It happens to the best of us. You are sat there, innocently your phone, when the device slips from your grip and into the toilet bowl.
Before you can say, “My phone is wet,” a friend, family member, or casual acquaintance will tell you that you should immediately plunge it into rice. And if no-one fitting that bill is around, you will be told the same thing by the . According to the “hack”, putting a wet phone or device into dry, uncooked rice will remove the moisture, allowing you to turn the device back on safely.
Well, Apple has finally weighed into the conversation in about what to when you receive an alert telling you your phone is wet. Their first piece of advice is to unplug the phone (if it is plugged in) and tap the gently against your hand with the connector pointing downwards in order to remove some of the moisture. After half an hour, they advise you try charging it again.
“If you see the alert again, there is still liquid in the connector or under the pins of your cable,” Apple writes. “Leave your iPhone in a dry area with some airflow for up to a day. You can try again to charge or connect an accessory throughout this period. It might take up to 24 hours to fully dry.”
More importantly, in the “things not to do” section, they advise against using external heat sources, swabs, and paper towels. The company must be aware of the rice rumor, being the only food that made the list.
“Don’t put your iPhone in a bag of rice,” added. “Doing so could allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone.”
So, is this just a big corporate ploy to keep that toilet water inside your phone, requiring you to buy a new handset? No. While the hack has not been rigorously tested, the idea has been around , then for keeping exposed film dry. Even then it was noted that silica is more effective. In a semi-scientific test in 2014, Gazelle put rice up against couscous, oatmeal, silica gel, and cat litter, finding the same results.
According to a posted at the time, they concluded that uncooked rice was the worst of all the options tested, absorbing the least amount of water in 24 hours.
But a sponge left in the open air outperformed all of the drying agents, leading the experimenters to conclude that you’d probably be better off just leaving your phone on a shelf.
[H/T: ]