Cell phones, like most electronic items, do not like being dunked in water. That seems obvious to most people but accidents do happen.
I was in my boat, preparing it for winter storage. Wanting to look over the back of the boat to look at something I checked my shirt pocket to make sure that nothing would fall into the water. Feeling ‘safe’ I leaned over the back of the boat and ‘clunk’, ‘bump’, ‘splash’! The cell phone fell out of the holder on my hip, hit the back of the boat and fell into the water! It took about ten minutes to move the boat, get the hip waders, get a fishing net and retrieve the phone. Obviously, the cell phone was dead.
Having heard of a possible solution to the problem I removed the back cover, battery and sim card and buried them along with the phone in a bowl (with a lid) of uncooked rice. Leaving it alone for about 36 hours except for turning the bowl upside down once or twice I removed everything, reinstalled the battery and sim card and turned it on. Surprise, it started to work! The only problem was that the volume in the earpiece was very low but after another day or two it returned to normal volume. Success! I got this idea from someone who left a Blackberry in the rain and followed the same steps which worked in that case too. So, if you have the same cell phone and water accident give the bowl of rice tip a try.
Another recent incident happened when I was on the top of a ladder doing work on the roof of a house when, you guessed it, the cell phone snagged on my coat and fell off. It hit my foot and fell to a wooden bench before hitting a cement pad. The cover and battery popped out. Putting everything back together I was relieved to find that the phone still worked! (This is truly ‘solid state’.)
Maybe I should consider purchasing an insurance plan from my carrier before the phone loses any more of its nine lives.
