this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2024
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What you should not do:

Experts have for years pointed out that’s a bad idea – and now Apple is officially warning users not to do it.

“Don’t put your iPhone in a bag of rice. Doing so could allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone,” the company says in a recent support note spotted by Macworld. Along with the risk of damage, testing has suggested uncooked rice is not particularly effective at drying the device.

What you should do:

If your phone isn’t functioning at all, turn it off right away and don’t press any buttons. The next steps depend on your specific circumstances, but broadly speaking: dry it with a towel and put it in an airtight container packed with silica packets if you have them. Don’t charge it until you’re sure it’s dry.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I've kinda figured out from YouTube repair videos Immediately disconnecting the battery then using pure alcohol and cleaning the components is probably the best solution.

Unfortunately by the stage I could even open my phone and remove the battery it would probably be wrecked anyway by my attempt to do so.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 8 months ago

I was almost convinced the answer was going to be "buy a new iphone"

[–] [email protected] 45 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Just pick up one of these:

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Oxygen absorber absorbs oxygen but not air or moisture whereas silica gel absorb moisture. Therefore, oxygen absorber is recommended if we want to maintain the level of humidity in the packaging and extend the freshness of food product.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

One day I'm going to make my fortune by writing a silica gel recipe book.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I used to buy these microwavable things (like a tiny cushion, has a patch on it that changes colour and you microwave to reset it) to dehumidify a certain window in my house. Wonder if they would work.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

They do! Fun fact you can also microwave regular desiccant packets to reuse them repeatedly.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

SHOVE IT UP YOUR ARSE FOLLOWED BY AT LEAST 6.5 SLICES OF TOASTED SOURDOUGH.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I laughed. The randomness! Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Hey! It always worked for me!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Wouldn't salt be better anyway?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Here, restaurants sometimes (honestly pretty rare) put rice in the salt dispensers to keep the salt dry, so I doubt salt is great at that.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Salt absorbs water, and then it does something called caking. Which means it glues into large clumps of crystal when wet then dried, instead of reverting to tiny cubes. The idea of the rice has nothing to do with moisture but to prevent the clumps after the salt dries with a physical barrier. If you shake it in place after it dries, the rice also mechanically break the lumps. It's an old restaurant trick because they use commercial table salt, which is specifically made for and restaurants has no anticaking agents (usually some form of silicate) and no iodine, so it's taste is not metallic. That's how all salt used to be. But modern household table salt does include it, and as result doesn't cake and it remains granular no matter the moist.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

If they were to recommend it, I'm sure there would be people who would end up breading it with salt.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Better at drying it or damaging it with tiny particles?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Right, salt is ionic.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I found if the car is nearby, place the wet phone over the windscreen de-mister vent and then run the aircon through that vent. Doesn't have to be hot air to dry it as long as the compressor for the aircon is running... Aircon dries out the air before blowing it through the cabin so you will have bone dry air circulating around the phone pulling the moisture out by evaporation. About 10 mins is plenty. Best done idling in the shade. Don't want to sun damage the phone while trying dry it out...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

? This would be no different than using a hair dryer?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

No, hair dryer works by taking ambient air and heating it before blowing it out. Besides, definitely don't want to heat up the phone. The aircon dries the air itself as part of the cooling. When using your windscreen vents you don't have to set the temperature to hot to clear the windscreen as long as that aircon compressor is running. People just do because when you need to defog your windscreen it's usually cold as fuck outside...

To dry the phone, set vent to windscreen, temperature to cold, and make sure the aircon indicator on. Cold, dry air.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

When using your windscreen vents you don't have to set the temperature to hot to clear the windscreen as long as that aircon compressor is running. People just do because when you need to defog your windscreen it's usually cold as fuck outside...

I don't think most people know this. I didn't and wow okay that makes sense. I didn't realize AC was so dehumidifying. TIL.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

The heat does help defrost/defog quicker. Hot air can hold more moisture than cold air plus it needs thermal energy to transition from solid/liquid to gas.

For a phone, the heat is mostly bad because the phone itself is generating heat that it needs to dissipate, so blasting it with hot air will reduce its cooling efficiency and it will find a new equilibrium at a higher temperature. But if the phone is off, I wouldn't be surprised if it's fine in the heat (but I also wouldn't be surprised if it causes issues with some adhesives, so maybe don't blast it on max unless you can comfortably keep your hand close to the vent).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

How will I make puffed rice now?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

What about puffed silica packet? Delicious with mustard.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 8 months ago

I'll be honest, I half expected them to start selling apple brand "high absorbancy" rice.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Given that iPhones have had at least IP67 rating since 2016, you probably just want to dry it off and move on.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

The problem is rice getting jammed in the usb port when the phone refuses to charge with a warning the port is too wet to charge

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