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Toilet, Tilt, and Tank all start with T

http://www.mcglinch.com/blog/labels/drawings.html Last Thursday my Tilt fell off my belt (inside it’s case) and into a Thomas Crapper here at work. Our toilets here are the auto flush type, it hit the water as the bowl was filling back up (thank goodness) and as I reached in to grab it, I caused the toilet to flush a second time.

It’s one of those high pressure flush toilets, the ones that go KAWOOOOOSH when you flush them and it sprayed water directly into the phone. I guess this is one case that the size of the tilt came in handy, it didn’t go down the drain.

I pulled it out, the screen was still on, and everything looked normal. I quickly pulled the phone out of the case, water was pouring out of it, and I slid the back off and pulled the battery out of the phone.

I’ve always read that you want to get the power source removed ASAP from the device because it will burn out if there are certain shorts made from the water.

(read more after the break)

I took the phone to the sink, and shook all the water out of it, there was a surprising amount of water INSIDE the phone. I pulled my SIM card out (very wet) and pulled my SD Card (bone dry) out too just to be safe. I put the phone in my pocket and all it’s parts into another pocket, hopped on my motorcycle and rode home.

When I got home, I took my phone out of my pocket, it left a very wet spot on my leg, and opened it up (like you’re typing on it) and set it under a light on our buffet. I also took the back off of it in hopes to get as much air to the phone as possible.

After sitting like that for about 5 hours, I tried to plug in the battery again, and fire it up. The phone would start, boot all the way up, give the ‘low battery’ warning, and shut down. I plugged it in to the wall, fired it up, and it would never complete booting, it would hang at the ATT Logo. Then I noticed that the speaker was still wet, so I am guessing the phone was still wet.

I put the phone back down, took the battery back out, and went to bed. In the morning, I put the battery back in the phone, and, much to my surprise, it started right back up!!!

Everything seems to be working fine, for the first few days, the audio on the phone was a little muffled (I kept telling people it sounded like crap, get it!? wakka wakka wakka) but that seems to be gone and cleared up too. The ONLY problem I have had, is that the Y key doesn’t seem to be quite as responsive as the others, but the more I use it, the better it gets.

I guess I am writing this because I’m pretty surprised that my phone still works. I guess this thing is a tank. I was already looking to see what it was going to cost to replace the thing, and I wasn’t happy at how expensive it was going to be (I am only 6 months into my contract). I need to look into phone insurance.

Kip

P.S. If you like that graphic on my article, check out the webpage it’s from (click the image, you’ll get a new window), the guy has some pretty cool sketches.

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  • alowisney
    I had a coworker drop his Tilt on the ground unknowingly in a downpour while running to the car. After he got home he got a call from some good samaritan that found the phone and wanted to get it back to him. Still working fine months later.
  • what site?
  • jc
    This site dead now?
  • Sarah Palin
    I once dropped an LG Chocolate in the toilet.
  • scowltura
    I dropped my 8125 into the toilet at work once when standing up.... it had fully submerged... i pulled it out... still turned on... then died. I qiuckly pulled the battery... ran everything under clean water to clear out anything... then let it air dry for 2 days. (I had read about the denatured alcohol stuff... actually bought some, but never got up the nerve to try it.) I turned it back on and it actually worked, though I could still see there was some water behind the screen... so I pulled everything apart again and left it for another couple days... it actually worked after that just fine. The Tilt was just comming out in a few months, so I hung on and bought the tilt in the second week it was out. The 8125 still works... though it just sits in a drawer in my desk once my Tilt came along!
  • HAHAHA that was funny!
  • BRYAN
    I wonder if that would have helped an old motorola v365 which I droped into a 70 yard pour of concrete ?
    Oh well I guess it's a brick by now
  • I have allot of experience in the toilet field let me explain what ruins electronics. Water alone will not ruin it unless it dries up together with dirt and gets rusted! If you would have dropped it into a pool with chemicals 90% of the time they eat at it no matter how fast you dry it out. when you spill soda or the like the most effective thing to do is OPEN IT UP COMPLETELY if you know you can put it back together:) then wash it with rubbing alcohol then rinse it with clean cold water. ALWAYS AIR DRY OVERNIGHT NEVER USE ANY HEAT IT CAN RUIN THE TRANSISTORS! If you can’t find anyone to open your phone for you then the best thing to do and it really works for clean water only it cannot take out chemicals or sugar from soda is to use RICE not cold or wet from the freezer I’ve seen people do that which defeats the purpose as it is already moist and wont suck up all the moisture in the phone. Bottom line patients don’t test it every 2 minutes as the electric can short out the phone! Questions contact me. Good Luck!
    Jack simcell@gmail.com or 732-730-1111
  • Love the article. I had the same thing happen once with an old Toshiba e335. I let it sit untouched for 24 hours and it was fine.

    BTW, I checked out the cartoonist's web page. That guy rocks!
  • D
    I've always been told that if you drop a cellphone in water to just chalk it up as a loss and buy a new one. No matter how it seems to function afterward, in days or weeks it will eventually conk out and stop working.

    Good to know that's not always the case.
  • Chris
    I love it. I dropped my i-mate Kjam in the toilet a couple years ago. It still works!
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