Dropped your iPhone in water? Here’s why you shouldn’t dry it in rice

We’re no strangers to the occasional spills and splashes of water or coffee on our smartphones. At some point or the other, we’ve also probably dropped our phones in water – perhaps in a random puddle in the rain.

Now, should you happen to use an iPhone and have been in a similar situation, with the dreaded liquid detection alert popping up on your screen, your first instinct was to probably dunk the smartphone in a bag of rice. Effective as it may seem, it actually endangers your iPhone more. Read on to find out just how.

Is the rice bag method really effective at drying your phone?

For years, users have turned to the humble bag of rice when they’ve dropped their iPhones in water. The method is pretty simple. Pop your phone in the bag with rice (raw rice, mind you), and wait for about 48 hours. The rice should ideally absorb the water inside the phone before it damages any internal components. Evidence also suggests that it has worked, in a few cases.

However, Craig Beinecke, co-founder of Tek-Dry, a Colorado-based company warns otherwise. TekDry is a company, which, as one of its services, offers to dry any electronics their clients may have dropped in liquids, quickly and safely. According to Beinecke, to test out the method, they submerged a phone in liquid and left it on a kitchen counter. They also did the same with a phone and dropped it in a bag of rice.

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Interestingly however, it was found that the rice was slower to dry the phone than just leaving it on the counter, having drawn out only about 13 per cent of the water in it. Moreover, they also found traces of fust and starch in the phone, which came in because of the rice. This suggests that leaving your iPhone to dry in a bag of rice may actually endanger it more.

Drying your iPhone: Things to remember

Apple recommends that to dry your iPhone, tap your hand against it gently with the charging port facing downwards, to remove any excess liquid. Following this, leave the iPhone in a dry area, for at least up to 24 hours for it to dry completely. Apple says that after about 30 minutes, however, you can try and connect your lightning cable or USB Type-C cable to the phone, to check if it is charging and its port is in working order. This, according to Apple, is the safest method to dry your phone.

Now, there are also a few things Apple recommends not to do, to dry your phone:

1. Do not dunk the device in rice, as the rice grains may also enter the phone and damage smaller internal components on the phone.

2. Do not insert other foreign objects such as cotton swabs or cloth and paper towels into an iPhone’s ports to dry it

3. Never use external heat sources or compressed air, such as those from hair dryers, to dry your iPhone, as overheating can also cause damage to the internal components, and also cause the water to spread further more.

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Always remember, the first thing to do if you drop your phone in water, should probably be to switch it off and take it to a service center as soon as you can, to ensure a trained technician can take a look at it and fix it. Never try charging it before it’s dried, as it may cause the phone to short circuit, damaging the motherboard. Secondly, always ensure you regularly back up your data, toprevent any sudden losses of the same due to damage to the onternal components on your iPhone.