05
How to clean your mobile phone (not!)
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This is my cell phone. It is over 1 year old and I can guarantee, it is cleaner than yours. How? Because I put it through the wash 2 weeks ago. No, not on purpose. I forgot it was in the pocket of my shorts which went through the entire wash cycle and an entire 60 minutes in the dryer. I remembered where it was just as the dryer cycle ended. it was too late.
Or was it?
I ran down to the laundry room hoping I didn’t do what I just did. When I pulled the shorts out of the dryer I could feel the extra weight of the phone inside. I reached into the pocket to grab it and felt an instantaneous pain from the heat that the RAZR’s metal body was conducting. I nearly suffered 2nd degree burns and had to run my hand under cold water for a few minutes. The best part of this story is, I plugged the charger into the phone and started it up. Everything works! I mean EVRYTHING works. The display is fine, the network is detected, incoming calls are connecting and outgoing calls can be made. People I call tell me my voice sounds fine. It has been 2 weeks and the phone is still in perfect working condition. I would file this under “Do not attempt at home”, but in the event you drop your cell phone in a pool or the toilet (a friend did once at a local bar), do not give up on it. Let it dry out for a few days after taking off the battery plate and battery or…place it in the dryer during your next load of laundry.
great entry tux - oh and congrats hehe!
MrZEe at Sep 5, 07 at 8:09 pm
Wee! My phone fall into a 5 meter deep water drain and now its still working (for the next few months) before it finally collapse with a broken keypad and the evils of the drain finally got to it. You are a lucky guy, but better visit the service center to do a check!
shunjie at Sep 6, 07 at 3:15 am
I did the same thing with my Ipod Nano, however I wasn’t so fortunate. It was completely buckled and in pieces when I pulled it out of my trouser pocket. You may have voided your warranty though, theres usually some special type of paper in the back that changes color when water hits it. This will be the first thing they check.
Paul at Sep 6, 07 at 3:48 pm
That’s Apple for ya. I bet the president has the chemical in his pool that turns purple if you pee. Sure takes the fun out of summer… Motorolla rocks!
Jackie at Sep 6, 07 at 4:44 pm
Haha sweet man! This is an awsome blog.
Smidget at Sep 7, 07 at 7:15 am
Well when my wife washed my phone and then it went into the dryer a couple years ago, the phone was destroyed. It could turn on but the display was looking to great. The store said that if it didn’t go into the dryer it would have been fine. All you have to do is wrap the phone up and take out the battery and blow dry it with a blow dryer. Once it goes into the dryer, the heat destroyed my phone. Well congrats Chris that your phone is still working… its a miracle phone.
Eric at Sep 9, 07 at 10:32 pm
Apart from the fact you sound like your talking from a football field away, I would say it works
Colin Smith at Sep 15, 07 at 7:14 pm
I’ve got one of those phones lying around in a drawer. I think the screen looked a little dirty from memory so maybe it’s time for a wash and dry!
Robert at Sep 18, 07 at 3:03 am
Chris, the RAZR is probably the most durable phones that Verizon carries … and one of the reasons why the lineage is still so popular today.
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Paul, it’s called a damage dot.
Many operators place them inside their respective devices and Verizon is typically one of them here in the US.
The dots typically change from a white to pink/red.
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I would recommend a low and slow bake in the oven rather than hair dryer … but I’m sure there are plenty of recovery “best practices”, if you google.
The dryer, although coincidental, might be one approach if you planned it out … so as to not destroy your device.
Scott Janousek at Jan 5, 08 at 6:53 am