Don't Put Your Device in Rice. Here's Why

Why rice once worked

While ordinary push-button telephones hid all the susceptible components in the middle of massive, multi-layered construction, in modern smartphones these components are significantly less protected.
It used to be the case that the water usually got only to easily removable parts, such as the keyboard, front or back cover, and possibly the battery. Other critical components, important for the proper functioning of the device, were protected in a kind of internal container, into which water was very difficult to get. So even if you put such a device in the rice, it "pulled out" the water, but only from easily accessible places where there was basically no risk (and the cell phone would almost certainly survive without this intervention).

Modern smartphones and rice

Nowadays, it is much more likely that if the water has already got inside, preventing it from penetrating, for example to the motherboard or display, is not so simple and rice will certainly not solve it. On the contrary, it can cause even greater problems, for example, because it contains starch. Upon contact with the device, the starch can settle in the charging connector or other, often miniature, openings and cause the same damage there as the water itself.

After penetration, water can cause a short circuit, seriously damage individual pixels in the display or create ideal conditions for corrosion, which will sooner or later completely shut down the device. If the device is switched off after contact with water, or the flashlight is discharged, we certainly do not recommend any attempts to charge or switch it on, quite the contrary. The connection of electricity and water in the connector could not only definitely bury the whole phone, but especially unpleasant harm to its owner. If the mobile phone remains switched on even after a collision with water, we recommend that you switch it off immediately.

The real solution

The safest solution is to bring your mobile phone to service as soon as possible. There, professional technicians can carefully open it and remove the water, while also checking to see if any components have been damaged.