How does the "rice trick" even work?

[LeechHax]

You know, you drop your phone in the toilet. You find out it won't turn on. You cover your phone in rice for a day. Then it works.

I know the rice absorbs the water! That part is obvious. But how does it absorb the water from INSIDE of your phone? It's not like the rice can actually get inside your phone because the case and the screen is in the way. So how does this age old trick actually work?

[Altecice]

'It doesn't. What does help is the part where you don't turn it on and leave it alone for at least 24 hours. Dry rice is worse at absorbing water than the ambient air, so leaving your phone out in the open is actually better.
This argument has been going on for decades before cell phones existed. The myth used to get passed around the photography community that keeping dry rice inside your camera case would help prevent corrosion in humid environments. Silica gel is what you're actually supposed to use, but there have always been people trying to use a shortcut to get the same results.
It's the waiting and letting it sit that does the drying. The rice trick just makes people feel like they're doing something more to help the process.'

 

 

[Lord-Anubis]

Water evaporates and the rice absorbs the humidity in the air. It is a desiccant.

rice is fine, but you should us a real desiccant, like Damprid.

[pagani123]

i use large silica gel beads or any other type of super absorbent polymer that i happen to have lying around works better than rice or air 

[Rolling Potatoe]

The rice is supposed to soak up the moisture from the air around the phone, causing the water inside the phone to evaporate.

In practice that doesnt quite work since the rice wont make the air any dryer than the air the rice is stored in (or else the rice would  absorb water all the time and get bigger and bigger), but it will soak up some of the extra humidity if the phone is left in a sealed container.

Just leaving the phone to  dry in the open removes the water faster though.

 

 

[RedWulf]

6 minutes ago, Maybach123 said:

i use large silica gel beads or any other type of super absorbent polymer that i happen to have lying around works better than rice or air 

I save the gel packs that come with cloths/tech for this  

 

Its supposed to suck up the water in the air thereby drawing out the water in the device faster. as the other guy said it can be worse, so just set it on top of the rice to allow venting and absorption. hotter air can also hold more moisture so set it in a warm area(not a stove!). 

it may attracts Asians to fix it as well, but in the cities of america pizza will attract nerds to fix it as well.   

[steveo1234]

my phone got water damaged stuck it in a bag of rice then put it in a sock and used my electric blanked to heat it up.... it worked ahahha

[manikyath]

the idea is that the rice draws water from the air around it, and the water in your device evaporates into the air.

 

the rice doesnt actually "do" the drying, it just aids to create a dry enviroment. (y'know, some people live in humid climates)

all people i know that do the rice trick dont "cover" their product, they rather place it on top of the rice, if you consider that it can also help absorbing eventual dips that come out the underside.

[nullbot]

Rice passively absorbs moisture really well, so all the moisture in the air in the bag gets absorbed into it, including the moisture in the phone, but only in places where the phone is not air-tight.