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Dropped your iPhone in the sink, toilet, pool, or got caught in the rain? Take a breath — a wet iPhone can often be saved, but what you do in the first hour matters more than anything else. The single most important thing: do not plug it in to charge. That one mistake destroys more water-damaged phones than the water itself.
At Cell N Comp Repairs, we've recovered water-damaged iPhones for years, and here's the truth most people don't know: water doesn't kill your phone — corrosion does. This guide walks you through exactly what to do (and what not to do) right now, why speed matters so much, and how real water damage repair works. So bring it in fast.
Do these in order. Speed is everything — corrosion starts within minutes.
The internet is full of water-damage advice that actively makes things worse. Skip these:
The honest version: home "drying" methods dry the surface while corrosion keeps eating the inside. That's why the next section matters.
Here's what's actually happening inside. When liquid reaches the logic board, it reacts with the metal contacts and leaves behind corrosion — a green-white crust on connectors and around the chips. That corrosion doesn't stop when the phone "dries out." It keeps spreading over hours, days, and weeks.
This is why a water-damaged iPhone can seem fine for a while and then fail later — random shutdowns, battery problems, a dead screen, or charging issues showing up a week or two after the incident. The phone dried; the corrosion didn't stop. Getting the board professionally cleaned before corrosion spreads is the whole game — and it's why acting fast beats any home remedy.
Newer iPhones carry a water-resistance rating (IP67 or IP68), and that helps — but it's not the safety net people think:
So even if you have a recent model, treat any real submersion or spill as water damage and act fast.
This is the part that separates a real repair from "we let it dry." Proper water damage repair is a full board-level process:
We won't promise miracles — nobody honestly can. Recovery depends on three things: what the liquid was (clean water is kinder than salt water, soda, or coffee), how long it sat, and whether it was plugged in or powered on while wet. Phones brought in quickly, powered off, and never charged have the best outcomes by far.
And here's the important part: even when a phone can't be fully saved, board-level cleaning often recovers your data — the photos, contacts, and messages that matter most. If you don't have a recent backup, that alone is worth the attempt. (Check yours now: Settings → [your name] → iCloud → iCloud Backup.)
Water damage repair is almost always cheaper than replacing the device. Apple typically won't repair liquid damage — they replace the whole phone, which runs several hundred dollars and up (unless you have AppleCare+). Professional water damage repair costs a fraction of that and often saves a phone Apple would simply swap out.
Because every water-damaged phone is different, we price based on what we find — our diagnostic isn't free, and we give you a clear estimate before any work starts, so you can decide whether to repair or replace with real numbers in hand.
Time is the enemy with water damage, so don't wait. Power it off, don't charge it, and get it to any of our three Chicago-area stores as soon as you can. We'll open it, assess the corrosion, and give you an honest read on what's recoverable — we'll tell you straight whether it's worth repairing.
Serving Chicago and the north suburbs, including Evanston, Lincolnwood, Skokie, Niles, and Morton Grove.
Water often damages one specific part on the way in. If your iPhone survived but now has one of these, we can fix it:
