Phone Fell in Water? Do This First (Not Rice)

The first ten minutes after a phone goes in water matter more than almost anything you do afterward. Most of the damage isn't from the water itself — it's from what happens if the phone is powered on, charged, or left sitting while corrosion sets in. Here's what to actually do, why the rice trick doesn't work, and what it really costs to fix in Vancouver.

What to do in the first few minutes

If the phone is still on, power it off. If it's already off, leave it off — don't press the power button repeatedly to check. Apple's own guidance for a wet iPhone is to gently tap it against your hand with the charging port facing down to help trapped liquid drain, then leave it in a dry area with airflow. Don't use a hair dryer, don't blow compressed air into the port, and don't put anything (a cotton swab, a paper towel) inside the connector — all of that can push liquid further in or damage components. And critically: don't plug it in to charge until it's completely dry. Water conducts electricity, so charging a wet phone risks a short circuit that turns a simple fix into permanent board damage.

Why rice doesn't work

Putting a wet phone in rice is one of the most common pieces of phone advice — and Apple explicitly tells iPhone owners not to do it. Rice isn't actually very absorbent compared to purpose-made desiccants, and small grains or dust can work their way into the charging port or speaker grilles and cause their own damage. The rice method has never been shown to meaningfully speed up drying in any controlled test — it mostly just buys you a day of false confidence while corrosion continues underneath.

What water actually does inside a phone

The damage isn't the water sitting there — it's what the water starts once it's in contact with the board. Even a small amount of moisture around exposed contacts begins an electrochemical reaction, leaving corrosion on pins, connectors and chips. Left alone, that corrosion spreads and eats through traces that are a fraction of a millimetre wide. That's why a phone that still seems to work right after a dunk can fail completely a few days later — the corrosion needed time to spread.

What repair actually costs

We price water damage repair by outcome, not by the hour. If we open the phone, clean the corrosion, and get it working again, that's a $69–$89 job (around $79 on average). If we can't bring it back — sometimes the board damage is already too far gone by the time it reaches us — you only pay a $25–$45 diagnostic fee (around $35), not the full repair price. If the same incident also cracked the screen or damaged the charging port, we'll quote that separately once the phone is open; see our full iPhone repair cost guide or Samsung screen repair cost guide for those figures.

Watch: what a real board-level water damage repair looks like

Most water damage repairs don't need to go this deep, but it's worth seeing what the worst case actually involves — this is the kind of work a repair becomes when corrosion has already reached the board:

Will this void my warranty?

Manufacturers use a small sensor called a liquid contact indicator — it changes colour after exposure to moisture, so a technician can tell whether water reached a device even if it looks dry on the outside. Most manufacturer warranties exclude liquid damage once that indicator has triggered. Our own lifetime warranty covers the parts and labour on repairs we perform — it doesn't cover new liquid damage after the fact, same as any repair shop, but it means you're not paying twice if something we fixed fails again.

If it can't be saved

Sometimes water damage is too far gone, especially if the phone sat powered on for a while after the incident. If that happens, you're only out the diagnostic fee — and we can talk through options the same visit, including what your device is worth toward a replacement at Buy, Sell & Trade.