iWashed. One iPhone’s journey in the spin cycle of life.
Wednesday, 5th November 2008
I washed my iPhone. Yes, I did.
My Day started out OK. I got up, made coffee…drove the boss to work…
One of the benefits of working from home is the ability to be able to sneak a few household chores into your day. So, I tossed a few pair of jeans in the washer and didn’t think much of it. Until it came time to put said jeans into the the washer…and, hey – what’s that? A sock? ohhhhhhh nooooo.. It’s my iPhone. Shit. My $600+ mistake.
So after I came to grips with the fact that no hoping and praying would bring it back to life. I took it apart. 
Hope you enjoy the photos. I count 17 individual parts and 23 screws.
Please feel free to donate to the new iphone fund:
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David
Thursday, 6th November 2008 at 2:21 pm
I don’t see any corrosion in those pics, so its entirely possibly your disassembly will allow the innards of your iPhone to dry out and it _might_ work once reassembled. Of course the immersion sensor will have fired off, so no warranty support but maybe you will get a few weeks out of it to save for a replacement
Jim Fitzsimmons
Thursday, 6th November 2008 at 2:31 pm
Thanks David. I suppose I could have waited to find out. But it’s had not a perfect disassembly. SOME parts might be salvageable, but “It’s dead Jim”
Besides, it was therapeutic taking it apart.
KenC
Thursday, 6th November 2008 at 5:06 pm
Shame, since many electronics can be revived, after being wet. Perhaps, the battery needs to be replaced.
Also, check your credit card you purchased it with, or your homeowners insurance for coverage!
Jim Fitzsimmons
Thursday, 6th November 2008 at 5:24 pm
Well…there’s no reviving it now. It’s toast. The LCD screen itself looks OK, and the battery might be, but there’s no way to tell. Might make for an interesting ebay auction though
M
Friday, 7th November 2008 at 12:05 pm
You should have left it for a week to dry out.
I dropped my brand new 2 week-old iPhone 3G in a sink full of water so it was totally submerged for a few seconds. (It slipped out of my jacket pocket which I’d forgotten to zip up).
However, I pulled it out, turned it off as quickly as I could and dried off as much water as possible then put it in a jar of rice for 2 days taking it out each day to get rid of the wet rice that had sucked out a lot of the moisture.
I then put it on top of our WD MyBook 2TB external hard disk (nice and warm and dry but not too hot) for 5 days.
During this time I cursed my stupidity of course and prayed that it might be okay eventually.
On about day 8 I finally plucked up enough courage to turn it on for the first time and what do you know it worked. The immersion sensor shows the half red, half white circle so warranty repairs in the future would be a problem, but It has now been 4 months and the phone is still working perfectly.
It’s a shame you didn’t try the week-long drying technique, it might have worked too.
M
Scott Fleming
Monday, 10th November 2008 at 8:18 pm
OK, this is something that would only come from the mind of Jim. Make the best of a bad situation, find a silver lining in the darkest cloud. I would like to start the bidding at $1.00
Scott