Does the phone-in-rice trick really work?

 

Web pages on the Internet are filled with a huge amount of information that is also permeated with a lot of myths and misinformation, which are widespread among millions of users of the World Wide Web around the world. And when it comes to technical fields and the maintenance of electronic devices such as computers and smartphones, there is nothing wrong with that. For example, there is a myth claiming that radiation from mobile phones can fry an egg in 65 minutes if placed near a phone, which is of course false. There is another myth that claims that activating the flight mode on the phone and then removing the SIM card is a sufficient measure to get rid of the tracking of the phone, which is a misconception in turn, as this mode is limited to limiting the radio waves that the phone transmits and nothing more.

 

Then there is the most famous myth of all in the world of smartphones that says that smartphones can be repaired after they have fallen into the water by placing them in a bowl full of rice. No one knows exactly the origin of these myths, and we have nothing but an attempt to refute them with scientific evidence to limit their spread. In this article, we will focus on the trick of putting the mobile phone in rice if it falls into the water, and let's discover together whether it is really an effective trick. Will the wet phone work well after that?!

 

Why do smartphones fail when they fall into the water?

 

There are many mobile phone manufacturers that are promoting water-resistant types of their smartphones, however, there is still a good chance that these devices will get damaged and malfunction when immersed in water. The degree of water resistance of these devices varies, and of course, depends on several factors such as water pressure and exposure time, but in general, no smartphone is completely protected from being affected by water. Only some devices can continue to work well with exposure to splashes, raindrops, or sweat, but it does not remain so if it is completely submerged in water for some time, such as accidentally falling into a swimming pool or the like.

 

The danger of exposure to water on mobile phones in general lies in the microscopic impurities and ions present in the water, which can cause the wrong connection between two different points in the electronic circuits inside the phone, which leads to the flow of electricity in a path in which electricity is not supposed to flow, such as a short. One of the dangerous parts, which results in damage to the phone and its failure to work.

 read-more: Why does water damage our phones while alcohol does not?

When did the rice trick first appear?

 

The belief in the effectiveness of rice as a solution to the problem of cell phones malfunctioning due to exposure to wetness, humidity, or water is relatively old, and it is not possible to know when and how this belief arose precisely, and perhaps it came with the beginning of the spread of expensive smartphones that are affected and severely damaged with exposure to water, humidity, and wetness. One of the earliest known roots of this idea dates back to a technical article published in June of 2007 on LifeHacker, a popular blog that specializes in publishing content related to computers and mobile phones. The article mentioned that dry rice can absorb ambient moisture, which is useful in the case of devices wet with water, and then this idea has spread on web pages since that time but is it a really effective trick?

 

Is rice an effective remedy for moisture damage?

 

Now we come to the essential point in the article, which is the issue of the effectiveness of dry rice to treat phones wet with water from moisture and make then restoring their ability to work normally. Dry rice actually has a very weak ability to absorb moisture from the surrounding things, but it is not sufficient at all to treat the problem of water-soaked phones, not to mention the treatment of the main problem that occurred as a result of water penetration into the phone, which is the problem of short circuits and current flow in the wrong electrical paths, and even The materials that are most capable of absorbing moisture from solid objects, such as silica gel, cannot completely dry the phone and rid it of all liquids that have penetrated its internal parts and prevent it from causing the expected damage.

 

The trick of placing a wet phone in a bowl full of dry rice, as we have seen, does not really work, and its effect may not be greater than the effect of closing the phone and placing it in a completely empty dry bowl exposed to air and waiting for it to dry on its own. Indeed, in the case of phones that were not completely wet and water did not penetrate into them, the devices would dry on their own after leaving them for a sufficient period of time, whether they were placed in rice or in normal air, which made those who placed them in rice under the illusion of the success of the rice trick.

 

Despite its uselessness, it is not completely risk-free and safe, as it may cause additional damage to the phone if the rice contains fine dust that can infiltrate the internal parts of the phone through the openings of the device and the entrances to the power cables and audio devices, and it mixes with the water in them to form Hard paste that is difficult to scrape off and remove from the phone.

 

How to deal with phones wet with water

 

There are a few cases in which it is sufficient for the phone to get completely superficially wet without its internal parts being exposed to water penetration inside, and in these cases, it may be that closing the phone and leaving it in the air until it dries completely and then restarting it is very sufficient to treat the phone from getting wet and restore its work well, but in any case, We cannot expect whether we will always be lucky so that our phones are not damaged from the inside when exposed to water or not, but we must always assume the worst and try to avoid it, so once our phones are exposed to the water we should try to dry them and remove them from the water completely as quickly as possible instead of taking the risk of leaving the device Wait for it to dry on its own. Some people also make the mistake of trying to restart a phone that just fell in the water to make sure it's still working fine.

 

The correct solution is to turn off the device, remove all removable parts of the device such as the phone battery if it is removable, the phone chip or SIM card, and the “microSD” memory card, then start drying the phone and remove as much water as possible from its parts as soon as possible. And in the fastest way possible, such as using a fan or a pump to drive compressed air, and both of these methods may not be sufficient to dry the phone from the inside well, and you will then have to open the internal parts of the phone to dry it manually by 90%, and then use isopropanol alcohol to complete its complete drying.

 

Abstract | Dry rice does not have a superior ability to absorb moisture from smartphones that are wet enough, and it cannot be considered an effective way to get phones to get rid of water completely in order to return to work well, but on the contrary, placing a wet phone in a bowl full of dry rice can cause more damage. From damage to the phone if the fine rice dust infiltrated the internal parts of the phone through the openings of the device and the entrances of the cables, and mixed with the water inside to form a solid paste that is difficult to remove from the phone.

 

Some also make mistakes when they try to restart the phone that was just submerged in water to make sure that it is still working, and the correct solution is to turn off the device, and remove all removable parts from the device such as the phone battery if it is removable, the phone chip or the SIM card, and the microSD, Then start drying the phone and remove as much water as possible from its parts as quickly and quickly as possible instead of risking leaving it and waiting for it to dry automatically. Wet phones can be dried using a fan or a pump to push compressed air, and both of these methods may not be sufficient to dry the phone from the inside well, and you will then have to disassemble the internal parts of the phone to dry it manually by 90%, then using isopropanol alcohol to complete the drying process.