iPad in the swimming pool? There is hope

It seemed like a great idea to bring your iPad to the community swimming pool. Until, of course, you dumped it in the water. Now it feels like a terrible idea. But don’t panic. There’s a chance you might be able to save that iPad. It’s true: Water certainly isn’t a friend of technology. Even so it doesn’t have to be their end, either. If you act quickly, you may well be able to save your waterlogged tablet, smartphone or iPod.

Saving drowned technology

After you fish your device out of the water, do one thing first: Be certain its power is off. If a battery is fueling your gadget, quickly yank that battery out. If your device does not feature a battery, make sure it is switched off. You may think it’s the water that causes gadgets to go haywire. It’s not. The electrical shorts water causes is what scrambles your devices. Whatever you do, resist the temptation to switch the power back on to see what destruction has been done. By doing this, you’ll only make things worse.

Other steps

Your next step should be to open as many air holes as feasible in your device. This means removing SIM cards, back covers, SD cards and ear hole port coverings. The greater number of openings you create, the more air will pass through your device. Secondly, vacuum out as much moisture as you possibly can from the smartphone, tablet or iPod. Your ideal tool for this job is a vacuum which has a small nozzle. The more thorough you are , the better. Finally, drop your phone inside a bowl of something that will dry it out. Many people recommend dry white rice. And this works, but Gizmodo comes up with something it says is even better—a bowl of dry Rice Krispies breakfast cereal. After A couple of days of drying time, turn your device back on. If you’re lucky, it will pop straight back into life.

Keeping it dry

Of course, better than rescuing an electronic gadget from water is keeping it dry to begin with. There are several options for this. The New York Times just ran an excellent feature ranking the various waterproof cases out there. Such options as the LifeProof, Joy Factory Rain Ballet and Liquipel cases come in handy when you are hanging at the lake using your favorite eReader. Our advice, though, is simpler: Keep your electronics away from the water. It may be tempting to bring your cellphone to the edge of the pool. But this type of move might prove very expensive.</p