Guide

The first hour after your phone gets wet

Written and maintained by Muhammad Usama · Last checked: 2026-09-14

What you do in the first few minutes matters more than anything you do afterwards. Most phones that die from water exposure are not killed by the water — they are killed by being powered on or charged while still wet.

If it went fully under: power it off right now. Do not finish reading this first. Water sitting on a powered-off board is usually survivable. Water on a powered board shorts traces and destroys components permanently. Everything else can wait sixty seconds.

The first five minutes

Get it out of the water and power it off. For a full submersion this is the whole ballgame. For a light splash on a water-resistant phone you can skip it.
Take the case off. Cases hold water against the body and against the speaker grille, keeping everything wet for far longer.
Remove the SIM tray. This opens a drainage path and lets you check the liquid contact indicator inside.
Dry the outside thoroughly. A towel or microfibre cloth. Pay attention to the ports, the grilles and the seams.
Tap out the obvious water. Speaker and ports facing down, firm taps against your palm. Do not shake.
If it was salt or pool water, rinse briefly with clean fresh water. Counterintuitive but correct — it dilutes the corrosive residue that would otherwise be left behind.

The first hour

Leave it off. The urge to check whether it still works is powerful and it is exactly what kills phones. There is nothing to gain.
Do not charge it. Not even to see. Current through a wet port is how ports corrode.
Stand it upright somewhere dry with airflow. A desk fan at room temperature is ideal. Not a radiator, not a hairdryer, not direct sun.
Ports facing down. Let gravity keep working.
Do not use rice. It does nothing useful and adds starch dust to your ports.
Add silica gel if you have some. Sealed box, phone and packets together. A real desiccant, unlike rice.

The next 24 to 48 hours

Wait. That is the entire instruction and it is genuinely the hardest part. For a real submersion, 24 hours is the minimum and 48 is better.

When you do power it on, check in this order:

Does it boot normally? Watch for flickering, lines on the display or a screen that responds to touches you did not make.
Does the screen look right? Any discolouration, dark patches or visible moisture under the glass means it needs opening.
Does audio work? Muffled sound is normal and expected — that is water in the speaker chamber, and the water eject tool handles it.
Do the microphones work? Record a voice memo and play it back.
Do the cameras look clear? Fogging behind the lens means moisture got into the module.
Does it charge normally? Check the port is dry first. If you get a moisture warning, wait longer.

Check the liquid contact indicator

Every modern phone has a small sticker inside the SIM tray slot that is white or silver normally and turns red or pink permanently once it contacts water. Pop the tray out and shine a torch in.

It matters for two reasons. It confirms whether water actually got inside, which is useful when you are trying to work out how worried to be. And it is the first thing a repair shop or manufacturer checks, because a tripped indicator voids a standard warranty. Knowing before you walk in saves an awkward conversation.

How bad is it? A rough guide

What happened	Realistic outlook
Splashed, water-resistant phone	Fine. Clear the speaker and move on.
Rain, in a pocket	Fine. Dry it and check the port.
Dropped in a sink, retrieved immediately	Usually fine. Dry properly, expect muffled audio for a while.
Toilet or bath, few seconds	Usually recoverable if you did not power it on.
Submerged over a minute	Uncertain. Dry for 48 hours before testing.
Salt water or swimming pool	Needs professional cleaning regardless of whether it boots.
Sugary drink, coffee, beer	Needs opening and cleaning. Sugar residue is conductive and sticky.
Washing machine cycle	Poor odds, but not zero. Do not power on. Take it in.

Why sugary drinks are worse than water

Plain water evaporates and leaves behind only a little mineral residue. A sugary drink leaves a sticky, conductive film across every surface it touched, and that film does not evaporate. It bridges contacts that should be isolated, attracts moisture from the air, and corrodes steadily.

A phone that took a coffee or a soft drink needs opening and cleaning with isopropyl alcohol by someone who knows what they are doing, even if it appears to work perfectly. Drying it will not remove the film. This is genuinely one of the cases where paying a technician early saves the phone.

Once it is dry and working

Muffled audio is the normal leftover symptom and it is the easiest one to fix. The speaker chamber is open to the outside by design, so it fills with water even on a fully waterproof phone, and the water damps the cone. Run the water eject tool — it usually clears in two or three cycles.

Device-specific notes: iPhone, Android, Samsung, iPad.

Frequently asked questions

Should I turn my phone off after it gets wet?

If it went fully under, yes, immediately. Electricity flowing through wet circuitry is what causes permanent damage — water alone on a powered-off board is survivable and often causes nothing at all. For a light splash on a water-resistant phone it is not necessary.

How do I know if there is water inside my phone?

Both iPhones and most Androids have a liquid contact indicator — a small sticker inside the SIM tray slot that is white or silver normally and turns red or pink after contact with water. Pop the tray out and look in with a torch. It is also the first thing a repair shop checks for warranty purposes.

Is water damage covered by warranty?

Almost never by a standard manufacturer warranty, and the liquid contact indicator is how they check. AppleCare+ and equivalent paid protection plans usually do cover accidental damage including liquid, typically with an excess. Worth checking what you actually have before paying for a repair.

My phone works fine now. Am I in the clear?

Mostly, but not entirely. Corrosion from minerals left behind as water evaporates develops over days and weeks, so a phone that survives the first day can develop odd faults later — a port that stops working, a microphone that fails. Nothing you can do about it beyond drying it thoroughly, but it is worth knowing if a strange fault appears two weeks later.

How long should I wait before turning it back on?

At least 24 hours for a real submersion, and 48 is better. The temptation to check whether it works is enormous and it is the single most common way people kill an otherwise recoverable phone. There is nothing to gain from turning it on early.

Is salt water really worse than fresh water?

Considerably. Salt water conducts far better, so it causes more immediate short-circuit damage, and it leaves corrosive salt crystals behind that keep attacking the board long after the water is gone. A phone that goes in the sea needs professional cleaning, not just drying.

Sources for this page

If you see a liquid-detection alert on your iPhone Apple Support Cited for: the liquid-detection alert, waiting before reconnecting power, and the drying steps Apple does and does not recommend.
IEC 60529 — Degrees of protection provided by enclosures (IP Code) International Electrotechnical Commission Cited for: what IP67 and IP68 actually certify — and that IP68 has no single universal immersion condition.

Last checked: 2026-09-14 · How we verify claims · Corrections policy