The number of cell phone ‘repair centers’ that claim they can fix liquid damaged cell phones, then claim a 70% or better success rate is truly incredible. I say this because, in virtually every case, the proper repair of a wet cell phone will almost certainly cost more than the phone’s replacement value. AND, even if it would be cost-efficient (which is not very likely) it is doubtful there are many (if any!!) places that have the capability to even perform the proper repair.
The typical repair service offered by most shops generally starts with a warning to remove your battery immediately and ship in your phone ASAP. The actual repair consists of dis-assembly, cleaning the printed circuit board (PCB) by hand scrubbing with a brush, using an ultrasonic cleaning filled with isopropyl alcohol as needed, and possibly replacing parts (like displays), and finishing with reassembly. These phones are then quickly tested, deemed repaired and returned with no warranty. At best, this is a quick, temporary fix, but no way does it mean the phone has been truly repaired. How can this be, you may ask.
Your cell phone is a small computer designed around a densely populated central printed circuit board with an integrated LCD display and keyboard. There may be secondary PCBs as well as flexible PCBs (the flex cables that connect the two halves). The PCB is, by definition, designed to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components (resistors, capacitors, radio chips, etc) using conductive pathways, tracks, or traces, etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printed_circuit_board).
As expected, liquid creates a significant number of issues with the electrical connections throughout the PCB. The severity of these issues is higher when the liquid involved contains electrically conductive materials, and the greater the quantity of these materials, the more likely, and more / significant, the damage. Water, soda pop, milk and most other liquids commonly involved in cell phone damage are electrically conductive to some degree. The conductive nature of these liquids, combined with the moisture, lowers resistance between the electronic components and the underlying circuit paths. Lower resistance results in high current within the circuit causing a large amount of energy output within a short time frame leading to damaged components. Additionally, open or short circuits can occur when deposits left on the board result in bridges or unwanted connections between the leads of board components. In the most extreme cases, this can lead to arcing and fires. (We have quite a few boards displaying such damage.)
So can water damaged cell phones be repaired? Depending on the liquid, the amount of time the cell phone was in contact with the liquid, and the actions taken immediately following the liquid damage, it is possible. Is it likely? No. Is it cost effective? Definitely not.
We will continue this discussion in our next post (http://bit.ly/acsmIN), detailing the proper repair procedure and illustrating what is involved, to better be able to understand why it is not cost effective to repair water damaged phones.
Tags: cell phone repair, water damage, white paper
What a wonderful blog! Please continue this great work I will be sure to check back regularly…
I simply wanted to add a comment here to say thanks for you very nice ideas. Blogs are troublesome to run and time consuming therefore I appreciate when I see well written material. Your time isn’t going to waste with your posts. Thanks so much and carry on You’ll defintely reach your goals! have a great day!
Thanks for the Post, I hope you have a great day!
I thought I would leave my first comment, Thank you and I will want to read more from you.
I would like to say, great blog. Im unsure if it has been talked about, but when using Firefox I can never get the entire webpage to load without refreshing alot of times. Could just be my modem. Thanks
very informative thank you for a nice site
very informative thank you
Hi there, my brother told me about your website a couple weeks ago. and I absolutely love it. I’ll be back! Kee up the good work!
Hey, I found your blog while searching on Google your post looks very interesting for me. I will add a backlink and bookmark your site. Keep up the good work!
Excellent article! I enjoy your site very much.
Right on, your webpage formats perfectly on my new HTC, didnt look correctly on my outdated phone.
I like the layout of your website.
This is a great site, I love the theme you are using. I Stumbled it for you and bookmarked it on Digg.Check out my website if you get a chance, just click on name. My Home Study Blog – http://workfromhomestudycourses.blogspot.com
@work at home business Thank you!
Hey very solid blog!! Man .. Gorgeous .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your blog and subscribe to the feed as well…
I’m very grateful for keeping your site up to date and working, people know it costs you dough and we all are grateful for all your time and effort that you put into your website
I am impressed with all this useful information. Was WAY more than I expected.
Genial brief and this mail helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank you you seeking your information.
Great Info. I will add this blog to my bookmarks.
There is obviously a lot to learn. There are some good points here.
Great post! You make some some very good points, *bookmarked*
@ Lynwood Alampi, Thank you.
Hi there, I’ve been a lurker on your blog for a few months. I absolutely love your article and your entire site! Keep writing!
It’s really a pleasant surprise. I didn’t expect to stumble on such a nice article. I’ve checked out your other posts and must say they are very informative indeed. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Well yes you can clean water damage when were talking about a phone that cost upwards of $600-800 to replace an iPhone. The odds of cleaning depends on the iPhone user. If they get the iPhone wet and let it dry on it’s own the iPhone could stop working for good over time, of course depends what liquids the phone dipped into.
Over an 8 month period I had seen high percent of iPhones cleaned and never come back than ones that returned to be cleaned again. The odds are reduced when the owner while the iPhone is still wet tries and charges the iPhone. Electronics and water does not mix. Charging $45 to clean is cheaper than a new iPhone. Remove power while wet let dry and clean properly. It can be done. U only charge if it works!!!
I am not disputing that wet phones cannot be repaired, but rather true repairs are not economically viable even for an $800 iPhone. As you mentioned, part of any successful repair is contingent on what the owner may have done prior to the repair shop getting the unit. If the owner brings in an iPhone with no display after getting wet and tells you that everything else works, your assumption is that the phone is fine other than the LCD issue. You proceed to clean the minor corrosion at the flex connection and find that all works. You charge the customer and feel that the phone has been repaired.
