DIY Advice Blog

The Family Handyman reader Scott Martinez can attest to using rice to save an electronic gadget. (This Handy Hint, from our March 2011 issue, p. 33, is also shown below.) Twice now his wife has completely drenched her BlackBerry (once it took a spin in the washing machine, and once it spent the night outside in the rain). Both times they pulled the SIM card, micro SD card and battery for the phone and encased the phone in rice. Both times the BlackBerry came back to life and functioned completely normally.

So if your cell phone makes an unfortunate splash into the toilet, first and foremost, DON'T turn it on. You'll short it out and it'll be finito. Try the “rice technique” in our hint and these pointers from Scott:
1.    Use uncooked white rice (brown rice doesn’t absorb the moisture as well).
2.    Don’t skimp on the rice. You should have an inch of rice on all sides of the gadget.
3.    Leave the battery cover off while the phone is in the rice. You may need to get rice grains out of a few crevices, but you get better moisture removal.
4.    Twenty-four hours is the bare minimum. Scott recommends 48 to be sure.
5.    Scott says his friends have said that this method even works for laptops and iPads. They recommend using the larger zipper-seal bags found at hardware stores (near the cleaning supplies) and lots of rice. (Rice is cheap; see No. 2).

—    Donna Bierbach, Copy Editor

Original Handy Hint from magazine: Save your wet cell phone (it’s worth a shot)

If you act fast, there’s a chance you can save your wet cell phone. First, DON’T TURN IT ON. You’ll short it out and that’ll be the end of your phone. Instead, immediately remove the battery (and the SIM card, if you have one) and use a clean cloth to dry off the phone inside and out. Don’t use a hair dryer or anything else hot to dry it because you’ll damage the components. To absorb any leftover moisture, put the battery and phone in a plastic container filled with uncooked rice, snap on the lid and let it sit overnight. The next morning, insert the battery, cross your fingers and power it up. You might be pleasantly surprised (and if it doesn’t work, at least you tried).

Editor’s note:
If you drop your phone in salt water, immediately remove the battery and flush the phone with fresh water to prevent damage from salt crystals. Then try the process explained above.