2d ago

How long does it take to dry a smartphone?

My phone got some splash water. Unfortunately some water drops landed in the usb charging port. The phone gave me the error message that it detected moisture and i should dry it.

At some point the phone died because of low battery. I did not have charged it yet because of the concernings that the water and charging could damage the phone.

UPDATE: i used paper towels and let it dry overnight. I charged and there was no warnings.

22 comments

Forget rice it does not do a good job. You can do a search on it and see.
Time is your best ally with this. Since it’s enclosed, it might take up to a month or more for it to dry out, but it’s the safest method. Our son when he was a baby peed on my wife’s switch. Shop said it was toasted. One year later, it fired up just fine. She just spilled water on her switch light about a month ago and we’re gonna do the same thing with it.
If it was a few drops of water, using the corner of a paper towel to get into the port and leaving it near a fan or something should dry it fairly quickly.
I'd also recommend using silica gel/desiccant instead of using rice for drying electronics as rice will do jack shit.
If it's just a few drops in an open port, you could have probably just used a paper towel to wipe it out and then set it in front of a fan for an hour or so to make sure anything left evaporates.
Don't do the rice thing. Then you'll just be getting other dust and crap in the ports.
I've been to a big water park today, and made a couple underwater pics and vids. Of course I got the "water in usb port" message. Put the phone away (no drying whatsoever), and when I used it again a couple of hours later, I got the message that it was ok to use again. So, I'd guess no worries for you, just try to charge and your phone will check if it's okay yet.
Best ways to dry it are with a hair dryer on cool setting or with a fan so it can evaporate the moisture.
- Some sources say you shouldn't use a hair drier even on cool, because the high air pressure being forced into it can potentially cause damage. I'm just repeating what I've heard, i don't know if it's accurate or not
  
  This will depend on the strength of the air setting and how close to the phone they get. Even with the most potent hair dryer on max you wouldn't damage a phone if you keep it half a meter or two feet away from whatever you are drying.
- Avoid using a hair dryer in case it warps plastic or melts solder.
I dunno, Dad. How long does it take to dry a smartphone?
- About the time it takes to clean your room, go do that and we'll see how dry it gets.
I had this happen with a phone. It complained about moisture in the charging port for a few weeks whenever plugged in to charge, though after that, would charge for a while before complaining. The charging periods got longer and complaints rarer. The last one was a few months after the incident, and weeks after the previous complaint.
My phone tells me there's water in the port after I plug it in sometimes.
There's no danger if the phone has hardware to detect the water ingress and software to notify you. My phone when dead has given me this message, and I hit it was canned air like to clean your keyboard. Sometimes, it takes a few tries before the message goes away.
You should be fine to plug it in if you've done your best to dry it. They assume far less careful people than you will be using them.
If it's only the port on a phone that's at least resistant to water ingress, then it should only be a few hours regardless of what method is used. As long as excess water is shaken out, tiny droplets will evaporate in only a few minutes unless the environment is very humid.
If it's not at least resistant to water, it could take much longer, or already be messed up.
Air compressor. Be reasonably careful around the speakers though, don't wanna bust the speaker cones.
Throw it in uncooked rice for 24 hours
- This doesn't do anything. Rice absorbs water on contact, and even then requires heat to do so effectively. Rice does not work like the desiccant packets to reduce ambient humidity in a package.
  Rice for any length of time is less effective than just using a paper towel to soak up and large drops externally and setting the phone in front of a fan for an hour.
  
  TIL ty
  
  One of these days I’m going to either run an experiment or look up material characteristics of dry rice.
  I was under the impression that rice is very capable of absorbing water and that the sheer mass of rice and the fact that you can change it out is an advantage over the paper towel. However because rice becomes soft and sticky during the process it’s inadvisable.
- Then take it out, wipe off soggy ish rice or dust, then make sure there’s nothing lodged where it shouldn’t be. Clean, then clean again. Then realize it’s not clean, so clean again.

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