Sink, pool, lake: an iPhone can take a dip in seconds. What you do in the next minutes and hours often decides whether your data, and your phone, survive. Here is what our technicians recommend; we treat water-damaged phones every week in Geneva.
5 steps that save your phone
- Turn it off immediately. The danger isn’t the water itself but a short circuit. A powered-off phone can survive hours while wet.
- Remove the case, SIM and accessories to free the areas where water collects.
- Dry the outside with a soft cloth, screen down, without shaking it hard.
- Do not charge it, not even « to test ». Charging is the number one cause of destroyed motherboards.
- Bring it to a workshop within 24–48 hours for a water damage treatment: water evaporates, but the minerals it leaves keep corroding the board for weeks.
3 fatal mistakes
- Rice. It absorbs almost nothing, wastes 48 precious hours and leaves starch dust in the ports.
- A hair dryer. Heat pushes moisture deeper and damages seals and the battery.
- « It works again, so it’s fine! » Corrosion is silent: an iPhone that works after a swim can fail three weeks later. An internal check is still essential.
What our workshop does
At Phonelab, water damage treatment includes full disassembly, ultrasonic cleaning of the motherboard, microscope inspection, replacement of corroded parts (often the battery) and full testing. If the device is too far gone, we can usually recover your data (photos, contacts, WhatsApp). See water damage repair and data recovery.
What about « waterproof » iPhones?
IP68 is tested in fresh water, in a lab, on a new device. Seals age, and lake, pool (chlorine) or sea (salt) water is far more aggressive. Treat water resistance as last-resort insurance, not a guarantee.
+41 22 314 51 51 — Phonelab Store, Rue de Lausanne 29, 1201 Geneva. No appointment, Mon–Sat 10:00–13:00 / 14:00–19:00.