How to: Fix a water damaged iPod

A rather unhappy thing happened in my world a few weeks back -- I had misplaced my iPod Nano. Being a device that I used a good 5 hours or so a day, I was more than a little distraught. That distraught feeling turned to a devastated one when it finally turned up... in the washing machine.

The weight was off, the casing was full of water, and it didn't have a chance of being salvaged. At least that's what I thought. So while I was out buying a replacement device my wife decided to try her hand at fixing it using the rice method. Amazingly, it worked.

For those of you that haven't heard of the rice method, it's a fairly simple idea that's worth trying on any handheld device that accidentally take a bath -- iPod, cell phone, you name it.

1. Fill a container with uncooked rice.
2. Bury the device in the middle of the rice.
3. Leave it for 24-48 hours.

That's it -- just bury it in rice. The rice is a natural absorbent and should pull the water out of the unit on it's own. Some people online suggest that this will only work if you take the device apart and put the pieces in the container individually, but neither I nor my wife could figure out how to get my Nano apart so clearly that's not always the case.

That being said, the device still has some problems. The water damage to the screen will never go away and there are some serious battery drain issues that didn't exist before the incident. But as far as playing music goes? It's sound as a pound.

What kind of water incidents have you suffered with your electronics?

TAGS: Electronics, Gadgets, How To, Ipod, Water
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[ READER COMMENTS ]

1. 1

   Johanna said:

   Well between my 10 month old (9 months at first incident) and my self my cell phone has had two near death experiences. The first, when my son was nine months old, happened when he took my cell phone out of my pocket in the bathroom and it took a dip into the toilet when I tried to get it back from him. We took it apart and let the blowdryer sit on it for about 30 mins. Similar to your issue, we had minor damages like shutting down on its own, some calls not connecting. But it worked. And tonight it got dropped into the tub, when i was putting my now 10 month old in for some tubby time. Now i'm going to try "the rice method". i'll let you know how it goes.

   Posted at 10:22 PM, on January 6 2009

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