# Girl electrocuted after dropping charging Iphone in tub. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 11, 2017, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037 "2017-07-11T21:40:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/21 "2017-07-12T06:12:18Z")
Another member of the BigClive and AvE club checking in. Yeah, it sounds like it could be that the charger was a simple capacitive dropper, which can have mains voltage referenced at the output - I see someone has already linked the BigClive video where he runs a mains lightbulb on the potential between an output pin on a USB charger and ground. Nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/22 "2017-07-12T06:16:36Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > AvE, on the other hand…I would like I should like, but I just can’t stand the way he talks. Nearly all of his videos interest me, but within a few minutes I start getting irritated with all the, what do you call it?..made up words? > I’m sure it’s just me, once in a while I’ll check the comments and clearly I’m alone in that regard, most people seem to love it. It’s a style that he’s obviously cultivating. I can understand how it could annoy. I find it watchable just on account of the content and material, sometimes the style is quite enjoyable - and his audience has largely grown to expect it (for example I noticed a comment recently where someone picked up on the fact that he called a Snap-On tool ‘Snap-On’, instead of the usual ‘Fap-Off’) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/23 "2017-07-12T14:37:27Z")
Quite aside from the electrocution, who takes their smartphone into the bathtub? Just a momentary slip of the fingers, and you’d fry something that could cost $600-800. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/24 "2017-07-12T14:40:12Z")
I’m pretty sure the latest smartphones are waterproof. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/25 "2017-07-12T14:45:00Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Quite aside from the electrocution, who takes their smartphone into the bathtub? Just a momentary slip of the fingers, and you’d fry something that could cost $600-800. _raises hand_ I take a smartphone or tablet to the tub pretty much every day for the last, oh, I dunno, ten years. It’s really not all that difficult _not_ dropping it into the drink. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/26 "2017-07-12T14:49:58Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Quite aside from the electrocution, who takes their smartphone into the bathtub? Just a momentary slip of the fingers, and you’d fry something that could cost $600-800. > [@pulykamell](#): > > _raises hand_ I take a smartphone or tablet to the tub pretty much every day for the last, oh, I dunno, ten years. It’s really not all that difficult _not_ dropping it into the drink. Yeah, by the same logic you’d never put it in your pocket, take it in a car, go running with it, or make a phone call with it. Sure, devices get dropped occasionally, but the whole point of them is that they’re portable, and a modicum of caution can reduce that risk to negligible. Buy a protection plan if you’re accident prone. ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/27 "2017-07-12T14:56:06Z")
> [@Common\_Tater](#): > > It almost certainly was 120 volts AC. I’m wondering if it may have been an aftermarket charger. It’s too bad there aren’t any details or specifics provided, so we’re all sort of left guessing at the particulars. > > It must have been a fairly small bathroom to reach an outlet from a bathtub. Oh, OP sounded like just the phone voltage end of the deal ---
**Author:** ![Frankenstein\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ccd318/32.png) [@Frankenstein\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frankenstein_Monster)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/28 "2017-07-12T15:10:45Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Another member of the BigClive and AvE club checking in. Yeah, it sounds like it could be that the charger was a simple capacitive dropper, which can have mains voltage referenced at the output - I see someone has already linked the BigClive video where he runs a mains lightbulb on the potential between an output pin on a USB charger and ground. Nuff said. One more shout-out for Big Clive. He (or perhaps it was another Youtuber) has torn down not only some of those dangerous cheap third party chargers, but also Genuine Apple chargers. And proven that Genuine Apple chargers are well designed, well built and VERY WELL ISOLATED. So you’d never get a shock from the charging lead of a genuine Apple charger. It had to be a cheap aftermarket charger. Unless it was different scenario, like dropping an extension cord into the bath or something. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/29 "2017-07-12T15:11:03Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > It’s a style that he’s obviously cultivating. I can understand how it could annoy. > > I find it watchable just on account of the content and material, sometimes the style is quite enjoyable - and his audience has largely grown to expect it (for example I noticed a comment recently where someone picked up on the fact that he called a Snap-On tool ‘Snap-On’, instead of the usual ‘Fap-Off’) I think there’s an entire AvE dictionary on reddit somewhere with hundreds of words and phrases in it. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/30 "2017-07-12T17:11:04Z")
> [@Common\_Tater](#): > > The charging voltage isn’t a factor, it sounds like the phone case and/or charger is “hot” with respect to ground. A GFCI outlet would have been nice. Should be required by code in a bathroom. > [@yabob](#): > > Some of the news stories said she led an extension cord into the bathroom. Oh. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/31 "2017-07-12T18:23:34Z")
