Slightly paranoid question: if I leave my phone on the countertop in the bathroom while I have a shower and the room gets all steamed up, is that likely to damage it? I know phones have some kind of moisture-sensitive strip inside to prove whether it’s been exposed to water.
So, bonus Q: even if the steam won’t kill the phone in itself, will it trigger the moisture-sensitive strip so that if the phone craps out for an unrelated reason, my warranty will be voided?
I imagine that it isn’t good for the phone, but also isn’t as bad as actually getting wet, since steam is likely less conductive than tap water (essentially distilled water, probably some impurities from the air but close enough). Water also has a way of getting into places where it won’t come out easily; for example, if it got into the screen.
Also, while this doesn’t apply to phones, leaving a laptop computer (with a hard drive, not SSD) in the bathroom is a really bad idea, regardless of how bad condensation is to electronics - moisture will condense on the hard drive platters and crash it (hard drives are not airtight, only dust-tight).
I played around with some of the moisture sensitive paper strip stuff when I was looking for a cheap and easy way to detect condensation for an experiment involving fumigation. I found to my dismay, at least with the stuff that I was using, that a light layer of condensation would not cause it to change color. There needed to be enough water present to wick underneath the outer plastic coating. Different strips may work differently though, so YMMV.
I seem to remember using a phrase similar to “if you take it into the steamy bathroom, you might as well throw it in the toilet.”
Yes. Absolutely. It probably won’t kill the phone immediately so it’s not quite as bad as dunking the phone in the toilet, but it will cause corrosion inside the phone and the phone will die an early death.
Both very high and very low humidity are bad for electronics. With very high humidity you end up with moisture inside the device which kills it, and with very low humidity you have more of a danger from static electricity building up to dangerous levels. A more moderate humidity level is ideal.
Yep.
My phone died after being left in the glovebox of a convertible in a heavy rain. The humidity triggered the paint dot and the repair place said “No.”
Thanks for the input. I’ll leave it outside (or well covered up) in future then.
If I shower with the door closed, i lay my phone on the counter then put my shirt or socks or something over it. Then I spend 10 minutes looking for it when i’m done.