The problem lies in your assumption that nothing else was wrong. As pointed out, water and electronics do not mix Even in the few seconds the phone came into contact with moisture, any number of resistors, capacitors, filters, etc may have been damaged. As with an open short in a home electrical system, the damage may be latent and not show up for months. In effect you are only fixing the obvious issue, NOT repairing the pone as a whole. This is short sighted to me and not fair to a customer that pays $45 today to fix the LCD only to have the charging system fail 3 days later. You have done your job and not refund is due, but had the customer been made aware that all of the circuits have been compromised and any could fail at any time, they may have chosen to replace the phone. This becomes an ethical issue for me.
The other reason we will not repair wet phones – safety and liability. I have seen my share of phone come in that had been ‘repaired’ elsewhere only to have a charging issue. Many of these phones had burnt and arced boards. I have had numerous instances of phones getting extremely warm when charging. A house fire IS possible in these cases.
The final note – How do you know if you really fixed a wet phone. You mention that you only charge if it works. In the display example, you clean it, the display works so the customer pays for the repair and leaves. Two days later, they return with a display issue again. Do you refund them their money? We warranty ALL repairs for a minimum of 90 days. Without verifying that the underlying circuit controlling the LCD is fine, the risk for failure within that time frame is far too high.
Ethically, with my understanding of small electronics and circuits, I cannot comfortably charge someone to ‘clean’ their wet phone. It will be repaired properly or not at all.
Robert
Your blog is so informative – keep up the good work!!!!
Hello, How is it going? I have to say that i appreciate the unique source of content of your website a great deal, can’t help asking my self where you get all of it from. Best regards Bob Rudisail
I like to visit your site a couple times a week for new entries. I was wondering if you have any other niches you write about?
@Eldon this is the only niche!
@Bob, most of the information comes from our background and experience. That is supplemented with specifics found during research.
Love the layout.
Fantastic blog, thanks. The blog got a new subscriber.
thanks lots, I am obliged to say your site is excellent!
Thank you for sharing the info. I found the details very helpful.
Yeah I found your website and need your help – in two months I’m in the USA (I’m from germany) to solve a problem for a german company (http://handywiese.de) which is in the USA. Can you give me a good tipp for a good prepaid-mobil discounter? I have an android-smartphone (the google phone / nexus one) – its imported!
I just wanted to thank you for writing this. It really made my day
The pre-paid provider we prefer is T-Mobile. You will be able to use your Nexus One with their service.
Good Morning, I am new to blogging but have been involved in electrical engineering for over 30years now. Your post is brilliant reading! Do I have to click a button or something to subscribe on this blog as I would like to check back now and then. All the best
Your shop clearly doesn’t have the knowledge or know how to fix water damaged phones. If I didn’t perform this service daily for many customers, there would be thousands of them who had to purchase a new phone instead of pay the $50 I charge (CHEAPER THAN BUYING A NEW PHONE AND OBVIOUSLY VERY ECONOMICAL!…How are you going to assume what others are charging and whether it’s economical or not) I suggest everyone go do their own research instead of believing some random website’s blog. I have customers who have dropped their phones into water 3+ times, every time bringing it to us and getting it back in working condition. If only they were reading and commenting on this blog right now. This information is just absolute rubbish. Is there really nobody who has had their phone fixed from water damage out there that is reading this? Not to mention customers who have dropped their phone into liquid…waited for them to dry (never even taking them in for repair) and had the phone work again a couple days later. Some of them successfully use the phones for YEARS after this. So you are telling me that since the phone got wet they should have thrown it away even though it worked again just like new? Hmmm… I wonder how economical that would have been. What really irks me is the people reading your blog and believing it and thanking you for such a great article. Now the countdown begins to how long it is before you remove my informative post discrediting the non-truth you have posted here…
Wow. Based on what you have posted, I would like to ask a few questions. First, what is your PCB repair background and how long have you been doing this? Second, did you read the blog? I ask as I never said a wet cell phone would NOT work again, but rather than it cannot properly be repaired. You make no mention of how you repair wet phones, only that it can be done.
Simply cleaning a wet cell phone and having it work again is not a repair. How do you account for latent damage to resistors, capacitors, etc? You do realize that water damages electrical components on contact, correct? Will a wet cell phone work even if components are damaged? Yes. Can they catastrophically fail weeks or months later? Yes. Try this example: A resistor is designed, as its name implies, to limit current through a circuit. Overload the circuit and the resistors blows. That results in immediate failure and is obvious. What about when the resistor does not blow and the damage is a dead short? That is VERY difficult to detect and the phone will operate as intended. This is similar to a dead short on a fuse in you home’s electrical panel. The fuse (resistor is effectively bypassed) and will no longer provide the over load protection. When this happens in your home, a fire can result. When this happens in your cell phone, a fire CAN happen as well. I have seen the evidence first hand. This is just one of the issues with attempts to clean a wet cell phone.
And why do few if any computer repair shops claim wet computers can be saved if it was so easy to repair a wet cell phone? Fact of the matter – cleaning and drying a wet cell phone is not a repair. It does not address the critical electrical damage that occurs and you seem to be avoiding.
My research is based on 15+ years in the industry with more than 10 in repair. I have conducted research online, and using contacts at Raytheon, NASA, and others with decades in PCB and computer repair. What is your level of expertise? Would you care to elaborate on your repair process or have your technique evaluated by a 3rd party expert? Do you have data to back up your success rate?
At this point, what you have provided is just a rant with nothing to substantiate your claim except your on anecdotal evidence.
Robert
We happily post dissenting opinions. Our moderation panel is used to help control spam and eliminate comment that are unrelated to the original post or contain offense material/language.
When intelligent comments backed up by factual data contradict our posts, we will re-examine what we have stated and will correct or remove a post that is in error.
Robert