Cell phone in the toilet bowl?

Your cell phone, pager or iPod has fallen into the toilet bowl, swimming pool or kitchen sink full of water. You fish it out. After you've washed your hands -- depending on the circumstance -- what can you do?

FiscalGeek offers five techniques for restoring the gadget to life in a post called "Frugal fix: Revive your cell phone or electronic devices from water damage." He starts with his "go-to" method, which involves rubbing alcohol.

Here's a short description (don't try this without reading his entire post):

• Remove the battery -- immediately. Then take off the battery cover and other compartments, he says.
• Submerge the device in a container filled with the alcohol for five minutes.
• Let the device dry for an hour or so. "The alcohol will evaporate very quickly but be sure it's really dry," "FiscalGeek" says.

If that doesn't work after several tries, move on to the other options:

• Store the phone overnight in a sealed bag of dry rice. The rice acts as a desiccant. (We'll save you the trouble of looking that up. It means "a drying agent.")
• Use a Dri-Z-Air dehumidifier. He explains how.
• Finally, maybe a hair blower will work.

It's worth a try to salvage the phone or other gadget. Otherwise, you're left with his final suggestion:

Smash it with a hammer and buy a new device. This one works every time.

Published June 24, 2009