A waterlogged iPhone

 

TheiPhoneMom’s iPhone is currently sitting in a bag of rice.  That’s right, my iPhone took an unfortunate, accidental swim.

It all started when I took my four young children to a local child-orientated amusement park.  The park has many water rides.  Our first stop was the lazy river. I chose not to lock my iPhone 4S in my locker, but to carry it with me, in case someone needed me throughout the day.  Before we got on line for the lazy river, I buried my phone deep inside our diaper bag as a (admittedly not too advanced) security measure.  I figured no one would dig that far down into my bag to look for something to take!

 

The line was long, and the river took me out of site of our stroller and diaper bag.  And that whole time I was on the tube, with a little one on my lap while holding onto my other kids’ tubes, I was worrying about the fate of my iPhone.  Would it still be there when I returned?

 

I noticed all around me that people had waterproof cases around their necks and decided that rather than worry, I would buy one after the ride.  As soon as we finished, I went to the closest kiosk, which of course, was right next to the ride, and purchased a case that would fit my iPhone.  It had three ziplock type enclosures and then rolled down and velcroed to create a seal.  I happily slipped my iPhone inside and spent the rest of the day worry free.

 

Our last wet ride of the day was a raft down a long twisty slide.  When I went to get into the raft the waterproof case took a dip in the water.  I was vaguely worried but decided the iPhone would be ok.  When it was time to go home, I took my iPhone out of the case along with a $20 bill and that’s when I noticed just how wet that $20 was.  I nervously turned on my iPhone.

 

The moment of truth…I was elated to see that the iPhone worked!  However, it quickly became apparent that there was some water damage.  The home button refused to work and the sound insisted there were headphones attached when there clearly was not.  Over the next few hours the sound corrected but the home button remained glitchy.  The screen also showed some water signs.

 

I told my husband it was time to upgrade to an iPhone 5 when it gets announced/released in the next few weeks (or at least is rumored to be all across the media)!  But since we do not have an upgrade available in the near future, that is not really a possibility.  Our amusement park trip was looking like it would become a $1,000 trip! I was very annoyed with the amusement park for selling a faulty waterproof case and at myself for not leaving the iPhone in my locker!  On a positive note, the $20 dried out nicely.

 

And that’s how my iPhone ended up in a bag of rice.  I do not have high hopes of this method working.  It looks like I will need to send my phone into a company to fix it.  This looks like a good option:  http://fixmyiphone.com/iphone_4s

 

There are many iPhone repair companies out there, here are a few I easily found online:

http://www.missionrepair.com/

http://www.techrestore.com/

http://www.iresq.com/iphone-repair.html

http://www.rapidrepair.com/

http://www.ubreakifix.com/

http://www.restoredoctors.com/

http://www.fixmyiphone.com/

 

Have you had water damage to an iPhone?  How did you dry it out and get it back up and running?  Any experience with a repair company?  Let me know below!

 

Update! My phone has been graciously fixed by Mobile Genius:  https://www.theiphonemom.com/welcome-home-iphone