iPhone XS Hot/Soapy water can damage water resistant iPhones

[NickName99]

I’ve been hooked on iPhones since I preordered an iPhone 4 back in 2010, still a very happy iPhone user today with my new iPhone SE2.

I just wanted to warn folks to protect their iPhones from hot water.

Edit: as JPack suggested, it was probably the soapy water. I’ve updated the post title.

Last month I accidentally got my iPhone XS wet, which didn’t worry me much since it’s IP68 rated and can typically handle quite a lot of water. The catch is that it was hot water - I was washing my hands in soap and hot water, as you do, and the iPhone slipped into the sink and was doused under the faucet.

Once I dried it off, I noticed FaceID wasn’t working, and the front camera appeared to be fogged up. A few minutes later, the display went kind of bonkers and was flickering different colors. I powered it off, opened it up (first time opening this particular iPhone up) and saw moisture condensation inside, but the water damage indicator was still white.

Whether it was moisture condensation or steam, hot water fried my screen, fried my FaceID, and messed up my microphone - it now sometimes had really harsh distortion.

I paid a repair shop to replace the screen for $160, but it didn’t have TrueTone anymore, and FaceID never came back. I felt uncomfortable trying to sell it used in that condition.

I ended up doing a trade in with Apple to get a new iPhone SE2 128GB, and Apple gave me the full $420 for my messed up iPhone XS, which is great! So they’re apparently not always super strict about your trade in. As long as it appears undamaged, powers up and works properly, they might give you the full price.

 

[now i see it]

So you pulled a fast one on Apple & ripped them off. Good for you

 

[NickName99]

So you pulled a fast one on Apple & ripped them off. Good for you

I’m sure Apple was aware of the condition of the phone and just made a judgment call to take good care of their customer. They had my phone under inspection for a few days, I had to mail it in. They know how to diagnose their stuff. ?

The main point of my post is to really be careful about hot/soapy water. Your iPhone may be fine being submersed 30’ under cool water for several minutes, but maybe not having hot/soapy water poured on it for a few seconds.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

I'm surprised they didn't catch all the issues as they usually to a diagnostic check on trade-ins.. I do find it odd that you didn't feel comfortable selling the phone to a private buyer(you could of disclosed the damage as many buy phones phones for various reasons) but you had no problem giving it to Apple in that condition as a trade in.. Were you prepared for Apple to tell you the phone was worth nothing to them or were you hoping they would miss it? As far as getting your phone wet with hot or cold water, your phone is only water resistant until it isn't. Many posts of brand new phones being damaged from cold water too let alone older phones. Apple doesn't cover water damage for a reason.. Water resistance doesn't last forever. I personally never take any of my expensive electronic devices near water, just don't want to chance it.

 

[NickName99]

I'm surprised they didn't catch all the issues as they usually to a diagnostic check on trade-ins.. I do find it odd that you didn't feel comfortable selling the phone to a private buyer(you could of disclosed the damage as many buy phones phones for various reasons) but you had no problem giving it to Apple in that condition as a trade in.. Were you prepared for Apple to tell you the phone was worth nothing to them or were you hoping they would miss it?

I expected they would easily be able to diagnose the issues, and they would then either chose to be generous and give me full credit, or they would come back with a far lower value, which I would accept.

Apple has ridiculously good customer care in my many years of experience.

Once I bought a used external USB super drive from eBay, it died months later. I took it into an Apple store, told the guy I had bought this from another seller, not from Apple. I was totally friendly and chill, just seeing if they could help me out in some way, no demands or expectations. He looked me up in their system, saw I had purchased a refurbished MacBook Pro from Apple in the past couple years, and he cheerfully grabbed a new super drive off the shelf and handed it to me. I literally cracked up and thanked him. Apple is awesome.

 

[oVerboost]

The reason the replacement screen didn’t have Face ID and Tru-Tone is because it was a cheap non genuine screen.

Apple likely did the diagnostic tests and figured they’d still make money even after the refurbishment process of your old device, but you are lucky you got anything and not just a returned device.

At least you got your new SE

 

[NickName99]

The reason the replacement screen didn’t have Face ID and Tru-Tone is because it was a cheap non genuine screen.

