When iDiots, iMmersion and iPhones collide, the iDiot needs help.

October 12, 2009 1:59 PM

Iphone 3GS+Water=Unhappiness. Can I reactivate my 1st gen iphone while the 3GS is sitting in a bowl of rice for the next few days?

So my iphone wound up immersed in water. I immediately dried it off, popped out the SIM card, got as much water out of that slot as well as anywhere else I could find it, and then covered it in rice.

I still have my 1st gen iphone. Can I reactivate it and use it while I'm waiting to see if I'm about to be several hundred dollars poorer 5 days from now? What would the re-re-activation process be should the 3GS (fingers crossed, hopinghoping) work again?

These questions as well as any further advice/anecdotal info (experiences replacing phones with water damage, how long I should wait, etcetc) would be much appreciated!

posted by nevercalm to computers & internet (12 comments total)

heh, my iphone 3g just went through the wash cycle saturday. good luck, but don't hold your breath on recussitating it.

i imagine you can re-activate an older phone, but i don't know for sure.
posted by askmehow at 2:06 PM on October 12

You should be able to remove the SIM card from your 3GS and put it into your old phone.
posted by mbrubeck at 2:06 PM on October 12

"You should be able to remove the SIM card from your 3GS and put it into your old phone."
+1

Try it, it should work no problem.
posted by kenbennedy at 2:26 PM on October 12

I have no advice to offer you, only a dash of hope. I dropped my 3g iphone in the kitchen sink, yanked it right out, dried it off and quickly shoved it in a bowl of rice. It was in a case, but not a water tight one. I left it in the rice for something like 3 days and the only scar it shows is a single dead pixel. That was about 6 months ago.
posted by diamondsky at 2:53 PM on October 12

Also hope -- my 3G also got wet this spring, and it spent 3 days in a baggie of dry rice, with a few silica gel packs thrown in (not sure if a sealed bag or open bowl is better?). It also survived, though a few months later the sound started going a little wonky ... I sometimes have to put phone calls on speaker or use headphones. But that's fairly minor for me. Good luck!
posted by lisa g at 3:02 PM on October 12

Put the bowl of rice (with the phone buried) in the fridge. Inside the fridge is a very dry environment and that helps the process. It will be cold, but get drier faster.
posted by pearlybob at 3:36 PM on October 12

Check your credit card benefits. If you bought the phone within the last 90 days using an American Express, they'll give you a replacement phone.
posted by designbot at 3:56 PM on October 12

Does Applecare help me in any way shape or form, here? And if not, and the phone is irretrievably damaged, am I stuck with 22 useless mos of the 24 mos of the package, or can I get a partial refund?
posted by nevercalm at 4:00 PM on October 12

Applecare is of no use here as all the policies specifically rule out water damage. They'll check the top and bottom moisture indicators on your iPhone, if either are red (water damage), they won't do anything.
posted by meowzilla at 5:22 PM on October 12

The Apple Store may offer you a refurbed iPhone for $199 without extending your contract. At least that's what they did when my brother dropped his in a jacuzzi.
posted by birdherder at 7:19 PM on October 12

AppleCare is no go, but they may repair it for $200.
You can reactivate your original iPhone, and it should return your contract rate back to the good old $20 data with 200 texts instead of $30 with no texts. It was actually a loophole I took advantage of for the first two months after buying my wife's 3G (we don't have 3G service here, so I had no issue not paying the extra $10). They of course caught on eventually.

If you do get your 3GS working again, and put the SIM card back in, you'll find that your data plan will probably still work at $20, with all that 3G magic. Then you will get a kindly text message or call in the next few days telling you to get your iPhone 3G plan in line.
posted by shinynewnick at 7:37 PM on October 12

Should you get it functioning again, be careful. I once got caught in a torrential downpour with mine (uh...perhaps more than once) and it works fine, but since then sometimes it shocks me when I touch it. It's relatively mild (say, "rollerskating while fuzzy sweater clad" order of magnitude) but unnerving nonetheless. In particular, watch out for the corners.
posted by little e at 4:15 AM on October 16