1. Although this may seem obvious, get it out of there! The longer it stays submerged the greater the chance of serious damage.
2. Power it down. Cutting power to the device will protect it from potentially short circuiting and causing damage to the board or components. If your screen is not responding on an iPhone you can hold the Power and Home buttons at the same time for about 5 seconds to cause it to power down (if the apple logo comes up you’ve held them too long)
3. Give the liquid any opportunity possible to leave the device. Remove any/all if possible.
– Battery
– Headphones
– SIM Card
– Memory Card
4. Rinse it out with fresh clean water. Although this may seem counterproductive, if your device fell into salt water, chemically treated water (pool/spa), etc. Running it under clean water will flush out any residual salt, minerals, contaminants. Which can cause the board to begin corroding within hours.
5. Force out as much of the water as you safely can. A can of compressed air, or a hair dryer can work in a pinch to force out some water without causing any additional damage to your device.
6. Let it sit. If you have a drying agent (silica gel, couscous/rice, etc) add them to a container with your device to aid in the drying process. A minimum of 24 hours should pass before attempting to power it on.
7. Plug it in and power it up. Does it charge, did the screen come on, is there any touch response? If so, congratulations you have a functional phone!
If your device failed to power on or respond after these steps are performed there’s a good chance that either the board was damaged or one of the components connected to it (screen, battery, dock, etc) We offer a liquid damage repair service with a greater then 80% success rate, as well as a mail in service for our out of state customers. Call or email us today for more information and thank you for reading!
If you’re interested in reading more about how liquid can cause damage to your components I’ve included a couple of wikipedia links that explain things in greater detail.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_contact_indicator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure_of_electronic_components