Who Knew This Popular “Life Support” Remedy Is Bad for Your Phone?

There has been many times when we hear about someone dropping their phone into some water.  Usually the toilet, which adds an element of gross to the fact that your phone is now submerged in a pool of water.  You also have to fish it out of said toilet.

For quite awhile, the popular "fix" for this has been to put your phone in a bag of uncooked rice so it would dry it out.

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Honestly, this situation has never happened to me, so I don't know first hand if this is something that actually worked or not.  I would think (unless it's water proof) that you would have to get a new phone.  I'm still not sure that isn't the case.  Have you had this happen?  Did the rice work?

Even if it did work, apparently this is not a great remedy for a wet phone.

Experts have for years pointed out that’s a bad idea – and now Apple is officially warning users not to do it.

“Don’t put your iPhone in a bag of rice. Doing so could allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone,”

So, if you don't have one of the water proof phones, what are you supposed to do if it does happen to either fall into a pool of water (toilet) or get a drink spilled on it, or any other water situation?

...dry it with a towel and put it in an airtight container packed with silica packets if you have them. Don’t charge it until you’re sure it’s dry. There are a few more instructions for iPhones dropped in water that are worth memorizing – because even if many of today’s phones are water-resistant, liquid disaster has a way of sneaking up on you.

Who has a bunch silica packets laying around?  I usually just throw those things out. Maybe not anymore. Because now, we know that maybe you should just keep those packets around in case you need them later to help dry out your phone. They are usually in any shoes you buy, some packaged clothing, vitamins and supplements, and mail order items.  Throw them in a drawer.  You might need them later.