> [@pompeybear](#): > > … > > I’m a bit stunned that there would be enough current running from an iPhone charger plug to kill you in the bathtub… I saw what you did there. When I saw the story I was looking forward to someone bringing it up in GQ. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/32 "2017-07-12T18:49:20Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > Yeah, by the same logic you’d never put it in your pocket, take it in a car, go running with it, or make a phone call with it. Sure, devices get dropped occasionally, but the whole point of them is that they’re portable, and a modicum of caution can reduce that risk to negligible. Buy a protection plan if you’re accident prone. Dropping your phone in those situations has much less risk of ruining the phone. (I for one have never had a device with a screen break from dropping, but have from water damage.) Plus your hands usually aren’t wet in those other scenarios, and so are less slippery. I’d never dream of using a phone in the tub when I can do something so simple as put it in a ziplock baggie. Or, now that I have one (due to someone dropping my old tablet in a toilet), using my $10 waterproof case. I’ve verified both with paper towels inside. It just seems prudent to be careful, especially when doing so is quite cheap. –Unless you mean reaching over and switching the podcast I’m listening to. But I do that with the device hanging outside the tub. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/33 "2017-07-12T19:09:47Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Some of the news stories said she led an extension cord into the bathroom. Want to bet she actually dropped the plug end of the cord into the bath along with the charger? That was my thought. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/34 "2017-07-12T19:23:41Z")
Dropping the extension cord into the tub would not have resulted in burn marks on her hand. I think the extension cord or the charger was faulty, and had an exposed part at line voltage which she touched. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/35 "2017-07-12T19:25:09Z")
A shocking story. You’d think a fully charged smart phone wouldn’t need to be plugged in while you’re soaking in the tub. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/36 "2017-07-12T19:31:00Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Dropping the extension cord into the tub would not have resulted in burn marks on her hand. I think the extension cord or the charger was faulty, and had an exposed part at line voltage which she touched. Perhaps she tried to catch the cord when it fell. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/37 "2017-07-12T19:50:50Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Should be required by code in a bathroom. > … Not knowing how many decades ago that bathroom was built we can’t say that a GFCI needed to be there at all. US electrical codes are criminally low on retrofit requirements. Agree that’s all irrelevant if she pulled in an extension cord from another room. But not if she pulled an extension cord from the non-GFCI outlet in the bathroom. Right now we’re at the usual stage of post-morteming almost anything found on the news: other than the fact she’s dead, there’s almost no fact which is truly known versus guessed at or assumed by somebody somewhere along the event chain from participants to witnesses to discoverers to responders to spokesmen to reporters to editors to readers to posters to re-posters to … ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/38 "2017-07-12T21:35:24Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > You’d think a fully charged smart phone wouldn’t need to be plugged in while you’re soaking in the tub. It wouldn’t, but many people keep their, even fully charged, phones on the charger, especially while using them so that they’re still fully charged when they’re ready to leave the house. This is especially helpful if you use your phone a lot and/or the battery drains quicker then it should and you don’t like worrying that you won’t get home before that battery is at 0. Having said all of that, did one of the articles mention that the battery in the phone was fully charged? The only thing I read was that she and her step mother both regularly used their cell phones in the bathtub, while plugged in. I didn’t see any references state of charge of the phone, but it’s possible I missed that, after one or two articles, they’re all pretty much the same. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/39 "2017-07-12T21:42:33Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Quite aside from the electrocution, who takes their smartphone into the bathtub? Just a momentary slip of the fingers, and you’d fry something that could cost $600-800. Mine doesn’t cost that much, but I’m perfectly capable of doing without my phone for the amount of time it takes me to get in and out of the tub. If I do use it at all, I listen to music with it connected to speakers and sitting on the sink. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037/40 "2017-07-12T22:04:02Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Quite aside from the electrocution, who takes their smartphone into the bathtub? Just a momentary slip of the fingers, and you’d fry something that could cost $600-800. > [@Slash1972](#): > > I’m pretty sure the latest smartphones are waterproof. I’ve seen Samsung advertise the water-resistant features of its phones but didn’t know until I just searched that the iPhone 7 is also water-resistant. That’s an incentive for me to upgrade my existing iPhone 6 (although I’m waiting for the new model to be released later this year). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-electrocuted-after-dropping-charging-iphone-in-tub/791037.md?page=3)