I drowned my cell phone...in homebrew!

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FlyingHorse

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Had phone in one hand, and glass of Alt in the other...needed to do something (can't remember what) that required a third hand. Since I don't have one of those, I moved the phone to the same hand as the beer. Try this at home -- with an empty pint glass -- and you'll see it's somewhat precarious. Anyway, plop! goes the phone into the Alt. And now it's fried. :eek:

Beer was fine, though. Didn't spill a drop (other than what was absorbed by the electronics)
 
Unless you have a good replacement plan you might try opening up the phone, cleaning it out with some isopropyl alcohol, cloth, and q-tips and letting it dry. Good chance you could get it to work again.
 
Bike N Brew said:
Had phone in one hand, and glass of Alt in the other...needed to do something (can't remember what) that required a third hand. Since I don't have one of those, I moved the phone to the same hand as the beer. Try this at home -- with an empty pint glass -- and you'll see it's somewhat precarious. Anyway, plop! goes the phone into the Alt. And now it's fried. :eek:

Beer was fine, though. Didn't spill a drop (other than what was absorbed by the electronics)

When I read the subject line I thought you had dunked it in a carboy. Now that would have been a story!! :ban:
 
I find that if you open and close it in a kind of pumping action, you can get most of the beer out. Cell phones really don't hold that much in so I think you're going to be okay.
 
McKBrew said:
Unless you have a good replacement plan you might try opening up the phone, cleaning it out with some isopropyl alcohol, cloth, and q-tips and letting it dry. Good chance you could get it to work again.

Will give it a shot...but was eyeing up new phones anyway ;)
 
bradsul said:
Reminds me of the time I answered my phone while I was out in the middle of a river. I've never done that again. :D

FWIW this isn't the first phone I've drowned...had one in the pocket of my shorts a couple years back, playing fetch with the dog in Lake Michigan...big wave rolls in and soaks me to the waist.

I have bad luck (or something) with cell phones. Though the one that drowned oin Alt had at least been around a couple years...and got a better sendoff than most!
 
Bike N Brew said:
...I have bad luck (or something) with cell phones. Though the one that drowned oin Alt had at least been around a couple years...and got a better sendoff than most!

At least this one died a good death. I can think of worse ways to go than drowning in beer. :)
 
Bike N Brew said:
FWIW this isn't the first phone I've drowned...had one in the pocket of my shorts a couple years back, playing fetch with the dog in Lake Michigan...big wave rolls in and soaks me to the waist.

I have bad luck (or something) with cell phones. Though the one that drowned oin Alt had at least been around a couple years...and got a better sendoff than most!

I took the guy who writes the outdoor page in our local newspaper on a canoe trip down a river that dang near runs through Oklahoma city a few years ago. The first thing he did was step on the gunwale while trying to board the canoe and dumped me over with my work cell phone in my pocket.

The best thing was that afterwards he asked me if I thought he had caused that. "Yeah, I think you did Ed," was the response that my buddy told me I gave him.


Dang, sorry for the ramble, but since we're drunk and telling stories....
 
As annoying as cell phones can be...they seem to be pretty hearty:

1. My brother lost his cell phone going into work. After work he found it in a puddle next to the car, completely submerged for the entire day. After it dried out, it worked fine.

2. Just 2 weeks ago, my brother lost his phone again. I found it in the snow where it had been overnight. Still worked.

3. After reading this thread, my wife said her co-worker lost his phone in a snowbank for the entire winter (which probably means until the snow bank melted). It also worked.

Beer may be a different story...but at least now you know you can rinse it out with water. :)
 
Best way to dry out phone is to open it up as much as you can (take off clip-on covers, remove battery and sim, etc) and put it in an air tight container with a few of those silica gell packs... ya know those things that come in shoe boxes and stuff...

That should suck all the moisture out of the phone. Ive got a heap of those things around the house cos my sister is really clumbsy... always getting her phone wet... saved it quite a few times...

But being beer... might be a bit harder to dry out... you may need to pull the whole thing apart and rince it out with water, then try and dry it with silica packs... but i would only try that as a last resort... i mean... if its fracked, you cant frack it any more... right...
 
Was helping a plumber one time and watched him drop his cell phone in the septic tank. :cross: We fished it out and in 20 min he was talking on it lol
 
Was helping a plumber one time and watched him drop his cell phone in the septic tank. :cross: We fished it out and in 20 min he was talking on it lol


sorry about the double post
 
Fingers said:
I find that if you open and close it in a kind of pumping action, you can get most of the beer out. Cell phones really don't hold that much in so I think you're going to be okay.


lolmq9.gif
 
I was reading that Paris is having trouble with cellphones jambing up their sewage plants.

Modern electronics are amazingly tolerant. I have a NAD amp that some mice were living in. Opened it & pressure hosed it, blew it dry and it's been fine. I did put some mesh over the vent hole for the heat sink, so no more mice.
 
I accidentally ran my phone under the faucet when a buddy called me while I was brushing my teeth in the morning. Stayed on and kept working the whole time. Hope I never drop it into beer... :)
 
Fingers said:
I find that if you open and close it in a kind of pumping action, you can get most of the beer out. Cell phones really don't hold that much in so I think you're going to be okay.

I've done this twice. It worked once. I washed on phone, my wife washed the other (about a year apart though...)
 
I was trying to make a joke here, albeit a poor one. I was supposed to be inferring that the tragedy was in the beer lost inside the phone rather than the phone itself. It was funnier and made more sense after several fine ales.....

Seriously though, if you soak your phone, pull the battery immediately. The damage is not caused by the water, it is caused by arcing throught the conductive pathways created by the water. If you're comfortable pulling it apart, do so and dry it really well. I'd still let it sit in a dry environment for awhile before putting the battery back in. If you're not comfortable with taking it apart, I like the idea of putting in a bag with silica gel for awhile. As was expressed earlier, dry beer residue might also be conductive so a good rinse may help.

Funny how answers differ whether you're drinking coffee or beer, isn't it?
 
Thanks for all the great suggestions. I couldn't locate any silica gel packs (odd, since it seems every other week or so I'm picking one up so the kid/dog won't eat it). So I opened up the phone, cleaned everything as well as I could, and put it in the food dehydrator that I use for drying hops. Two days later, the phone works!

Now I can go back to turning it off and/or ignoring it:mug:
 
SWMBO and I spent our honeymoon last summer in Scotland. We had an adapter for their electrical outlets, but not a transformer. Luckily, all of my expensive equipment (digital camera, digital camcorder) had chargers that took up to 220V, so I was set. I got so used to just plugging stuff in that I forgot to check out SWMBO's cell phone charger before I plugged it in. I fried the mic in her phone, so we could hear other people, but they couldn't hear us. SWMBO still gives me a hard time about it. :)
 
bradsul said:
Reminds me of the time I answered my phone while I was out in the middle of a river. I've never done that again. :D

Of all the things I would take in the middle of a river, that would be one. Just on the off chance I COULD drop it in and drown the damn thing! I hate cell phones with a passion, if you haven't guessed.:mad:
 
This picture was taken at the Toronado in San Francisco (the phone wasn't mine, I just discovered it, the feet are mine)

toro toilet.jpeg
 
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