Stop putting your wet phone in rice – experts explain why it can do more harm than good
We’ve all heard that putting a wet phone in rice can save it – but experts say it may do more harm than good.
(Image credit: Shutterstock / Orapruek)
If you drop your phone in a puddle, pool, sink or toilet, there’s one piece of advice people rush to give: put it in rice. It’s become one of the biggest tech 'life hacks' of the past decade. It’s a fix so common you may not even think to question it.
Some of today’s phones are water-resistant, which helps in many situations. Just wipe it down and keep using it. Job done. But for older models, accidental dunks still happen. So is rice the miracle drying agent we’ve all made it out to be?
The myth
Depending on who you talk to, the advice about exactly how to dry your phone out with rice is a little different.
But I had a look at some of the top posts about this and, generally, the advice is that if you get your phone wet, you should (as quickly as possible) bury it in uncooked rice. Ideally enough to completely surround it in an airtight box or bag.
(Image credit: Shutterstock / olethree)
The belief is that rice pulls the moisture out of the device faster than air alone. It sounds plausible if you think about the basics of how rice cooks and see it as a sort of natural sponge. Add in years of this advice appearing in online life hacks and anecdotal success stories, and the idea has stuck around.
The interesting part here is you may have even had some success with it in the past. But how much truth is there in it as a magic hack to save a soaked phone?
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What experts say
(Image credit: Shutterstock / avtk)
“It’s a myth that putting a wet phone in rice helps dry it out,” says Associate Professor Ritesh Chugh, a socio-tech expert at Central Queensland University, Australia.
Not only does it fail to help, it can make things worse. “Rice absorbs moisture far too slowly to remove the water that can get trapped inside modern sealed smartphones,” he says. “And small rice grains or dust can become lodged in charging ports, making repairs more difficult.”
This explains why many phone manufacturers actively advise against using rice.
TL;DR
Rice can absorb some surface moisture, but grains and dust can get lodged inside and create new problems. And it’s the water inside your device that does the damage. So skip the rice, switch your phone off, pat it dry, and leave it powered down for 24 to 48 hours instead.
