My Phone Fell in the Toilet (And How I Saved It)

Okay, full disclosure: it wasn't actually the toilet. It was a puddle on my bathroom floor after I knocked over a cup of water while trying to grab my phone from the counter. But you get the idea—my iPhone 13 Pro took an unexpected swim, and I had about five minutes of pure panic before my brain kicked in.

First thing I did? Turned it off immediately. That part I got right, at least. Then I shook it gently, patted it with a towel, and left it face-down on a paper towel for two hours. When I turned it back on, everything seemed fine. Except the speakers. They sounded like I was listening through a pillow. Or maybe through Jell-O. You know that muffled, underwater sound? Yeah, that.

The Rice Trick and Other Failures

So I tried the rice trick. Yes, the infamous rice trick that everyone on Reddit swears by. Left it in a bag of uncooked rice overnight. Woke up the next morning, still sounded terrible. Then I found a YouTube video about using compressed air. Bought a can, tried it, did absolutely nothing except waste five dollars and make my bathroom smell like chemicals.

Three days later, I'm getting desperate. My phone is out of warranty, and the speakers are basically useless for calls. I'm sitting there googling "how to fix water damaged phone speakers" at like 2 AM, when I stumble across this weird forum thread about using low-frequency sound waves. The whole concept seemed ridiculous—like, how would sound waves push water out of a speaker? But at that point, I had nothing to lose.

The Sound Wave Solution

Downloaded a tone generator app (this was before Speaker Wizard existed, otherwise I would've just used that) and played a 165Hz tone for about 30 seconds. Nothing happened. Then I tried 220Hz. Still nothing. Then I did a sweep between those frequencies, and holy crap—I could actually see tiny droplets appearing on the speaker grille. Like, water was literally coming out.

I got curious after it worked, so I went down this rabbit hole about how sound frequencies actually work. Turns out low-frequency waves create pressure variations that can physically move liquid. It's basically the same thing that makes subwoofers move air, except we're using it to push water molecules out of tight spaces. The frequencies that work are between 165Hz and 230Hz—too high and you're not moving enough air, too low and you might actually damage the speaker. Most phones can handle that range safely though.

My phone's speakers are totally back to normal now. It took about three cycles over two days (I was being cautious), but the sound is crystal clear. The whole experience was weirdly educational? Like, I learned something about physics while also saving my phone. Who knew.

If your speakers are messed up from water damage, seriously, try the sound frequency thing before you spend money at a repair shop. It might just work. It's bizarre, but it worked for me.