the heat from the charging will eventually dry out the port but you are totally wrong. Instead of drying them out, the pins begin to corrode and the charging port gets destroyed outright. Also, water and electricity do not go together and you could get electrocuted when you touch the phone.
So, once you have ascertained that the charging port is wet, disconnect immediately and try any of the methods we have listed above to get it dry before continuing your charging.
2. Cleaning the port with cloth, cotton swab, or any other absorbent directly
Inserting a cotton swab, absorbent paper, or cloth directly into the charging port is not a good action to take when it is wet. There are two reasons why doing that is bad.
One, you damage the pins in the charging port, and then it ends up not working altogether after it is dry. The second reason is that you may end up just pushing the moisture further into the phone and then it goes on to damage other more vital components.
Avoid doing this at all costs. Try any of the listed options above instead.
3. Not completely shaking out the phone after drying it in rice
As good as drying in rice is, some small grains may find their way into the phone and damage it further. This is why you should make sure you shake the phone well to make sure that every grain of rice is out before you assemble and use it. Otherwise, try other drying options.
4. Leaving the smartphone to dry under compressed or hot air
When you set the fan, hair dryer, or vacuum cleaner to high speed, you risk damaging your phone. Hot hair can fry the circuit component of the phone and render it useless too. If you must use these as your drying option, then ensure that you have set them at the lowest speed. Also, they should not be placed too close to the phone.
5. Blowing air directly into the smartphone
Just like when you use a swab or absorbent paper to try to clean the charging point directly, blowing air into the port could also drive water into the phone and damage vital components. Never try that for any reason.
Conclusion
As demoralizing and probably panic-worthy as getting your phone may be, it is best not to panic. Panicking will only cause you to do more damage if you are not careful. Allowing the phone to dry out normally may seem too slow but it works most of the time, especially if the water damage is not too much.
FAQ
- How can I prevent my phone from water damage?
Some phone comes with protective covers. If yours does not, locate a phone accessory shop and get one that fits your smartphone. Once your phone has that protection, it is protected from too much water damage especially if you quickly get it out of the water if or when it falls in.
- Does water damage in a phone manifest quickly?
When a smartphone is water-damaged, the effect may not be quickly noticed, except if you are using an iPhone which alerts you once water is detected. It may take up to 3 months sometimes before your phone begins to show signs of damage.
