Water Damage

timefortea

I dropped my phone in the bath recently, but luckily it survived the ordeal and after being dried out seems to be working perfectly.

Someone mentioned that the warranty is now void, though. So if in a year's time something goes wrong with the phone I'll be charged for the repair, because it's been water damaged. Is this the case?

Krojan

What can happen is parts of the pcb and components themselves can start to corrode (rust) due to water ingress, and its usually pretty obvious to any mobile phone engineer that water ingress has occurred as it can leave tell-tale "tide marks" where the water has dried, generally speaking they'll flag this up and will not honour the warranty, usually if the fault that's developed has been caused by the water ingress or not.

Some repair centres can sometimes undertake an "acid bath" on the components to try and solve water damage however this treatment does not fall under warrenty and is chargeable, as are repairs to water damaged phones that require repairs caused by water damage, if at all it's repairable.

More often than not water damaged phones are beyond economical repair as the repair can often only delay the inevitable and can often not resolve the problem(s), plus can cost more in the long run.

Buzby

You don't say what phone, but it will begin to rust, which is the big giveaway (along with any dampness sensors which will irrevocably change colour and stay that way, even after drying out).

timefortea

Oh dear. Thanks for your help, if (or 'when', it sounds like) it breaks I'll know not to bother sending it in for repair.

iamsporticus

My HTC phone partially died after taking a call whilst in the bath

It didnt even fall in the water but the pretty modest condensation was enough to damage it

(I say partially as it eventually came back to life after 2 days on a radiator in pieces but with a dodgy screen remaining)

Note that the manufacturers put water damage detectors inside so its obvious that your phone has seen moisture, and as I bitterly found out even a tiny bit goes a long way - be careful

http://www.tested.com/news/how-to/720-stay-dry-where-to-find-your-phones-water-sensors/