Drowned iPhone Saved By a Freeze Dryer!

man and woman, woman is holding an iphone
Tom and Sharon Clark & their saved iPhone

Yes, it does seem that you can truly freeze dry almost anything, and we recently heard a story that takes the cake. A few weeks ago, a Harvest Right employee (Dan) received a call from a neighbor (Sharon) who said that she and her husband (Tom) needed to talk to him right away. When Dan arrived, Tom and Sharon told him a story he couldn’t believe.

Sharon’s iPhone had gotten accidentally immersed in water, and to make matters worse, she didn’t discover it for some time. By the time she found it, it was full of water and actually sloshed when she shook it. The next day, she visited her local iPhone store. As predicted, they told her there was little hope of saving the phone but she could try submerging it in rice as that is known to absorb moisture. Back at home, Sharon consigned her soggy phone to a bag of rice for a few days, but in the end it still didn’t work. Since they were leaving on a week’s vacation the next day, she put the phone aside and tried to forget about it. However, as they were driving down the road, Sharon started crying as she thought about all of the pictures of their children and grandchildren that were on it, not to mention all of her phone numbers and addresses for family, friends, doctors, and business contacts. Yes, unfortunately the phone hadn’t been backed up. Still, she tried to put it behind her and enjoy her vacation.

When she and her husband returned from their trip, Sharon told her next door neighbor Tim about their vacation as well as her drowned iPhone.  Tim, an electrical engineer who owns a Harvest Right freeze dryer, had an idea. He asked Sharon if she would let him perform an experiment on her phone. With no hope of fixing it any other way, Sharon agreed. Tim put the phone in his freeze dryer, skipped the initial freeze and let it run for a couple of hours. The next day, Tim presented Tom and Sharon with a phone that looked perfect and didn’t slosh. Sharon charged it, powered it on, and to her astonishment the phone worked! In fact, it worked as good as new! Two months later, her phone continues to work perfectly.

Of course, we can’t guarantee freeze drying will revive your drowned phone, but Sharon’s neighbor Tim and all of us at Harvest Right continue to be amazed as to what our remarkable freeze dryer can do!

Comments

What an incredible story about freeze drying drowned phones!! We have posted the story on Facebook, looking for a relative/friend with a similar problem that may give it a try. perhaps also asking Verison for referrals!! Could be a whole new market for MOM & POP FARMERS WHO COULD USE SOME MOE INCOME AS A SIDE BUSINESS!!??

He skipped the freezing process. We would suggest trying it for about an hour and then checking it if you are going to experiment. If you are able, it would be helpful to open the phone and take the battery out so the freeze dryer can more easily extract the water.

Definitely remove the battery if possible. It is also advisable to remove the battery as soon as possible, preferably moments after immersion. The battery will power electrolysis and dissolve the traces in the phone. Otherwise this process has a very good chance of success. I have been looking forward to getting one of these and I’ve now added a reason to do so! Thanks for the article.

Freezing it to sub-zero temps could and proabably would destroy some internal components and the display. I had a laptop that was frozen in the far north Canada winter weather at -40 degrees. It didn’t have any water in it, but several components were split and the LCD display was a real mess. Tim, nice call, can’t argue with success.

I did the same thing with a boom box that my wife bought me. I left it out in the rain and water poured out if it when i turned it upside down the next morning. After removing the batteries and letting the water drain from all the openings, i put a fan on it for 24 hours. No luck! So i removed the tray frame, unplugged the chord and ran the boom box through a cycle overnight. Since it was so cold when removed and it was quite humid that day, i put it in front of the fan again for about 12 hours. Next morning it worked but the disk kept skipping. Thinking it was still lost, it occurred to me that the cd was also soaked. Even though it was dry i could see ‘stuff’ on it. I cleaned the disk and everything is back to normal. It may not work on everything but after you try everything else, why not freeze dry it?
roy

I had an iPod that got soaked. It gad a dozen movies on it.

I out it in a Mason jar and using the vacuum caps that work with a Foodsaver bag sealer, I attached a hand brake bleeder pump to it and applied 15 lbs pressure. Then I let it sit for a few days.

That was three years ago and it still works well.

Rice is for dinner… 🤣

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