My cell phone went through the washer. Is there any hope it will work again after it dries out?
It’s possible that it could continue to work. I have had numerous people jump into my swimming pool and accidentally leave their cell phone in their pocket. Usually, we break out a hair dryer to get the phone dried out pretty quickly. Our resuscitation rate is running at about 50%.
What type of phone? Was it powered on when it went through the washer?
No idea whether laundry detergent plays a role here in whether or not you can bring the phone back to life. I suspect it does.
Give it a try but don’t get your hopes up. Detergent is generally corrosive enough to cause some serious problems with electronics. If you caught it early enough I sould suggest rinsing it in deionized or distiled water but if it’s dried the damage is already done.
Pools aren’t quite so bad though I suspect the salt water pools that are becoming popular would be. I’ve soaked a non-waterproof Motorola radio in the pool and it worked fine after drying.
Take the battery out and let it all dry for a couple of days. Then, fire it up and see if it lived or not.
Just two weeks ago, my partner washed an LG phone - it was at the bottom of the washing machine, and it didn’t get into the dryer. We dried it out and it still works. The batery only holds a charge for a bit under two days now, but I don’t know if the battery itself is damaged, or if something (still moist inside?) is causing a higher drain on the battery.
But it was very impressive to pull a still turned-on phone out of the washer.
My ex-girlfriend dropped her cell phone in the toilet (before she had peed in it, or worse, thankfully). I dried it out successfully by placing it in a sealed Tupperware-type container with some dessicant on the bottom, and a folded paper towel on top of that. I left it that way for a day or so, and when I took the phone out, it worked! My hope was to get the water out of it as quickly as possible, before it had a chance to work its magic. Any contaminants in the water would have stayed in the phone, of course, but at least in this case, it worked.
I jumped off a tire swing into a dirty lake w/ cell phone in pocket (LG phone). The next day it had dried out, I put it into the charger, and it worked just fine after that.
i rode my bike through the pouring rain a few months ago and found when i got to work that my cellphone that was in my pocket was completely soaked. Worse, it had been on, which I thought for sure would have destroyed it. I left it on top of a warm radiator at work for the next 6 hours, after which point it was back to normal!
There is some sort of a trick involving 99.9% isopropyl alcohol that will drive the moisture out. Basically you submerge the device and then dry it out. I’m fuzzy on the details, but I’m sure someone from the military is going to come along and explain it further.