Dropped Your Phone in the Toilet/Water? Do This!

Last Updated on May 18, 2022 by toilethaven

There is always a little amount of water at the bottom of the toilet bowl. It makes sure that sewer gases don’t come up to your bathroom. Although that’s a good thing, it may turn out to be a nightmare if you dropped your phone in the toilet bowl and don’t know what to do next.

Everyone these days goes to the bathroom with their phones. I love going through mails and social media feeds as I do my business on the toilet. Unfortunately, most bathrooms don’t have shelves to place your phone and that’s how most phones end up at the bottom of the bowl.

Investing in a toilet paper holder with a shelf is one way of ensuring that you don’t drop your phone in the toilet.

After dropping your phone in in a toilet or water in general, you need to act quick and correctly in order to salvage it. Below is a step by step guide on what to do if your phone accidentally drops in a toilet.

What to do When a Phone drops in the Toilet

There are 2 proven way of drying water from your toilet. The method of choice depends on where you are and what you have. Let us look a the both of them.

Method 1: Dry Your Phone with Uncooked Rice

• Retrieve it quickly. I know most people have never envisioned themselves putting their hand in the toilet bowl. As gross as it sound, just pick it up with your hand. The longer it stays in there the more water it takes in.
• Wipe it clean with a towel. Grab a paper towel, hand towel or any other towel you can find and wipe the phone dry. Blow in air to remove water from the headphones jack and the charging port. If it has a phone case remove it. Some water could still be trapped between the case and the phone.
• Turn the phone off. If possible remove the battery, sim card and memory card. In case the phone was off don’t attempt to power it on to see if it is working.
• Pour a generous amount of uncooked rice in a bowl and bury the phone inside together with the battery and other componens. Leave it for 24-48 hours. Periodically mix up the rise and change the position of the phone withing the bowl.
• After waiting for as long as you can, try and power on your phone. Most of the time this will work. If it does power up immediately, there is a possibility that the battery is flat. Charge it and see if it will respond. Hopefully this works.

Warning: Never use a hair drier or microwave in an attempt to dry a phone. That is a sure way to completely destroy it. The heat from these 2 appliances will interfere with the phones internal electrical components. The best way to dry the cell phone ports is by blowing in compressed air.

Method 2: Dry the Phone with Silica Gel

I’m sure you have seen those small bags with even smaller balls inside attached to new electronics or even clothing labelled “DO NOT EAT”. They are used to absorb moisture and thereby keep those products dry at all times.

They are called silica gel and can also be used to dry a phone once you have retrieved it from a toilet.

In order for these substance to be of help to you when you drop your phone in water, you have to be prepared. Unfortunately this is not something people buy and store in the house the way they store rice.

And by the way you cannot start collecting this small bags from your shopping packaging and storing them away in a container hoping to use them later. They are designed to only be used once.

Fortunately, you can buy this kit by PackFreshUSA. It is loaded with this substance and what is interesting is that you can travel around with it. Just in case! It would be chaotic to have to move around with a bowl of uncooked rice as your phone emergency kit.

The Nine Lives wet phone kit can retrieve up to a teaspoon of water in 2 hours and only weighs 1.6 ounces. It measures 6.5″ x 3.75″ x .75″ and will fit and revive any other electronic and not just a cell phone.

How to Prevent Dropping Your Phone in the Toilet

While knowing how to fix a toilet that has dropped in a toilet is important, knowing how to prevent it in the first place is even more important. But how do phones fall in the toilet in the first place.

Putting your phone in your back pocket is a sure way of dropping it in the toilet while lowering down your pants or getting them on. This mostly affect women because their pants don’t have deep front pockets or have none at all.

Another way people drop their phone in the toilet is by placing them on top of the tank. If say you were scrolling on your phone and finishing up on your business you want to rise up to get cleaned and flush, you will want to place you phone somewhere.

Unfortunately, the top of the tank is the only place you can place your phone. A small movement in the toilet will have your phone either on the floor with a cracked screen or drowning in the toilet bowl.

So how do you make sure this does not happen? Since I bought a toilet paper holder with a small shelf I have always had it easy since there is always a place to secure my phone. You can choose to go for this freestanding toilet paper holders with a shelf or a wall-mounted toilet paper holder with a phone shelf.

I like the freestanding toilet paper holder since you always see it besides the toilet which triggers you to touch your pocket and retrieve your phone. This holders cost almost nothing compared to the price of a brand new phone. They are stylish too.

Another way of avoiding dropping your phone in the toilet is by flushing with the lid down. This applies to people who use their phone while on the toilet. As soon as you rise just put the lid down before placing your phone anywhere.

Most people drop their phone in the toilet the moment they stand because they don’t have a secure place to hold it. The only viable option is the top of the tank.

Apart from preventing your phone from dropping in the toilet, flushing a toilet with the lid down also prevents germs from jumping all over you, especially in a public toilet.

The last option is to not go to the bathroom with your phone at all. This is however not ideal because most of the times we need to be with our phones at all times. It is also worth noting that people don’t drop phones in toilet while using them.

Most of the time, phones just drop in the toilet when the owner is not using them at all. Knowing what to do when the phone drops in the toilet and acting quickly is what will ultimately give your phone a chance to survive.