iPhone 4 dropped in water

my girlfriend's sister's friend dropped her iPhone in water and i assume it shut off. well, according to her facebook, she bought a new one (paid FULL price) and someone told her to stick the old iPhone in rice, so she did. now she is saying after 5 days in rice, it works like normal.

i have an electronics manufacturing background, so i know circuit boards and components can get wet, and as long as there's no power applied while wet it won't cause damage. does any one think there's any part of that story that's true??? has anyone heard of anything like this?

The rice will absorb the moisture, and as long as it was just water and there was no power on at the time of the drop I would say it is possible. Any other liquid depending on what it is would be likely to cause issues down the road due to corrosion and such. The key to drying something like this out is patience, and it seems that she had it being it was left alone for five days.

i agree it's possible, it just seems like an "urban legend" to me, as funny as that may sound. i guess the part that makes me question the whole thing, is if it were me it wouldn't work, but that's the kind of luck i have.

Another problem is that most water isn't distilled and thus will have small amounts of metals and minerals. These get deposited on the circuit board and remain there even after drying, which can thus lead to shorts.

I did the "rice" thing on an iPod Touch and it worked fine, except that we powered the device on before drying it so the wifi got fried. So now it's a nice iPod without wifi.

Really? IS it possible? "urban legend" !!!

It might have not been the rice but it's possible it's like normal. Because I've seen an iphone 3GS soaked in water and worked normally after.

the uncooked rice is just a really good desiccant (like those little bags of silica in the retail boxes of stuff). Inside a baggie, the rice will absorb all the moisture there is, and without heat, so it a gradual and effective way to dry electronic devices out. The real problem is not powering up before it sits in the rice bag a few days -- and even then if there are any mineral deposits, sugar, etc., on the boards they can short.