My phone fell in water, what should I do first?
The short answer
Switch the phone off, and do not switch it back on to see if it survived. Keep it away from the charger and any cable. Wipe the outside, take the case off, eject the SIM tray, and rest the phone upright with the ports facing down. Then get it to a repair bench the same day, because the useful work needs the board out of the case.
Why powering it off comes first
Liquid on a live board bridges tracks that were never meant to touch, and current drives the dissolved salts into the copper underneath. Switching off does not stop the corrosion. It stops it running fast, and it is the one part of this still under your control. If the screen has already gone dark, leave it dark rather than testing it.
What not to do in the meantime
Skip rice, hairdryers, ovens and a sunny windowsill. None of them reach the water sitting on the board, and rice in particular is answered on its own page. Do not shake the phone hard either. Shaking pushes liquid from the edges towards the middle, where the parts that matter sit.
What water damage repair involves
The board comes out of the case and through an ultrasonic clean at the iFixpert bench in Sector 49, Gurgaon. Testing a board that still carries residue tells you very little, so the clean comes first. This is not doorstep work, and no engineer should tell you it is.
iFixpert puts the fixed price in writing after the free 21-point diagnosis, and that diagnosis costs you nothing if the board cannot be saved. Some water-damaged phones are not worth repairing. The engineer says so at the point of diagnosis, not once the bill exists.
What to do first, in order
- Hold the power button until it switches off. Do not restart it to check.
- Unplug every cable and keep the charger away from it.
- Wipe the outside, take the case off, and eject the SIM tray.
- Rest it upright on a dry cloth with the ports facing down.
- No rice, no hairdryer, no oven, no windowsill.
- Call iFixpert on +91 87962 90111, or WhatsApp the same number, and say what it went into.
How long can I wait before water damage becomes permanent?
Corrosion starts as soon as the liquid begins to dry on the board, so the odds fall with every hour it waits. Sea water, pool water and anything sugary are more aggressive than tap water and should not wait at all. Nobody can promise a recovery window for your exact model, so iFixpert diagnoses first and says whether the repair is worth the money.
Should I charge my phone after it got wet?
No. Charging pushes current through a board that may still be wet inside, and that is what turns a phone you could have saved into one you cannot. This holds after the outside feels dry, and it holds for wireless charging too. The pins inside the charging port corrode as well, so iFixpert checks the port along with the board at the Sector 49 bench rather than asking you to test it with a cable.
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Last reviewed 2026-09-06