Tuesday's Tip-Saving your cell phone

I haven't had this happen to me, thankfully, but I have had many friends who've experienced this tragedy. It usually is at the hands of a child, but as I learned from a girl in our Sunday School class on Sunday, her husband dropped his iPhone into the toilet. She thinks it may be because he wants to upgrade to the new iPhone4. I might have to agree with her on that. Anyway, I told her not all was lost and that it could be dried out. She didn't know that was possible.

So that's my Tuesday's Tip for the day. Did you know your cell phone can be saved by something you have right now in your pantry? You may have even had it for dinner last night, in it's cooked form of course. I am talking about rice. Yes, rice can save your cell phone from being lost forever. Here's how it works.

First Step: Immediately remove the battery. Do NOT try to power up your phone. It could short out the circuits. If you have a smart phone, remove the SIM card as well. If your cell phone is lost forever, your information, like your address book and emails, can be retrieved.

Second Step: Now you must dry your phone and dry it fast. If you let the moisture evaporate naturally, the chance of corrosion damaging the phone's innards increases. Instead, blow or suck the water out. But don't use a hair dryer--its heat can fry your phone's insides. Instead, opt for a can of compressed air, an air compressor set to a low psi or a vacuum cleaner (a wet/dry Shop-Vac would be perfect). The idea is to use air to push or pull moisture out through the same channels it entered.

Last Step: Submerge your cell phone and the battery in a bowl of uncooked rice. Leave it overnight. By morning, you should be able to put the battery back in and power on your device.
(Photograph by J. Muckle/Studio D. Ilustrations by Gabriel Silveira)

I hope this tip has been a helpful one. If you've used tried this before and it's worked for you, please leave me a comment and let me know.