Your Freshly Cleaned Laundry in Trash Bags, Left in the Sun

"Putting your water damaged phone in a bag of rice is like stuffing a load of wet laundry into a trashbag and leaving it in the sun for a few days---we all know the middle of that bag is going to reek of wet moldy clothes in a few days."

That quote is from our good friend Jessa at Mendon iPad Rehab. You wouldn't do that to your clothes, so why would you do it to your phone? Jessa goes on to say, "We know this!  We know that if you don't want your favorite shirt to reek,  there is no substitute for ripping that bag open and spreading everything out to dry. But with our phones, we *want* to believe in the magic power of rice." In this case, silica gel, or any other true desiccant can be substituted for rice. 

Want to know what happens inside your phone (analogous to wet laundry in trash bags) once water enters?

Why would you leave this in your phone? Rice (and no other true desiccant) has the ability to remove what the water has done to the device. The above image is corrosion on a logic board after water intrusion and an attempt to dry the device made. Once corrosion begins, it will continue to grow long after the water has dried up. You may believe that rice "magically" saved your phone, but the reality is that you got lucky that your phone came back on at all without a proper cleaning. Eventually, the corrosion growing inside may impair your phone's function or abilities. You may notice a glitchiness that didn't exist before and you may notice your phone reboots itself at random moments. These my friends, are some of the nasty "side effects" of a water damaged device.

For fun, here is another photo from Mendon iPad Rehab,

Notice the rust on the battery screw, the tripped water sensor, the stain on the loud speaker, the corrosion near the vibration motor, FFC, and EMI shield, as well as the white flakes of... rice???

Later, more from Jessa and why silica packets aren't any better than rice...