On 061030C January 2020 (Wednesday), the outside temperature was approximately 42-degrees Fahrenheit.  After accidently falling head first in my 1,000-gallon water garden, I pulled myself out of the cold frigid water and immediately took off all my clothes to prevent going hypothermic.  See Almost Bought The Farm!–

My .40 caliber P22 Glock pistol got submerged in the frigid water but that was no big deal.  But the big deal was my cell phone also got submerged underwater.

It worked for several hours and then went DEAD DEAD.  The next day, 07 January 2021 (Thursday), I went to Scott Air Force Base to look into getting a replacement cell phone but they had no flip phones.  The lady told me to put my cell phone in a closed container of white rice.  She told me to take apart the cell phone (flip phone, back cover and battery) and put everything in a container of white rice overnight.  The white rice should suck-up all the water throughout the cell phone.

That night, that’s exactly what I did.  I put 02 cups of white rice in a plastic container, took apart my cell phone (flip phone, back cover and battery) and put everything in the white rice.  I sealed the plastic cover with some Press N’ Seal wrap.

The next morning (08 January 2021 – Friday), I recovered the parts of the cell phone and put everything together.  I pressed the ON button – NOTHING.  I hooked it up to a power source and pressed the ON button – NOTHING.  I continued to charge it up and waited a few hours.  I again pressed the ON button – NOTHING, the cell phone is DEAD DEAD.

I then went into the Belleville to the Cricket Store and purchased a new cell phone.  After everything was said and done, the new cell phone with my same phone number cost me $55.64 and add in the upgrade fee – whatever that was and taxes, the total charge came to $82.67.

Now I got a new cell phone.  But here’s the problem, all my phone contacts were lost with the old cell phone.  I asked the lady at the Cricket Store if she could transfer the phone numbers from the DEAD old phone to the new phone?  She told me no.  She couldn’t do it with a dead phone.  I bet the FBI could do it.  Anyway, I wanted all those phone contacts.  So this is what I did.

I carried-on with my R & D (Research & Development).  That evening, on 081816C January 2021 (Friday), I again took the old cell phone apart (flip phone, back cover and battery) and placed everything in the same container of 02-cups of white rice and resealed with the Press N’ Seal wrap.

I ACTUALLY FORGOT ABOUT IT.  Just 06-hours shy of a whole week (07-days), on 151200C January 2021 (Friday), almost a full 07-days later, I recovered the cell phone and put everything together.  I pressed the ON button – NOTHING.  I hooked the cell phone up to a charger and guess what happened – BAAAMMMM!  IT’S CHARGING UP.  Apparently, the battery lost all its power over the days of being dried-out.  

 But the BOTTOM LINE, to really dry-out the cell phone, overnight (several hours) didn’t work.  I dried it out for almost a whole week to repair the cell phone.  If I’d known this and been a bit more patient, I’d of SAVED the $82.67.  Now that you know How To Fix A Wet Cell Phone With Rice and can save your money.

The old cell phone is all charged-up 100% and WORKS.  The SIM card is deactivated because of my new phone and it can’t make any outgoing calls.  However, by US law, my old cell phone and ALL deactivated cell phones can still call 911.  Scrolling at the top left of the screen, it says – “Emergency Calls Only.”

The next step is to take it back to the Cricket Dealer and transfer all my phone numbers from the old phone to the new phone.

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WAIT WAIT!!!  But instead of driving 02-hours round trip and Cricket charging me another $20 – $30 bucks to transfer the phone numbers from my old phone to the new phone, I’ll do it by hand one at a time.

Now you know white rice does work to dry-out a wet cell phone.  It just takes more time than just overnight.  In my case, it took just 06-hours shy of a whole week only because I forgot to check the phone on the 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th day.

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IMPORTANT NOTE:  Did you know there are organizations that collect old deactivated cell phones?  Why?  They give the old deactivated cell phones to women and others who are at a high risk of violence from their ex-husbands, ex-boyfriends,… so they can call 911 for emergency assistance.  Again, by law, old cell phones can still call 911.

So, if you have an old deactivated cell phone, donate it or charge it up and you use it as a spare cell phone to call 911.

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