What to do if your phone falls into sea water? The growing dependence on technology leads more and more people to use their phones even during our trips or seaside holidays. This bad habit, in addition to hindering relaxation, could lead to accidental damage due to the smartphone falling into salt water. In these cases, If the phone falls into sea water it could suffer serious damage even if it is waterproof. The most you can do to try to limit these problems as much as possible is to implement an emergency procedure that consists of turning off the device, rinsing it in fresh water to remove the salt and letting it air dry.
How to Recover a Smartphone That Has Fallen Into Sea Water
If your smartphone has one of the certifications described in the previous chapter, and is therefore water resistant, you could try to implement the following “emergency procedure”which consists of a few simple steps. It should be noted, however, that these steps may not give the desired results: it all depends on how long it has been submerged, the extent of the damage caused by the salt water to the device, the degree of protection against liquids actually available and its current integrity. In any case, try to put these steps into practice:
- First of all, turn off your phone and rinse it with fresh water.
- Dry your phone with a dry towel or cloth.. After that leave it air dry for several hours before trying to use it again. When doing so, do not make the mistake of keeping it in direct sunlight to dry it faster, as this could irreparably damage the device. Dry the most “sensitive” areas with particular attention, i.e. those where water could have entered more easily, such as the speakers or the charging port.
- Once the device is completely dry (which may take even more than 5-6 hours from the moment it was removed from the water), try to turn it on to see if your attempts to recover it were successful or not.
If the device that fell into salt water does not have any certification for protection from liquids, it is likely that the “dive” has cost the phone (and consequently you) quite a lot. In this case, the only thing you can try to do is disassemble the device and clean it before the water permanently corrodes the circuitsremoving the SIM card, the battery in models where this is possible, and the SD card if present. Of course, to do this you need to have the right tools and reliable guides to disassemble the device piece by piece (a very useful resource for this purpose are the guides from iFixit, a site specialized in providing information on how to repair the most popular tech devices).
What is IP certification and how to check if your smartphone is waterproof
Regarding the so-called “waterproofing” of smartphones It is important to make a distinction between the various types of Standard certifications currently available, each of which offers a different degree of protection. We are referring in particular to the IP certification (International Protection Marking), a parameter that defines to what extent a device is protected against the intrusion of solid bodies and the access of liquids.
The certification code is composed of three elements:
- IP: This code identifies the name of the aforementioned certification.
- Number between 0 and 6: the first digit that follows the “IP” code indicates the degree of protection against the introduction of dust and solid bodies (in this article we will skip over this parameter, since it is not of interest to us).
- Number between 0 and 9: the second digit that follows the “IP” code indicates the degree of protection against the introduction of liquids. Regarding the second digit of the certification, to illustrate the various degrees of protection available, we have created the following explanatory table, which we hope will help you to clarify and understand what degree of protection is possibly available on your device.
| Degree of protection | Examples of Covered Damages |
|---|---|
| 0 | The device has no protection against liquid damage. |
| 1 | Protection from water drops |
| 2 | Protection against water drops falling on a device tilted at 15° |
| 3 | Protection from water spray falling on a device tilted up to 60° |
| 4 | Protection from splashes, rain and water spray |
| 5 | Protection from water jet sprayed from a 6.3 mm nozzle against weak points and openings |
| 6 | Protection from water jet sprayed from a 12.5 mm nozzle against weak points and openings |
| 7 | Protection against temporary immersion in water up to 1 meter deep for up to 30 minutes |
| 8 | Protection against temporary immersion in water up to 6 metres for up to 30 minutes (IEC 60529 standard), up to 4 metres for up to 30 minutes or up to 2 metres for up to 30 minutes (IEC 60529 standard) |
| 9 | Protection from high pressure and high temperature water jets (usually not present on smartphones). |
In short, if your smartphone is equipped with IP67 certification or IP68 It is likely that, if you act promptly, you can recover from salt water immersion (and we will see how shortly). However, it is good to keep in mind that Water and splash resistance is not a permanent feature and could physiologically decrease with normal wear and tear (furthermore, on refurbished smartphones, this feature is automatically lost when the devices are opened by authorized centers to carry out repairs and checks). Furthermore, manufacturers usually cover liquid damage within one year of purchasing the device.
