HOW TO CHECK FOR WATER DAMAGE ON THE IPHONE

If You See Red, Your Warranty (and your iPhone) is Dead.

Baseball and poker have been described as ‘long periods of boredom followed by brief moments of sheer terror.’ The same can be said for owning an iPhone, when the ‘moments of sheer terror’ are usually when we see our expensive device headed into a body of water.

Whether baptized in the toilet, the backyard pool or the lake, the end result is usually the same: a dead device. Sometimes they can be coaxed back to life by drying; sometimes they need more help than that. But most unfortunately, the standard iPhone warranty doesn't cover water damage.

When you take your dunked device to the Apple Store, or send it in for repairs, the first thing the technician will do is check for water damage on the iPhone. To save yourself some time and let you understand what your options are, it's good to know how to check for water damage on the iPhone yourself.

Apple has built moisture indicators into iPhones. They normally appear either white or silver, but when they get wet they turn red or pink. They will not ‘trip’ under normal use, even if you live in an area of high humidity.

There are two places to check on the iPhone 4 and 4S: midway on the bottom of the docking/charging connector and at the bottom of the headphone jack. The headphone jack is also the place to check on earlier editions of the iPhone.

On the iPhone 5, you have to pull out the nano SIM card tray to check the moisture indicator. Grab a good flashlight, pull out the tray and peer into the darkness. You should see a little bit of white. If you see red, you have a wet iPhone.

No matter which iPhone model you're checking, a lighted magnifying glass makes the job a lot easier.

And, as you're considering a moisture check, first do a reality check: You already know what the results are going to be, don't you? If you've fished your phone out of water, the indicators will be red.

The best advice is to not get into this situation in the first place. Prevent water damage on your iPhone with a LifeProof case. Our cases let you take your phone two meters underwater for a half hour.

Consider these facts:
• Water causes iPhone moisture indicators to turn red or pink
• Technicians will peer at headphone jacks, under the dock connector and inside the sim slot to find the indicators
• Water damage is not covered by the standard iPhone warranty
• LifeProof cases prevent water incursion down to 6.6 feet for 60 minutes