Home > Who needs BlendTec for your iPhone, when you can use a washing machine?
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Who needs BlendTec for your iPhone, when you can use a washing machine?

20 Sep 2009

20 Sep, 2009  Miscellaneous, Twitter, social media


If you’re not familiar with BlendTec, they are a company who used videos to market a fairly unexciting product, in a brilliant way that turned into a viral sensation. They pick items that you would never ordinarily put in a blender, such as iPhones, golf balls, glow sticks, and show how powerful the BlendTec blender is, by the fact that it can crush up these items on their “Will It Blend?” show. The shows are hysterical, and have proven to be an amazing tool to market their product.

washing machine

Last weekend, I decided to conduct an similar experiment of my own. Except that it really wasn’t planned. It just happened by mistake. I put my iPhone through the washing machine. Yes, rinse cycle and all. So, what happened to it? Well, by the keen knowledge of my friend Claudio, my phone was saved, and seems to be in 100% working order. Here’s what Claudio did to save the day:

  • He said, no matter what, don’t turn on the phone until we fully dried out the insides.  So, despite my impatience to just turn it on and see if it was working, we kept it turned offiphone dead
  • Then, Claudio instructed me to suck all the water out of every single hole in the iphone.  It tasted like Tide.  (maybe that was just his way of getting me to wash my mouth out with soap!).  Anyway, I literally sucked as hard as I could out of both microphone holes, the volume buttons, the headset hole, the on/off buttons, the charger hole, and the SIM card hole.
  • Then, he pointed a hairdryer at the charger hole and blew medium heat air into the iPhone for probably an hour and a half.  Every few minutes, he rotated the iPhone around so the hair dryer blew into different holes.hair dryer
  • Then, we charged the phone.  We’re not sure if my phone had run out of battery before the washing machine incident or if it disengaged the battery during the incident, but it did need to be charged.

So, that’s it!  At first, the sound on my ringers and music was off, but over the next few days, it came back to normal.  There was also some fogginess on the screen, but that went away the same day.  Now, it’s good as new.  Thanks Claudio!iphone alive

Anyone else have any tips for saving an iPhone from a washing machine, being run over by a car, or being dropped?

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  • reikob
    Thank you Rachel, very nicely written, and good information.
    I've put other phones thru the wash, so it's probably just a matter of time before
    my iphone gets a cleaning...
    Very lucky...
  • joe c
    Yep. When something electronic like a cell gets wet, you're supposed to pack it in uncooked rice. That will really suck out the water. But an iPhone is a lot more solid than a typical cell so I'm not sure how well it would work.
  • Great writeup, Rachel. Contrats, too, because I think you're lucky it works. I've had several iPods and phones get washed or wet. Most died. Good advice. Key is to remove moisture as quickly as possible: raw rice, silica packets and dryers can help.
  • I am impressed that it worked with an Iphone as well. I know Nokia and Sony Ericsson mobiles are very tough but I figured that the Iphone would die as soon as it got a Deciliter of water inside the shell.

    I apologize for what I am about to say but I don't want you to get your hopes up on "good as new". but that Iphone has probably(I can be wrong) a lot shorter life ahead of it them before the "blender tryout"

    So, again, sorry for my negative view on this. I hope I am wrong.
  • No worries. I have just another year and a half until I can upgrade.
    Here's hoping! :-)
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