Points
Step away from the rice.
The idea that submerging a wet device in a bowl of uncooked rice will draw out the moisture and save it has been circulating since the early days of smartphones. It's persistent, it feels intuitive, and it is largely a myth — or at best, a very incomplete solution that delays proper action and often makes things worse.
Here's what actually happens when electronics get wet, and what gives your devices a real fighting chance.
What water does inside electronics
The immediate threat from water isn't the liquid itself — it's what happens when wet electronics are powered on. Water conducts electricity, and turning on a device with moisture inside causes short circuits that can permanently destroy components. This is the most common way water-damaged electronics become unrecoverable: someone tries to check if it still works before the device is dry.
After the initial exposure, the longer-term threat is corrosion. Even after water evaporates, the minerals, salts, and contaminants it carries remain behind on circuit boards and connectors. Over days and weeks, these deposits corrode metal contacts and components — sometimes causing failures that don't appear until weeks after the original incident.
Why rice doesn't work well enough
Rice does absorb moisture from the air around it — but electronics damaged by submersion or significant water exposure have moisture inside the device casing, inside ports, between circuit board layers, and in microcomponents. The ambient humidity-absorption that rice provides barely touches this internal moisture, and it does nothing to address the corrosive deposits left behind.
More importantly, every hour spent with rice is an hour not spent on the intervention that actually helps: professional drying and decontamination.
What actually works
Restoration professionals use industrial desiccant drying chambers, ultrasonic cleaning, and in some cases specialized electronic recovery technicians to address water-damaged devices properly. The process involves:
- Safely powering down and disconnecting the device
- Disassembly to allow internal components to dry properly
- Ultrasonic cleaning to remove corrosive mineral deposits
- Controlled drying in low-humidity conditions
- Testing and assessment before any attempt to power on
This is a genuinely different level of intervention than home remedies, and the success rate for professionally treated electronics is meaningfully better — particularly when treatment begins within the first 24 to 48 hours.
What this means for your insurance claim
When your home experiences a flood or water loss, your electronics are part of your contents claim. The key is documentation — and the key mistake homeowners make is attempting DIY recovery before the items have been inventoried and assessed.
If you attempt home repairs and the device doesn't survive, it becomes harder to establish the pre-loss value and condition for your claim. Let your restoration team assess and document electronics before any recovery attempts. TRS does this as part of our standard contents process.
What about flood water vs. clean water?
The source of the water matters significantly. Electronics exposed to clean water (a burst supply line, a roof leak) have better recovery odds than those exposed to grey water (washing machine overflow, dishwasher backup) or black water (sewage). Flood water from outdoor sources contains a wide range of organic and chemical contaminants that accelerate corrosion and can render devices non-restorable even with professional treatment.
The short version: if your electronics have been in contact with sewage or outdoor floodwater, plan for replacement and focus on documentation.
TRS handles electronics as part of a full contents assessment on every water loss we attend. Our team can help you understand what's worth pursuing for recovery and what should be documented for replacement.
After a water loss, contact Total Restoration Services before powering on or attempting to repair any electronics. Early intervention matters.