Apple likely did the diagnostic tests and figured they’d still make money even after the refurbishment process of your old device, but you are lucky you got anything and not just a returned device.

FaceID isn’t actually part of the screen, there’s just a window there to allow FaceID to do its thing. The screen was an Apple OLED one, but he didn’t have the proper tools to reprogram the screen to work with the iPhone. Basically they are programmed to match each other by serial number.

You could take two brand new identical iPhones, swap their screens, and both would lose TrueTone. Once you swapped their original screens back, TrueTone would work again. I read up on it, interesting stuff.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250270351?answerId=250615944022#250615944022

 

[JPack]

Probably not the hot water, but rather the soap.

Soap reduces the surface tension of water and allows moisture to enter through the mic, earpiece, and other areas that are protected by a fine mesh grille.

That's why Apple says it's fine to shower with Watch, but don't expose it to soaps and shampoos.

 

[NickName99]

Probably not the hot water, but rather the soap.

Soap reduces the surface tension of water and allows moisture to enter through the mic, earpiece, and other areas that are protected by a fine mesh grille.

That’s a great point, I bet you’re right.

It’s interesting that the water intrusion strip was still white - it’s right near the SIM tray, but the SIM tray isn’t behind a fine mesh grille, it’s better sealed.

With all the hand washing going on, hopefully people ignore the IP68 rating of their iPhones when it comes to soapy water.

 

[3SQ Machine]

Glad I saw this post -- thanks to a damn pandemic, been wiping off my XS MAX with hot water and a warm soapy sponge. I also rinse it off, with water streaming top to bottom. It hasn't been an issue but it's not like it got submerged and I do have a case on it and a glass screen protector.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Glad I saw this post -- thanks to a damn pandemic, been wiping off my XS MAX with hot water and a warm soapy sponge. I also rinse it off, with water streaming top to bottom. It hasn't been an issue but it's not like it got submerged and I do have a case on it and a glass screen protector.

This is Apples recommendation for cleaning or disinfecting your phone. It specifically says not to get moisture in any openings...

Cleaning your iPhone - Apple Support

Learn how to clean your iPhone.

support.apple.com

 

[NickName99]

This is Apples recommendation for cleaning or disinfecting your phone. It specifically says not to get moisture in any openings...

Cleaning your iPhone - Apple Support

Learn how to clean your iPhone.

support.apple.com

Meanwhile their ads show the iPhone being doused with water, and Apple boasts of the iPhone’s IP68 rating. On their iPhone 11 page:

“iPhone 11 is water resistant up to 2 meters for up to 30 minutes — double the depth of iPhone XR”

There are understandably going to be huge numbers of people who saw the ads, saw the IP68 rating, and didn’t go spelunking into Apple service bulletins about how to safely clean an iPhone.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Meanwhile their ads show the iPhone being doused with water, and Apple boasts of the iPhone’s IP68 rating. On their iPhone 11 page:

“iPhone 11 is water resistant up to 2 meters for up to 30 minutes — double the depth of iPhone XR”

There are understandably going to be huge numbers of people who saw the ads, saw the IP68 rating, and didn’t go spelunking into Apple service bulletins about how to safely clean an iPhone.

The ads definitely don't help understand the ramifications if the phone actually is damaged.. Apple states water damage is not covered by their warranty at the bottom of the ads and tech specs. As far as "spelunking" this was one of the first results in a google search for "how to clean your iPhone"

 

[NickName99]

The ads definitely don't help understand the ramifications if the phone actually is damaged.. Apple states water damage is not covered by their warranty at the bottom of the ads and tech specs. As far as "spelunking" this was one of the first results in a google search for "how to clean your iPhone"

What point are you trying to make? I shouldn’t warn people about this? I’m just trying to be helpful, my dude.

 

[mtneer]

Apple is sometimes lenient with their policies. When I traded in my 6+ that was badly inflicted with touch disease, the Genius could barely operate the touch screen to turn off Find My and verify that it worked. But he still gave me the full trade in value.

 

[Spudlicious]

Probably not the hot water, but rather the soap.

Soap reduces the surface tension of water and allows moisture to enter through the mic, earpiece, and other areas that are protected by a fine mesh grille.

That's why Apple says it's fine to shower with Watch, but don't expose it to soaps and shampoos.

