Life expectancy of wet phone

JPR

I managed to soak a Nokia 6070 Slide a month or two back. Thought I would chance it and send it back to Tesco as it was within 12 months of purchase. Obviously they found the indicators and deemed it no longer under warranty.

When it was sent it no longer worked but when it came back it was working (I can only assume that they did something but didn't want to take responsibility for it - which was nice!)

I wonder how long the phone has got as I think that the the acid starts eating away the insides after becoming wet? It has worked fine ever since but I need it unlocked and wonder whether it's worth the money if it only has a few months. Anyone seen a recovered wet phone die??

gjchester

JPR wrote: »

I wonder how long the phone has got as I think that the the acid starts eating away the insides after becoming wet? It has worked fine ever since but I need it unlocked and wonder whether it's worth the money if it only has a few months. Anyone seen a recovered wet phone die??

The issue isn't so much acid, its shorting the circuits whilst powered, or salt formation as it dries.

Once it's dried and it's working it should be fine, It's more likely to fail due to the corroden from the salt taking off protective coatings but how long that takes is anyones guess.

Wintermute

There's no real answer to this, it could be hours, days, months or even years. My manager dropped his HTC Desire in the toilet (post flush he claims) and that was about 6 months ago and it's still going strong. If you took the battery out straight away and let it dry out then there's a good chance it'll last as long as any other phone, if you didn't then you've been pretty luck so far and it might continue to work without issues.

Have you contacted Tesco to see if it'll cost anything to unlock it, if you're on contract it might be free.