<p>Heck no, momsdream. If nobody buys new, then I can’t buy last year’s model. Besides I own stock in the company.</p>
<p>What if the phone is already “on” when it takes the dunking? Should you attempt to hit the power button to turn it off? Would that cause problems? I ask this for future reference. No one in our household has yet experienced such a cell phone mishap. </p>
<p>I agree, Momsdream, that a cheaper phone is good insurance against that horrible sinking feeling when one’s phone is mishandled, but a color screen is an absolute must in my book—LOL! Then again, mine cost a mere $20.00 to upgrade from the bargain basement, black and white screen ones that came free with our plan.</p>
<p>We don’t have real expensive cell phones. I just didn’t want to replace one if I could get it working myself. We usually go with whatever cell phone is being promoted when the contract expires. The one that got washed will be up for renewal in May. BTW, my son was very impressed with my fixing abilities. Not only can I find things (my #1 most popular Mom feature), I can now apparently repair cell phones!</p>
<p>poet,</p>
<p>Yes, power down if it is on.</p>
<p>One of the most important things IMHO, is to remove the battery. Why? Mostly to protect the battery in case the water shorts out the battery terminals. </p>
<p>Knowing what the electronics of these phones must stand up against in daily use (static electricity being one of the worst), I suspect the electronics are pretty robust. Short of throwing the thing in a microwave at full power (yes, it’s been done, and isn’t pretty…), there’s not much we could do to muck them up other than crushing them.</p>
<p>even the cheap phones that come free with a plan can be expensive if you are not buying or renewing a plan.</p>
<p>the free phones can be very expensive-
my Ds and H had 3 free phones- however when my daughters was washed and I didn’t know about drying it out with a dryer- it was pretty expensive to replace it without an ins plan
Verizon actually recommended that we try ebay- to replace it on ebay was $80. but if we had bought new without signing an addition contract it would have been $200.
I just bought a replacement phone on ebay after mine was stolen- I traded up- to a phone with bluetooth- to go with my PDA and laptop-:)</p>
<p>electronics are fairly sturdy- we have had several laptops over the years that have had water/coffee spilled in them… fallen off desks…haven’t had to try cleaning any keyboards by putting them in the dishwasher though
<a href=“http://www.ehow.com/tips_2026.html[/url]”>http://www.ehow.com/tips_2026.html</a></p>
<p>Wow…D1 just phoned and asked what to do about a cell phone that was “washed” with the laundry! :eek: I couldn’t tell if she was crying or laughing…probably crying from laughing!!! 
I recalled this thread and sent her the link…thanks parents. We’ll see what happens…</p>
<p>do NOT turn it on and let it dry. Getting the battery out was the best thing you could do…but if it was in there for a full wash you might be done so to speak. Make sure it is really dry before you attempt to turn it back on.</p>
<p>My son’s phone was also washed in the laundry. We called the T-Mobile guy who sold us the phone & he told us to remove the battery, put the phone in a sock & put it on low in the dryer. We did it until it was fully dried out & it works pretty well (though it the lights don’t go on when it recharges any more, but it still works). The battery doesn’t seem to hold the charge as long as “unwashed” phones, but it has lasted many months since it’s dunking.
We’re going to see if we can get son a free replacement phone, depending on the deals they offer pre-Christmas. We have him on a pre-paid phone & it’s worked well so far.
HImom</p>
<p>By the way, the blow dryer worked. She was on the cell the very next morning! ;)</p>
<p>I washed my phone once. Just let it sit out for a few days. After that, my phone was just like before.</p>
<p>I know this is an old post, but I think it is important that every see what happened to me when I sent my phone off to them.</p>
<p>I sent off my K750i for repair after the microphone stopped working. After a week, they told me they “fixed the phone” but “couldn’t get the microphone to work”. Well, great I thought. I paid $45 to have them tell me nothing. So I pay them and they ship the phone back. To my dismay, I found some broken SLVR in the package instead of my $300 phone. I call them up to complain. They appologized and told me to send it back. They did not, however, offer to pay for this service. I had to pay $5 out of my pocket for their screw up. Anywho, I sent it back. About 2 weeks later, today, I got my phone in the mail. I plug my phone in to charge it and then I start to notice weird things going on. I tried to press the power button but it would not work. When I finally got it to turn on by stabbing the power button with a pen, I found out the joystick had become completely defective. To top it off, when I tried to connect my bluetooth headset to it, it wouldn’t recognize it. What the ****!?! So whatever you do, DO NOT SEND ANY SORT OF EXPENSIVE PHONE TO THEM. THEY WILL RETURN IT IN POOR CONDITION.</p>
<p>after accidently dropping my cell phone in a lake last summer the cell phone company told me to try an old trick. place your cell phone in a bag of dried rice(crazy, i know!) and let it sit in there for several days. after the first few days nothing changed but about 2 weeks later it worked! i was told it rarely works but why not give it a try?</p>
<p>As I wrote previously, the guy who sold us the phone told us to take out the battery & put the cell phone in a sock (after drying it as much as we could) & run it on “fluff” thru the dryer intil it was thoroughly dry. It worked fine. Hubby says at work, they’ve used blow dryers on damp cell phones too–works about 50% of the time. Son was lucky–it worked for his phone.</p>
<p>A year or so ago I washed and dried my cell phone. It didn’t work at first, but I pulled out the hair dryer, removed the battery, and dried it out. And then it worked! It takes like 5 minutes for the stupid thing to cut on, but I still have the same phone. Pretty amazing stuff…</p>
<p>I’ve washed two different cell phones over the past 3 years - they were both t-mobile (with the sim cards inside). I took out the battery and sim cards out and let the pieces dry out on a towel for around 12 hours. They both worked just fine afterwards…Guess I was lucky!</p>
<p>S2 dropped his in a sink. Thanks to THIS VERY THREAD I told him to take the battery out and put the phone and the battery on the dashboard of the car in the sun. Working 3 hours later!</p>
<p>We tried the hairdryer thing, and left the wet phone disassembled for several days. It did turn on again (slowly) and some of the buttons worked, but a few never did recover. I suspect that some of the button contacts were worn out from too much text messaging. We sent the phone back to Cingular and they replaced it at no charge! Apparently, they look to see if there is water damage by checking the metal contacts on the battery and the little “dot” thing inside the battery compartment. If neither is discolored, you are set for a new phone! (Well, maybe not exactly “new”, but maybe reconditioned,at least they work!)</p>
<p>Ultimately, its really a matter of luck and a matter of where the water has reached. Dry it out in the sun or with a dryer. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, my carrier replaces it.</p>
<p>i need to remember these tips!
my roommate dropped her phone in a cup (errr) and the little dot on the battery had already turned pink, so verizon told her it was no good and that she needed a new one.</p>