It has happened to everyone at some point. The mobile phone slips out of our hands and ends up falling into a bucket, the pool or the sea. After the fright and its recovery, the question we ask ourselves is the same: have we broken the phone? Although there are cheap waterproof mobile phones, most of the most used models in Europe still do not have the appropriate certification.
Of course, water and electronics don’t mix very well, and even if the phone continues to work, it can suddenly stop working if a drop manages to get in and comes into contact with an electronic component. You have to get the water out somehow, and to do this, there are several tricks; the most famous is the “rice trick”, which it really works if we do it right.
Today, another trick has gone viral that promises to be able to dry our mobile phone without the need for rice or chemicals: just watch a video. In fact, by launching the YouTube application and opening this video, its creators “guarantee” that the mobile will dry and that all the water that has entered will come out by itself.
Is it magic? No, the truth is that it works, even if it is not a miracle cure. The video in question reproduces a series of frequencies that vibrate mobile speakers, expel water that might have gotten in through its mesh. By the time the two minutes of the video are up, most of the water should be gone, but if not, we can try playing the video again.
YouTube comments are full of users who They claim this method worksbut everyone knows that comments are becoming less and less reliable on the Internet; it could be a “placebo effect”, or even a “meme” that people share for fun.
But this is no joke. The experts at iFixit, the website specializing in mobile repair, carried out a real test with four smartphones, which were placed in water with a green tint that reacts to ultraviolet light. After playing the video, the devices rested for a night; the next day, they were opened to check if there were any traces of water inside.
The results were convincing, even spectacular. The Pixel 7 Pro was completely drybut others without a protection certificate like the Nokia 7.1 were ruined. The other iPhones and Pixels were “in the middle” in terms of recoverability. In other words, this seems to be a method that doesn’t work 100% of the time, but when it does, it can recover our phone.
What we shouldn’t do is rely solely on this video; it’s not a complete solution, as the frequencies it reproduces are only capable of expelling a certain amount of liquid. Some parts such as the buttons, the USB-C port, and the SIM card will probably contain water. So it’s best to use this video in conjunction with another method, or let the professionals recover it.
