Experts offer their top tips to rescue your phone from snow and water damage

For many people across the UK, the weather has taken a bit of a turn this week.

Regional parts of the country have been victim to snowfall over the past seven days and weather experts are saying there's still more to come.

Whilst winter weather can be loads of fun (and, in extreme cases, can even get you days off work or school) there are some downsides to the festivities.

Seeing your smartphone slide out of your pocket during a snowball fight, and watching as it plunges into a cloud of frosty flakes, for example, is pretty dispiriting.

The cold weather is known to cause issues with battery power, but worse yet, direct contact with snow could possibly cause water damage to your handset, too.

A lot of popular handsets at the moment come with a IP67 or IP68 water resistance rating (read: it can survive a dip in the snow, or even the bath!) but if yours doesn’t, of if you’re unsure, it’s best to play it safe and take action.

To that end, the experts at online smartphone retailer Mobiles.co.uk have penned some tips that will ensure your smartphone doesn’t succumb to an icy end.

1.Rescue it without delay

It may seem obvious, but the longer you leave your phone submerged, the lower your chances of reviving it. When you’ve extracted it, turn it off and remove the SIM card and battery, if you can. Wrap all the components in soft kitchen roll (or temporarily sacrifice those gloves and put your phone in there!)

Check for serious water damage by examining the corner near the battery – most phones have a white square or circle. If this area is pink or red, your phone is most likely water damaged.

2.Dry the insides (if you have a removable battery).

Now, grab a soft towel and gently sponge water from the exposed insides of the phone. Try not to move or shake the phone, because that could move water further inside it and cause more damage.

3.Remove any water with the vacuum cleaner

If your phone is waterlogged, the next step is to reach for the vacuum cleaner. Hold it at a reasonable distance and suck the water out of the phone, paying attention to the headphone jack, charging port, speaker etc. Never use a hairdryer as this will blow the water into any cracks.

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4.Search the house for silica

Silica gel could be your saviour. Not sure what we’re talking about? It’s in those little packets labelled ‘Silica – do not eat’ that you often get with new shoes, and it’s amazing at absorbing water. Put any packets you rustle up into a sealed sandwich bag with your phone.

If you can’t find any, rice can work too though isn’t usually quite as effective. Put your phone and its components (if you can take it apart) in a bowl of rice, rotating the phone every couple of hours. Leave it for at least a day, but the longer you can do without your handset the better.

5.Be patient

Start a new boxset. Go back out into the snow and finish sledging. Go to bed. Just don’t switch your phone back on. The most worst thing that can happen to a water damaged phone is that it short circuits. A phone left for 72 hours stands a much better chance than one left for 24 hours.