iPhone dropped in marina...write off?

Tim O

Tim O

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small worry compared to events overnight but...

just dropped my iPhone in the marina while climbing aboard

Im guessing there is really no point trying to pay for a diver to retrieve it......several metres of murky water.....and even if i did retrieve ti it is very unlikely to work again??

I did a back up about a month ago on my iTunes account, when i changed from my old iphone 3g to new iphone 5c......just checked and contacts etc are all still on old phone so presumably at worst i will have lost any new contacts and photos since the change of phone???
 
My daughter dropped her iPhone 4 getting out of the dinghy, so it was easy to recover, but it was thoroughly soaked in salt water.

I took the battery out and washed the phone out in fresh water as soon as we got back to the boat, several times and then left in clean fresh water for about 10mins and then rinsed it again.

The iPhone was then propped against an eberspacher hot air vent for several hours to bake all the water out and thoroughly dry it.

It's still working several years on.

My guess is that there's a chance it can be recovered, if it is removed from the water relatively quickly.

I think that the important thing is to remove the battery as soon as you can. The battery is likely to drive some form of electrolysis, with the salt water as the electrolyte, so the longer it's immersed in salt water with the battery connected, the less like it is to be recoverable.

I've no experience as to how long it takes to inflict terminal damage, but my guess is that it is no more than a day or so.
 
Tim O said:
small worry compared to events overnight but...

just dropped my iPhone in the marina while climbing aboard

Im guessing there is really no point trying to pay for a diver to retrieve it......several metres of murky water.....and even if i did retrieve ti it is very unlikely to work again??

I did a back up about a month ago on my iTunes account, when i changed from my old iphone 3g to new iphone 5c......just checked and contacts etc are all still on old phone so presumably at worst i will have lost any new contacts and photos since the change of phone???
Click to expand...

Assuming it's not the latest model then its probably gone. I've dropped two in water and got both to work again after shaking the water out then leaving in a bowl of rice for 24 hours with dehumidifier on full in an enclosed space. However both were flaky and both needed replacing within a month.
 
its a freshwater marina....well very nearly....Penarth in Cardiff Bay...the issue is its several metres deep and impossible to see anything so only options i think would be a diver...expensive....or try using a retrieval magnet....either way its going to be in there for hours possibly overnight before i can get it back.....
 
If you've got the settings on the phone right, then it'll back up most nights to your iCloud account (which gives you a free 5gb of storage, even if you didn't know about it....). If you get a new phone when you set it up for use it'll first prompt you to log into your iCloud account and then ask you to choose which backup edition you want to use. It'll also restore all your apps etc at the same time. (Backup happens at night when connected to a wifi network and the phone is on charge.)

As to the phone. It's dead and gone. You can't pop the back off and dry it out as the 5c is a sealed unit. So even if you could retrieve it, it's now been in the water a few hours and the insides will be completely flooded with brackish water, that will probably kill the electronics. When you then consider how difficult it will be for a diver to retrieve it (I once spent an hour or so in Barcelona marina looking for a skateboard which is a good deal larger than a phone) and how much you'll need to pay a diver, I'd shrug my shoulders and start shopping.
 
yeah i tend to agree re the phone....might try with the magnet for fun but...

dont think i had it setup to backup to iCloud....dont understand all that stuff......maybe when i sort new one out i will endeavour to get my head around it!!
 
duncan99210 said:
If you've got the settings on the phone right, then it'll back up most nights to your iCloud account
Click to expand...

I think it's much more current than overnight - I'm selling some bits on eBay at the moment and taking pictures in the living room on my phone. By the time I've gone upstairs to the study to create the listing, the pictures are already in the photos app on my iMac, transferred automatically via iCloud.

Pete
 
What everyone has missed is that you need to get the water out so wash it well in freshwater after removing the battery to remove any salt water then soak the phone in alcohol, gin, vodka, isopropyl alcohol which absorbs any remaining water.

The phone can then be dried by whatever means you have and may work ok afterwards. The battery may be knackered so don't ditch the phone before checking the battery is functional after charging.

I learnt the alcohol trick in my diving days to recover flooded cameras and it worked well.
 
I found myself in the water several years back with a Nokia 5something phone in my pocket... Removed the battery, washed in fresh water, left to dry out for several days, reinstalled battery, and it all started to smoke....
 
Giblets said:
I'm intrigued to know how folk remove the battery from an iPhone easily (without the use of a bloody great hammer!).
Click to expand...
If they are anything like the mini Ipad and Ipad, you get a hairdryer, warm the edges of the screen up and carefully lever it off, there are ribbon cables etc attched and then you can see tiny cross head screws to continue dismantling. Lots of stuff on Youtube on how to do it.
Stu
 
I did it, bought a kit off ebay along with the tools (mainly a really tiny Philips screwdriver and a really tiny Torx screwdriver) and followed a youtube guide. You need really good eyesight and/or a magnifier and make note of where every screw came from as some have fractional differences in length
 
Boat is my home...so need to check on the boat insurance if its covered!....prob not as i was given it so have no receipts etc.

Good news is, O2 shop sorted me out with new SIM so back in business with my old backup iPhone 3G for now

Also...wonderful pro-dive guys from Specialist Group International Ltd who happen to be moored next to me have offered to have a look for it as a training dive soon as they have a spare hour
 
rosssavage said:
Agreed! At least two posters claim to have done it....
Click to expand...

dead easy, I have replaced my 5s battery twice now due to poor battery life, I've even upgraded it to a better battery now because apple ones are pants, couple of screws and prising the phone in the right place, there are loads of guides on youtube
 
Dried out several phones successfully with a lot of patience in a sealed bag of rice. Takes a couple of days but works well. But you have to get any salt water rinsed out first.

Never tried alcohol but will give it a try next time, it sounds like a good way to use up the gin in the drinks cupboard.
 
I always carry a bottle of silica gel crystals on the boat, it's come in handy several times for drying out things which have got damp inadvertently. After use simply regenerate it in a warm oven, and pop it back in the bottle.
Doubt if it would do any good for a phone that's been dropped in the oggin.
 
SWMBO fell in while coming alongside and ruined her phone. It was registered in my name. I took it to EE who said "Ah Ah still six months to run on the contract so you must buy a new one" I replied "Ah Ah here is my own identical phone which is past its contract date so give me a new one and I'll fit SWMBO's sim card into my old one.

The moral of the story is whenever you need a new phone push SWMBO overboard.
 
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