Is it possible to revive a phone which was submerged in water?

[iAtomPlaza]

Hey, I have an s6 which has been dead for a few months because it was submerged into water, luckily my dad had a spare older phone I could use and so I just left my s6 alone...

 

Iv done minor digging into the topic and found ppl using isopropyl alcohol to combat the effects of water damage.. but they were using phones which were resenty damaged.

 

So is it possible to revive my s6 since it has been damaged for a few months?

[Shimejii]

Its possible to do it right away, usually taking it apart and drying everything out. Generally when you leave it sitting inside with water it will degrade a lot more then if you dried it out. Its possible to recover the files and everything unless it was just dunked and sat there in water for prolonged periods of time, but its not gonna be cheap.

[dizmo]

Probably toast if it's been that long and it doesn't work. Phone isn't really worth trying to revive by any monetary means.

[TempestCatto]

If it's been sitting and you didn't try and evacuate the water right away, chances are the traces and solder points are full of corrosion. You may be able to take the device apart and clean off some of the solder points with isopropyl alcohol, but you won't be able to reach key solder points under the integrated chips (i know they have a name, it eludes me right now for some reason). If you had an SD card in, I'd take that out, clean the contacts with isopropyl alcohol and give it a shot.

 

Being me, I'd just let it soak in a bath of isopropyl and then try and air it out. But I'd only ever recommend that if you had nothing to lose and just wanted to waste some time.

[Mark Kaine]

Yes,  but usually you'd have to act fast.  Sounds like you didn't even remove the battery after it happened... 

 

I think it's toast but the isopropyl bath is about your only chance and probably worth trying since isopropyl is cheap. 

 

And please read all safety instructions regarding isopropyl,  because while it's generally harmless it can be dangerous as well.

 

 

[iAtomPlaza]

On 11/27/2019 at 4:21 AM, Mark Kaine said:

Sounds like you didn't even remove the battery after it happened... 

It's a samsung galaxy s6... the battery is non removable. Yes, I atmit it's probably toast, but hey, I think I'll still give it a shot anyways to test my luck.

[Mark Kaine]

19 minutes ago, iAtomPlaza said:

It's a samsung galaxy s6... the battery is non removable. Yes, I atmit it's probably toast, but hey, I think I'll still give it a shot anyways to test my luck.

The battery is most certainly removable 

 

And I would recommend you to do that actually as I don't think it's a good idea to put that into isopropyl... Unlike the rest of your phone which is certainly worth a try at least. 

I would just clean the contacts of the battery - and tbh it's quite likely the battery would need to be replaced anyway,  50/50 chance... Which you might wouldn't want to do, but on the other hand replacement batteries for phones are usually cheap, I paid €10 for my Xperia Z1 battery for example. 

[TempestCatto]

17 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

The battery is most certainly removable 

 

And I would recommend you to do that actually as I don't think it's a good idea to put that into isopropyl... Unlike the rest of your phone which is certainly worth a try at least. 

I would just clean the contacts of the battery - and tbh it's quite likely the battery would need to be replaced anyway,  50/50 chance... Which you might wouldn't want to do, but on the other hand replacement batteries for phones are usually cheap, I paid €10 for my Xperia Z1 battery for example. 

Non removable but serviceable. You cannot pop off the back cover and slip it out real quick. It requires partial disassembly of the phone. I think that's what OP means when he says "non removable". Yes, certainly it can be taken out via taking the device apart. I would recommend it before doing anything else, in fact.

[Mark Kaine]

24 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

Non removable but serviceable. You cannot pop off the back cover and slip it out real quick. It requires partial disassembly of the phone. I think that's what OP means when he says "non removable". Yes, certainly it can be taken out via taking the device apart. I would recommend it before doing anything else, in fact.

And I would add to really let everything dry for a couple of days after doing the isopropyl thing... 

It might have been a long time but there can still be water in some parts and the isopropyl can stay possibly longer in some edges than one would think too - it's mostly important to  let it dry long enough to make sure any water is gone completely though. 

 

Fun fact my old Intel Pentium 1 PC has been pretty much soaked with water many times (it was under a window in the attic lol) but it still works,  to this day... 

 

I've always let it dry - upside down - whenever that happened,  and yeah somehow I was lucky it was never turned on or even connected to the wall when this happened. 

 

That's just how l learned that water not necessarily damages electronics, it's more the combination of water and current that does.

[TempestCatto]

6 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

And I would add to really let everything dry for a couple of days after doing the isopropyl thing... 

It might have been a long time but there can still be water in some parts and the isopropyl can stay possibly longer in some edges than one would think too - it's mostly important to  let it dry long enough to make sure any water is gone completely though.

To add to this, OP make sure to use isopropyl that is at or over 90% as it will flash off faster (and contains less water and more alcohol). In addition, put everything in its own bowl of rice and put a fan above the bowls to move air. Don't point the fan into them, just over top of them so air actually moves. This is one crucial step often forgotten about when people drop their phone in the sink and use the bowl of rice method of drying it out. The rice will absorb some water and moisture, but without airflow, it will stay there and continue to damage the device.