It happens to the best of us, whether we drop it in a puddle, use it in the rain or knock over a glass of water — but what if there was an easy at-home fix that’s easier than putting in a bag of rice?
One YouTube video, which has amassed 45 million views, promises to do exactly that through sound vibrations, which will, in theory, “eject water from your phone speaker and completely remove water from your mobile speakers.”
Hundreds of thousands of viewers are singing its praises in the comments, swearing that the two-minute video fixed their phones after spills, drops and other liquid mishaps.
But skeptical tech experts wanted to test out the so-called cure-all for water-logged devices, new editions of which lose their water resistance over time.
According to The Verge, speakers work by pushing air around, which means that force could remove water from the speakers of a phone.
“The lowest tone that that speaker can reproduce, at the loudest level that it can play,” Eric Freeman, a senior director of research at Bose, told the outlet. “That will create the most air motion, which will push on the water that’s trapped inside the phone.”
The caveat, however, is that smartphone speakers are small — unlike larger speakers that can produce low, loud sound — and YouTube videos cannot emit “really deep bass.”
But, in theory, the sounds from the YouTube video should act like the water expulsion feature of the Apple Watch.
“It’s just a specific oscillating tone that pushes the water out of the speaker grilles,” Carsten Frauenheim, a repairability engineer at iFixit, told The Verge. “Not sure how effective the third-party versions are for phones since they’re probably not ideally tuned? We could test.”
Working with the team at iFixit, The Verge writer David Pierce chose four phones he “was willing to destroy in the name of science” — the Nokia 7.1, iPhone 13, Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 3 — and dunked them in a UV bath. The next day, the team checked to ensure water had gotten in the phone and not back out.
While the Pixel 7 Pro was dry, the Nokia was “ruined,” while the iPhone 13 and Pixel 3 retained some liquid.
When the YouTube video was played on the phones, a detailed video of the device speakers saw water droplets sputtering out. However, it wasn’t a fix for other water-logged parts of the phones, like the USB port or SIM card slot.
“I say [the videos] kind of work,” engineering student Chayton Ritter, who works with iFixit’s editorial team, told The Verge. “It can’t hurt, but I don’t see it being an end-all-be-all fix or a way to pull all the liquid out.”
