My Phone Went Through the Washing Machine — Now What?

Why a washing machine soak is worse than a splash

A phone that falls in a puddle usually gets wet on the outside for a few seconds. A phone that goes through a wash cycle gets agitated, spun, heated in the dryer's rinse or wash temperature, and soaked in water mixed with detergent for many minutes at a stretch.

That combination matters. Detergent can leave a thin residue once the water evaporates, and the spin cycle can force water past seals and into the speaker mesh, microphone opening, charging port, and SIM tray far more thoroughly than a simple spill would. None of that means the phone is doomed, but it does mean this deserves a bit more patience than you'd give a coffee spill.

The first few minutes: what to do immediately

As soon as you fish the phone out, resist the urge to press the power button or check if the screen still lights up. If it's already on, turn it off. If it's off, leave it off.

• Take the case off completely so water trapped underneath can actually evaporate.
• Open and remove the SIM tray to let that channel dry out and to protect the SIM card itself.
• If you can see or feel detergent residue on the outside, wipe it gently with a clean cloth that's only just barely damp, then dry the surface fully with a dry cloth right after.
• Avoid shaking the phone hard or blowing into any of the ports — that can just push water deeper inside rather than out.

Drying it out the right way

This is the step most people rush, and rushing it is what causes the real damage. Set the phone on a clean, dry, airy surface, ideally with the speaker and charging port facing down so gravity has a chance to help gravity pull moisture out rather than pool it inside.

Leave it powered off for a long stretch, many hours at minimum, and overnight or longer is even better if you can manage the wait. If you happen to have silica gel packets from packaging or shoe boxes, tuck a few around the phone in a closed container to help pull ambient moisture out of the air around it.

Skip anything involving heat or grains. A hair dryer, an oven, a radiator, or leaving it on a sunny windowsill can warp internal seals or damage the battery. Rice doesn't actually draw water out of tight internal spaces the way people assume, and rice dust or small fragments can end up stuck in the speaker or port, creating a new problem on top of the old one.

Using sound to clear the last of the water

Once the outside of the phone feels genuinely dry and it's had its long rest, moisture can still be hiding in tiny recesses like the speaker mesh or microphone opening. This is where a tuned sound cycle helps: certain frequencies make the water inside those small cavities vibrate loose so it can drain or evaporate out.

Eject Pro is built for exactly this. It's free, has no ads, and plays a sequence of tuned frequencies designed to nudge trapped water out of your speaker, microphone, and ports. Lay the phone speaker-down on a towel, run the cycle, and let the sound do the work rather than reaching for anything with heat or suction.

If earbuds or AirPods went through the wash as well, the same idea applies to them — just keep the volume at a moderate level for the eject cycle since they'll be sitting close to your ears.

What not to do, and what to expect afterward

• Don't bury the phone in rice — it doesn't pull water out of internal components and can leave debris behind.
• Don't use a hair dryer, oven, radiator, or any other heat source to speed up drying.
• Don't plug the phone in to charge until you're fully confident it's dry, since charging a wet device is one of the most common ways to cause a short circuit.
• Don't power it on early just to check — every extra hour of proper air drying lowers the risk.

If the wash involved anything beyond plain water and detergent, such as fabric softener with unusual chemicals or if you suspect salt water got mixed in from something else in the load, it's worth having a professional take a look regardless of how the phone seems to behave.

Even if your phone powers on afterward and looks completely normal, keep watching it for the next week or two. A full wash cycle is genuinely tough on a device, and issues like a battery that swells or degrades from earlier water exposure can show up later rather than immediately. If you notice anything that feels off, a technician can check the battery and internals properly. That said, plenty of phones survive a run through the washing machine just fine, especially when they're dried patiently and never powered on while still wet.