Phone fell in toilet.

**goodlun** · Posted On: 12/03/2012 6:07pm

Clean board with cotton swab and rubbing alcohol to clean up any corrosion.

or make a new board

**W. Rabbit** · Posted On: 12/03/2012 7:05pm

Originally Posted by goodlun

rubbing alcohol to clean up any corrosion.

"Rubbing" alcohol (60-70% isopropyl) is actually not the best for cleaning/preventing metal corrosion on PCBs and in fact can make it worse, because most over the counter isopropyl mixes can contain up to 40% water or other crap that you don't want to leave a residue of.

Alcohol is still good for removing dirt, rosin, and other crap but only people familiar with cleaning electronics should do that, especially on something as delicate as a cell phone.

I don't know where the "rubbing" alcohol myth keeps coming from but of ALL the alcohols you can use to clean PBCs (iso, methyl, ethyl), the standard "rubbing alcohol" is usually worst in purity and the most likely to leave behind an unwanted semiconductive or insulative residue...the worst being undenatured water minerals that in turn lead to even more corrosion.

If you do use high concentrate isopropyl (99%) make sure you don't touch any aluminum pieces or plastic, because it will dissolve them. I doubt you could even get that unless you work in certain fields...

Professionals typically use 99/100% denatured (D2) isopropyl, which is completely demineralized and also pretty nasty...do not try that at home or without proper safety precautions...

**Permalost** · Posted On: 12/03/2012 7:08pm

My first thought was: Do you really want to be holding up something from your toilet against your faceholes? Then I remembered that cellphones have so much bacteria already on them that dropping it in the toilet probably made it cleaner.

**cualltaigh** · Posted On: 12/03/2012 7:13pm

Originally Posted by Permalost

My first thought was: Do you really want to be holding up something from your toilet against your faceholes? Then I remembered that cellphones have so much bacteria already on them that dropping it in the toilet probably made it cleaner.

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**Tauly** · Posted On: 12/03/2012 8:02pm

I failed at patience and tried it. it's working, however I've lost vibrate and the ability to change the volume. but that's all right all I need is max or silent anyway, and if It's music or videos the apps have volume settings. All and over I'm considering myself rather lucky getting away with this one so lightly. :D I pulled the battery again after the test, I'll let it sit for a couple of days just in case.

**Tauly** · Posted On: 12/03/2012 8:12pm

The isopropyl I used to clean it up was made for cleaning PCBs. My dad had some left over from a job he was doing earlier this year. (he's an Electrical Engineer, but he works in Papua New Guinea) not sure exactly what it is, but I don't think it's as nasty as that other stuff you mentioned. At any rate I always use the safety stuff just in case.

oh and I cleaned up the outside so I'm not overly concerned about the possible ickyness of toilet-phone.

**leonard99** · Posted On: 12/04/2012 1:58am

Mine got washed and had the same symptoms. I pulled it apart and left the pieces in rice for a day or two and it worked well enough for awhile but it seemed to deteriorate over time. Eventually I had no other choice but to replace it.

**Tauly** · Posted On: 12/04/2012 2:34am

yeah, I don't imagine it will last forever after this, but at least now I can plan to replace it rather than being forced to do so tomorrow, and most importantly it means I was able to download all the photos on it; because while you can replace phones, you can't replace photos.

**Tauly** · Posted On: 12/04/2012 8:26am

Took it all apart again and disconnected the vibration motor and the volume switch. Just in case they start corroding internally. Posting from phone now so o guess we have at least a partial success. Let's see how it survives the next week.