So I stopped in the bathroom on the way to the back to take my break. I work evenings at Wally World, though I’m looking for something else.
Anyway. I pee. I stand up…and hear “plop!” And my pants feel lighter than they should.
“Oh, shit,” says my brain. I turn around. There is my phone…in the toilet…with my pee…and God knows whose else’s germs…and the damn thing has an auto-flush. I can’t hesitate. I have to reach in there to get it or else I lose the phone and probably fuck up the toilet. Charles (maintenance guy) wouldn’t be too happy if I did that.
So I grab it, then I get out of the stall, rinse it real quick, and yank it apart to dry. I also scrub my hands within an inch of their lives. I don’t know if it’s working yet, it’s sitting in pieces on a table.
If it had been my own toilet I wouldn’t have been half as grossed out.
The first time the phone was working again in under 48 hours. The second time I retrieved it more quickly and dried it sooner so it was working again by that night.
whiterabbit take the phone apart (remove the battery) dry it as best you can and leave it in front of a fan for 12-14 hours.
I have since learned my lesson and I no longer keep my cell in my back pocket.
I’ve done it too. My phone didn’t quite dry out to the same condition it was in prior to it’s submarine expedition. I was close enough to the end of my contract to get a new phone and new contract at the incentive price. I hope you get the same deal if your phone has crapped out
I’m completely paranoid when it comes to electronics and toilet bowl. I suppose because it’s a story I’ve heard all too many times. Whenever I have to visit the john I’ll take my cell phone off the clip (or out of my pocket depending on where it is at the time) and put it on top of the tank while I do my business. If it’s a public toilet that has no tank then I’ll put it on the toilet paper dispenser or something.
I did, however, end up washing a bluetooth headset. I forgot to take it out of my jeans before doing a load of laundry. I let it dry for a week but it never worked properly after that.
My name is swampbear and I’ve dropped my cellphone in a toilet. :o Follow velvetjones advice. That’s what I did and it worked fine after a few hours drying out. I no longer have this phone. I have vowed not to drop new phone in pee.
To avoid the possibility of having hard water leave mineral (or, um, other) deposits on the electronics, rinse it in pure isopropyl alcohol (97% or higher). Besides rinsing off unwanted and potentially fatal (to the electronics) bits, it also rinses off the water and dries much quicker.
Might be too late for whiterabbit, but I’ll definitely keep that in mind for the next time my kid leaves his thumb drive in his pocket in the wash. It’s dried out OK twice so far (at my house that is, who knows how many times at his father’s house) but I have no doubt it’ll happen again.
I once threw my phone in the Thames. That counts as a toilet right? Mine never worked again but it was in there for quite a while as I swam down to the bottom and fished around in the murk.
I don’t think it’s too late - the shutter button on my digital camera shorted in the ‘pressed’ state after being exposed to quite a deluge of rain. (that’s one of the more critical buttons on a camera, for the non-photographers).
After almost a week of sitting it in front of electric heaters with it still not functioning, my co-worker brought out the 99% alcohol and poured a generous bunch on it. 5 minutes later it was working great again.
When I was first in Japan, we had a “squatter” toilet in our apartment. I was just finishing my business when my handy Japanese-English dictionary slipped out of the back pocket and fell open-page side down, onto a log, :eek: daring me to do something. I rescued it, and tried cleaning it, but eventually give up.
I’m a member of the elite club, too. Or would that be peeelite?
My father was in the hospital in ICU and I had been there with him for several days as things were not going well. At one point, I took a break to get some air and call home and stuffed the phone in my jacket pocket as I headed back in, stopping at the bathroom before I went back to my Dad’s room. A while later, I went to check the phone for missed calls (I had it on silent) and it was gone. I retraced my steps, starting with the bathroom and sure enough, there it sat at the bottom of the flushed toilet. I just started laughing my ass off. I’d had barely any sleep or food for days and I knew my Dad was not going to make it out of that damn hospital room and there was my phone, sitting at the bottom of a toilet. It just seemed so fitting.
I took it back to his room and shared my dilemma, which gave him a good laugh so I guess it was worth it. I took it apart and did my best to let it sit and dry and eventually got impatient and put it back together. I needed to contact people to let them know that it was time to come say goodbye to my Dad. The phone slowly came back to life over the next few days, a few buttons here and there and part of the screen and then more until it functioned almost fully, but never quite the same. I know how it felt.
The next phone got dropped upside down into a coffee cup. I’m wondering if they make water-proof phones.
I work in a real estate and property management office.
We’ve had more than one phone and pager down the toilet, and a Blackberry into the coffee. My husband’s cousin is a realtor as well, and he’s dropped a very expensive phone into the toilet, too.
It’s not just realtors–doctors do it, too, with pagers.
So far, with me, so good. 'Course, now I’ve just jinxed myself…
