You spilled coffee on your smartphone, dropped it in the toilet or forgot you had it in your pocket when you jumped in the pool. The first thing your friends will tell you, is to put it in rice right away and leave it there until it dries off. The sad truth is that it’s not going to work. You can read here why and what to do instead.

Rice, oatmeal or cat litter?
First of all, rice is not a very good drying agent, and nobody really seems to know how long you should let in dry for it to actually work. When putting your smartphone in a bag of rice the risk of causing more harm is almost bigger than the chance of it saving your device.

While rice may be a handy and cheap way to try to resuscitate your drowned phone, there is a risk that dust from the rice will get inside the phone. This makes that expensive cover your bought to keep dust out of your phone seem a bit of a waste. Also, rice gets really sticky when wet and you risk that it gets stuck in the charger inlet, the microphone or in other small cracks and holes in the phone.

So, rice is off the table, but you might have other things in your cupboards that will work. Oatmeal, grains, cat litter, coffee beans? Even if these items remove visible liquids you still risk getting dust and parts of the products stuck in the phone.

The damage will show over time
There is one more downside to the phone-in-rice solution. Even if you leave it for a week or more to dry you will still not be able to clean out liquids inside your phone. Sticky soda or sugary coffee gets stuck on the components causing mold and corrosion to form. The same thing happens even if you just dropped it in water.

Should you be so lucky that you can turn the phone on you will most likely still end up with a dead phone over time. Eventually the microphone might stop working or the gyroscope will get unreliable (a small chip that controls your phone’s sense of direction). The corrosion will form inside the phone and slowly kill it.

Please note that Techsave does not recommend turning on your phone after a liquid damage. Read more about first aid for your phone here…

A Techsave cleaning will save your phone
Forget about rice and other cheerful advice, what your phone need is a Techsave cleaning. We have developed a specially designed, patented process that cleans your phone from any liquids and removes and stops corrosion.

When you hand your device into one of our partners it is carefully disassembled and put into the Techsave machine. During less than two hours the machine will clean your phone with a 50-step specially designed program. After the cleaning the certified technician will run different test to make sure your phone is fully functioning after which it will be assembled and returned to you again.

Find your local Techsave Partner on our World map
If you do not find a partner near you, please send us a message on the 24/7 chat and we will help you out!