OT: Water damaged iPhone 6

[Dean Pope]

OK a question for the board: so the wife has a water damaged iPhone 6. We tried to dry it out to no avail. It's about six months into the new contract. I am wondering what the best course of action should be. Sounds like it can be repaired for $299. Or should I get her a different iPhone to get by on for the next year or so? What's the best course of action?

 

[Laner2]

Try putting it in a paper bag with lots of white rice. The rice acts as a desiccant, absorbing moisture from the phone. If you put it in a sealed plastic bag, overall moisture level doesn't change, hence the open paper bag.


If it works, cheap fix. If it doesn't it won't cost you much to try it. Let me know how it works.

 

[donahues17]

do you have insurance on it? It costs 199 I believe for the insurance claim. If you don't have insurance, call your carrier and see if they will add it but obviously don't tell them about the damage. If they add it, wait about a month and make a claim.

 

[bigboxes]

Originally posted by Laner2:
Try putting it in a paper bag with lots of white rice. The rice acts as a desiccant, absorbing moisture from the phone. If you put it in a sealed plastic bag, overall moisture level doesn't change, hence the open paper bag.


If it works, cheap fix. If it doesn't it won't cost you much to try it. Let me know how it works.

That's what I would do. Just don't turn it on. Insurance (for a phone) is a rip.

 

[huskerbux]

The rice thing doesn't work with the iPhones unless you have the tools to open it up. Need to be able to get to the components inside to remove the moisture. And if you can see water marks under the screen you are probably out of luck. i took mine (4S) a couple years ago and that is what the guy told me. He replaced the screen and it powered up after he dried it out for a day but it got real hot and would only work for a couple hours at a time. He ended up refunding my money and kept the phone for parts. Agree insurance is a rip off for phone. I'd go the 299 route if you can get it. Good luck

 

[bigboxes]

Originally posted by huskerbux:
The rice thing doesn't work with the iPhones unless you have the tools to open it up. Need to be able to get to the components inside to remove the moisture. And if you can see water marks under the screen you are probably out of luck. i took mine (4S) a couple years ago and that is what the guy told me. He replaced the screen and it powered up after he dried it out for a day but it got real hot and would only work for a couple hours at a time. He ended up refunding my money and kept the phone for parts. Agree insurance is a rip off for phone. I'd go the 299 route if you can get it. Good luck

I'm a PC tech and I finally bought a set of tools just so that I could take apart tablets and cell phones as I got tired of relying on someone else to do something that I should be able to do myself. I was nice to a neighbor of mine who was a phone tech and was able to swap out the spidered screen. When the unserviceable battery was crapping out I bought the tool set and replaced my own battery for $10 (phone company wanted $50 - eff that). Current phone has removable battery, but you never know about the next model. Samsung's new S6 will have a non-removable battery so less models are giving you that option. I'd do the $299 deal as well if I had to. Personally, I save my phones (instead of selling them). That's backup plan #1. You could always go the ebay route and buy a phone to get you by until you are close to your contract date. That's guessing that you can do without an iPhone in the interim as they sell for quite a lot off contract.

 

[Jarvis]

commit insurance fraud... good advice.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[Nebraska Fan]

I'm pretty sure that phone went on the fritz before your wife didn't care about water, it's easy to not care about broken equipment. If one of the moisture indicators has changed color it was after the phone acted up. You're a reasonable person so I am sure you would stand perhaps 50% of a new phone.

 

[Laner2]

Originally posted by Jarvis:
commit insurance fraud... good advice.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

Did I miss something? Who said that?

 

[Dean Pope]

Thanks to everyone for the replies. I'm always impressed at the variety of expertise on this board. We tried the rice trick for 24 hours. It still won't turn on. We plugged it in and got it to respond, but all we saw were a bunch of colors. The tough thing is that iphone 6 was in perfect condition. I think I'm going to try to get it fixed for the $299-- Apple says that they usually just replace it. Unfortunately, we did sell off her old iphone 4. Kinda regret that now, but we got quite a bit of money on the trade in.

 

[coach00036]

Same thing happened to me, less than a month into a new contract. Took it to the Apple store, and they gave me a brand new one rather than trying to repair the old one. $300. Better than having to pay full retail for a new phone, I guess.

 

[NikkiSixx]

My girlfriend washed my cargo shorts years ago along with the first iphone, which was quite expensive back then and wasn't subsidized. I could have salvaged it with the white rice trick had I known about it. I sold it to some place online for 100 bucks for parts and then paid to cancel the contract. That was one expensive laundry bill. I guess it's not an option with the wife, but for me, I just gave up on the whole cell phone thing, besides who do I want to talk to anyways? Magic Jack works sometimes and only costs me $35 a year.

 

[Dean Pope]

Originally posted by coach00036:
Same thing happened to me, less than a month into a new contract. Took it to the Apple store, and they gave me a brand new one rather than trying to repair the old one. $300. Better than having to pay full retail for a new phone, I guess.

Did you have to make an appointment or did you just walk in?

 

[huskerbux]

Originally posted by Laner2:

Originally posted by Jarvis:
commit insurance fraud... good advice.

Posted from Rivals Mobile

Did I miss something? Who said that?

Donahues.

 

[All N]

Below is insurance fraud.....


one of the poster above said "do you have insurance on it? It costs 199 I believe for the insurance claim. If you don't have insurance, call your carrier and see if they will add it but obviously don't tell them about the damage. If they add it, wait about a month and make a claim."

 

[coach00036]

I made an appointment online. It was pretty simple, and I didn't have to wait to get help. They have a couple of geniuses dedicated to walk-ins, but that queue can get pretty long.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[T...Chafes]

iPhones don't handle water well at all. My wife dropped her iPhone 6+ in a toilet about a month ago for about 2 seconds. It was done, wouldn't restart at all for a few days. She hooked up her old iPhone and waited a couple of days to see if the water logged one would work.

She had insurance through Assurance, got herself a new iPhone overnighted. I think it was $200?

 

[meo1960]

Rice thing doesn't work. Have to take back cover off and use a hair dryer to dry it out. I was able to revive mine like that after wife put it through the washing machine. Don't power it up while it's wet, you could do some serious damage. Wife was amazed, but I have a fixit background so I know a few thangs!

Also, there are water damage sensors in the iphone. About 4 iirc. 1 in headphone jack. 1 down in recharging jack at bottom of phone. 1 inside the back case, on a pc board. Just shine a flashlight down the headphone or power jacks. The sensor is supposed to be white. if it isn't, perhaps turned red, that is an indication of moisture damage. Once they see this, they will deny your insurance claim. Been there, done that!

This post was edited on 4/3 3:12 PM by meo1960