In today’s era, spending one day without one’s smartphone is unimaginable – it’s the constant companion we must have with us 24/7. Now imagine yourself enjoying your sweet time with your friends in the pool and accidentally dropping your phone into the water.
As nightmarish as it sounds, things could get even more devastating if you don’t get the water out immediately since phones have many holes and openings – one of the most important being the speaker hole. Water can easily sneak its way into the electrical components inside and damage your phone permanently.
But here’s the good news – by following our useful guidelines, you can learn how to get water out of your phone speakers and protect your device.
Without further ado, let’s begin!
How Phone Speakers Generally Work
For most of the smartphone models we know of (such as a Samsung Galaxy), the earpiece, microphone and external phone speaker are all connected to each other with the same piece of hardware. Therefore, if one gets damaged by water, there’s a high chance the other two will also be damaged in no time.
When this happens, you will not be able to conveniently engage in phone calls – either the person on the other side won’t be able to hear you clearly or you won’t hear the person you’re talking to properly. Similarly, you may also not hear voice messages and audio clips clearly.
To What Extent Can Water Damage Your Phone Speakers?
Even if your phone successfully switches back on and works fine after you pick up your phone from the pool or sink, it doesn’t mean that your phone speakers are all good to go. You may not face any issues right away, but your phone speakers may gradually display symptoms of damage – such as very muffled vibration sounds when the phone rings, crackling noises when you play a video, etc.
In fact, not just your phone speakers, other aspects of your device may also malfunction due to moisture – for instance, your device battery will take much longer to power up when plugged into a charger, earphones don’t work anymore, microphone doesn’t work properly, screen display issues, etc.
Worst case scenario – the microphone and speaker will be permanently damaged in no time because of water interference in the electrical components, eventually causing you to purchase a new smartphone, unless you carefully follow our important guidelines ahead.
The Immediate Measures to Take Right After Your Phone Falls Into Water
Step 1: Immediately rescue your phone from the water source it fell into
Step 2: Quickly take a clean piece of cloth/a tower or grab some tissues (whatever’s near the reach of your hand) to immediately soak in all the water floating on the surface of your device.
Step 3: Switch off your cell phone immediately if it didn’t automatically turn off itself.
Step 4: Pull out the back cover and carefully remove the SIM card(s), memory card and battery from inside.
Step 5: Place them on a dry towel, give them a wipe and by using a hair dryer, try to get rid of any excess moisture. You can also leave them resting beneath a fan to naturally eliminate all moisture.
Step 6: Try to keep your phone turned off for some time and don’t turn it back on within 5-10 minutes since the internal circuits could still be wet.
Step 7: Okay this one may sound silly, but it’s a good idea to use a vacuum cleaner with a small nozzle to suck out any remaining moisture that seeped into the speaker and other openings.
Step 8: After vacuuming, use a hair dryer for additional assurance to blow warm air all over your smartphone. Within several minutes, all moisture will have evaporated.
Step 9: Lastly, another hack you may try is by putting lots of rice grains in a ziplock bag (with some silica gel packs if possible). Put your phone into this airtight bag and leave it in a warm place with direct exposure to sunlight. Sun rays will help speed up the drying process.
[Note: Don’t use cooked rice for the last hack]
Step 10: We recommend disassembling the internal components of your phone as well to detect any traces of moisture deep down there. However, this may not be possible with all smartphone models.
Plus, it’s quite challenging and if you never did it before, you may end up further damaging your mobile phone. That’s why it’d be wise to take it to the repair store instead.
What to Do if My Phone Speaker Already Got Damaged By Water?
Now, if your phone was in the water for a long time before you noticed and picked it up, chances are that water has already damaged your microphone and phone speaker intensively. At this point, the best thing you can do is perhaps go to the repair store and get your phone professionally repaired.
Furthermore, it’s not like each and every component has been permanently damaged, one or two may be working just fine. For instance, even if the internal speaker got completely destroyed, the headphone jack area could still be intact. In that case, you can easily use a headset with a microphone instead of replacing your mobile phone with a new one.
Not to mention, you can always go for wireless Bluetooth speakers to connect to your phone if you’re not comfortable with a headset. Although these are pricey, they’re totally worth the investment considering your situation.
Last but not least, you can also contact the showroom from where you bought your smartphone if its warranty hasn’t expired yet. Some cell providers could be kind enough to offer you a fully-funded repair service only if you had previously paid for a protection plan that considers water damage as one of the causes for free repair.
If your device is not under warranty, then you’ll have to pay from your own pocket for either partial or full repairing, depending on the condition of your smartphone.
Final Thoughts
Nowadays, it has become quite common to have your mobile phone get wet in the rain or simply dropped in the pool or bathroom sink. If you’re pre-equipped with the knowledge on how to get water out of your phone speakers and other components, not only will you save a lot of bucks from paying for full repairs but also protect your device from permanent damages.
Just be more careful as not to accidentally drop your phone into water. Always keep your smartphone enclosed in a ziplock bag near the poolside or when stuck in rain outside.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Can sound remove water from a phone speaker?
Yes, playing loud sounds with some specific sound waves does help in pushing out water particles from your speakers.
Can water damage phone sound?
Definitely. It’s easy for water to be trapped inside the phone speaker unless it’s sucked out or vacuumed out as soon as possible.
Can water destroy phone batteries?
It depends on how long the phone battery was soaked in/exposed to water. If the phone battery is not taken out and dried immediately, it may corrode and get damaged.
Does putting a phone in rice work?
To some extent, yes. The science behind uncooked rice grains drawing in moisture from its surroundings is correct. However, it can get risky as the rice grains could be very dusty and some tiny rice grains may get stuck up in the small openings here and there on your device. That’s why it’s much safer to use silica gel packets instead.