Dropped your phone in water? What to do in the first hour

Phone in the sink, the bath, a pint, the sea, or caught in the rain — liquid damage is stressful, and what you do in the first hour makes a real difference to whether the phone survives. Modern phones have some water resistance, but seals wear with age and don't cover salt water, tea, or fizzy drinks, which are far more corrosive than clean water.

Do this

• Power it off and leave it off. Don't keep checking whether it still works — every time it's powered on with damp inside, you risk a short.
• Dry the outside with a towel and keep the phone upright.
• Take the case off, and the SIM tray out, to let it breathe.
• Get it to a repair bench as soon as you can for a proper internal clean.

Don't do this

• Don't charge it. Putting power through a wet board is exactly when the damage happens. Wait until it's been properly dried out or cleaned.
• Don't press buttons, shake it, or blow into it — that just moves liquid deeper into the phone.
• Don't put it in rice. It's a myth — rice draws moisture out of the air far too slowly to matter, and rice dust and starch get into the ports. Silica gel is a little better, but neither reaches liquid trapped against the board.
• Don't use a hairdryer on hot — heat drives moisture in and can warp parts.

Why a professional clean beats "drying it out"

Water leaves corrosion behind on the board even after it looks dry — like rust, it keeps eating at the tiny connections for days. A proper job means opening the phone, cleaning the board in an ultrasonic bath or with the right solvents, and checking for damage before it's dried and reassembled. The sooner that happens, the better the odds.

If it already won't turn on

Don't give up on it — and don't keep trying to power it on. A board clean, and sometimes some board-level repair, brings a lot of liquid-damaged phones back, at least long enough to recover your photos and data. Time is the main enemy.

Book a repair or get in touch straight away — tell me what it went in and whether it's been switched on since.