That's good scientific thinking.
I think we all understand water resistance to be a marketing term more than anything, don't we? It's never a guaranteed capability. Similarly, my watch (any excuse for a photo!) is claimed to be water resistant to 200 metres but if a splash of rain kills it that's my hard luck.

 

[jr866gooner]

That's good scientific thinking.
I think we all understand water resistance to be a marketing term more than anything, don't we? It's never a guaranteed capability. Similarly, my watch (any excuse for a photo!) is claimed to be water resistant to 200 metres but if a splash of rain kills it that's my hard luck.

View attachment 913355

This is a nice watch!

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

So you pulled a fast one on Apple & ripped them off. Good for you

I’d certainly try my luck in that situation. Apple charge an extortionate amount for screen replacements and it’s no wonder people use third parties. I’d be chuffed if this hadn’t been spotted and I got a full trade in price personally.

 

[nordique]

Technically any water can damage water resistant phones, as they are not water proof

 

[44267547]

Apple is sometimes lenient with their policies. When I traded in my 6+ that was badly inflicted with touch disease, the Genius could barely operate the touch screen to turn off Find My and verify that it worked. But he still gave me the full trade in value.

‘Policy’ and touch disease are two different things. Touch disease was a widespread issue, and that’s something that they [Apple] probably would make an exception on versus a damaged phone due to negligence of water exposure. Those are two different things are not mutually exclusive. The Reality is, it really depends on who you talk to you, as every employee/Apple store will vary.

 

[Ta0jin]

I’ve been hooked on iPhones since I preordered an iPhone 4 back in 2010, still a very happy iPhone user today with my new iPhone SE2.

I just wanted to warn folks to protect their iPhones from hot water.

Edit: as JPack suggested, it was probably the soapy water. I’ve updated the post title.

Last month I accidentally got my iPhone XS wet, which didn’t worry me much since it’s IP68 rated and can typically handle quite a lot of water. The catch is that it was hot water - I was washing my hands in soap and hot water, as you do, and the iPhone slipped into the sink and was doused under the faucet.

Once I dried it off, I noticed FaceID wasn’t working, and the front camera appeared to be fogged up. A few minutes later, the display went kind of bonkers and was flickering different colors. I powered it off, opened it up (first time opening this particular iPhone up) and saw moisture condensation inside, but the water damage indicator was still white.

Whether it was moisture condensation or steam, hot water fried my screen, fried my FaceID, and messed up my microphone - it now sometimes had really harsh distortion.

I paid a repair shop to replace the screen for $160, but it didn’t have TrueTone anymore, and FaceID never came back. I felt uncomfortable trying to sell it used in that condition.

I ended up doing a trade in with Apple to get a new iPhone SE2 128GB, and Apple gave me the full $420 for my messed up iPhone XS, which is great! So they’re apparently not always super strict about your trade in. As long as it appears undamaged, powers up and works properly, they might give you the full price.

That’s so odd, I accidentally had my XS in my pants pocket and it was washed in hot water with detergent and nothing happened to it. I was shocked. I for sure thought it’d be ruined. Even hot water for a few seconds shouldn’t cause such severe problems like you had.

 

[NickName99]

That’s so odd, I accidentally had my XS in my pants pocket and it was washed in hot water with detergent and nothing happened to it. I was shocked. I for sure thought it’d be ruined. Even hot water for a few seconds shouldn’t cause such severe problems like you had.

Im glad your phone was ok! Just thought I’d put out a warning. Loving my SE2 so it’s all good.

 

[Ta0jin]

Im glad your phone was ok! Just thought I’d put out a warning. Loving my SE2 so it’s all good.

I’m glad you’re enjoying your new phone. Keep it safe lol.

 

[zorinlynx]

So you pulled a fast one on Apple & ripped them off. Good for you

It doesn't matter; Apple did not get ripped off.

Refurbished iPhones have a new chassis, battery and screen anyway. They only reuse the motherboard, which was likely fine in OP's phone. There's a good bet Apple will make the same amount of money refurbishing OP's phone as they would if the phone was immaculate.

Don't make accusations like this without thinking about it. It's rude!

 

[Jayson A]

Dammit, I actually washed my iPhone SE off with soap and then ran it under the facet to clean it but it seems to be fine.