How To Save Your Smartphone If You Drop It In The Toilet

When CNET came out with their study in the summer of 2011 that said 19% of people drop their smartphones in the toilet, I think a lot of us were surprised. We weren’t surprised because our smartphones are slippery little suckers, but surprised that we weren’t the only ones in the bathroom checking our phones. I’ve written about this many times because I’m a frequent bathroom iPhone user. When you think about it, the bathroom is the perfect place to get a little privacy when you want to check email, send a tweet, update Facebook or even do some quick research on your smartphone. But what if you drop it in the toilet? Then what? Maybe you are part of the 19% who has done this before.

I have good news and bad news. The good news is, if you drop it in the toilet, it’s not the end of the world. Chances are you’ll be able to salvage your phone. The bad news is (and I know this from experience), it will never be quite the same again. You might find that a key doesn’t work right here or there, or it makes a strange hissing noise every now and then.

The toilet is one of the main causes of water damage that happens to smartphones, so I suppose it would be good to know exactly what to do if you drop it in the toilet. Just like with many other household accidents, it’s what you do in the minutes that follow that splash that make all the difference in the world. With some phones, it’s good to take out the battery right away, with others, it isn’t. And of course rice is a key component, and since you won’t have a lot of time to go buy a box after it happens, it’s good to keep some on hand.

I’ve heard of this rice solution many times before over the years, and I even read about it on Huffington Post last year, but this new video actually shows how to give your smartphone the rice treatment in a quick and easy way. So if you drop it in the toilet anytime soon, don’t fret, at least you’ll know what to do immediately to remedy the problem. My best advice is to just make it a habit of keeping the lid on the toilet down and closed in the first place. That will greatly reduce the chance that your slippery smartphone will wiggle its way out of your hands and into the toilet in the first place. You can read the text that complements the steps in this video here on Hack College.