Can a YouTube Video Really Fix Your Wet Phone? (theverge.com) 45
An anonymous reader shares a report: Every day for the last four years, dozens of people have shown up in the comments of one particular YouTube, declaring their love and appreciation for the content. The content: two minutes and six seconds of deep, low buzzing, the kind that makes your phone vibrate on the table, underscoring a vaguely trippy animation of swirled stained glass. It's not a good video. But it's not meant to be. The video is called "Sound To Remove Water From Phone Speaker ( GUARANTEED )." [...] If you believe the comments, about half the video's 45 million views come from people who bring their phone into the shower or bathtub and trust that they can play this video and everything will be fine.
The theory goes like this: all a speaker is really doing is pushing air around, and if you can get it to push enough air, with enough force, you might be able to push droplets of liquid out from where they came. "The lowest tone that that speaker can reproduce, at the loudest level that it can play," says Eric Freeman, a senior director of research at Bose. "That will create the most air motion, which will push on the water that's trapped inside the phone." Generally, the bigger the speaker, the louder and lower it can go. Phone speakers tend to be tiny. "So those YouTube videos," Freeman says, "it's not, like, really deep bass. But it's in the low range of where a phone is able to make sound."
The best real-world example of how this can work is probably the Apple Watch, which has a dedicated feature for ejecting water after you've gotten it wet. When I first reached out to iFixit to ask about my water-expulsion mystery, Carsten Frauenheim, a repairability engineer at the company, said the Watch works on the same theory as the videos. "It's just a specific oscillating tone that pushes the water out of the speaker grilles," he said. "Not sure how effective the third-party versions are for phones since they're probably not ideally tuned? We could test."
The theory goes like this: all a speaker is really doing is pushing air around, and if you can get it to push enough air, with enough force, you might be able to push droplets of liquid out from where they came. "The lowest tone that that speaker can reproduce, at the loudest level that it can play," says Eric Freeman, a senior director of research at Bose. "That will create the most air motion, which will push on the water that's trapped inside the phone." Generally, the bigger the speaker, the louder and lower it can go. Phone speakers tend to be tiny. "So those YouTube videos," Freeman says, "it's not, like, really deep bass. But it's in the low range of where a phone is able to make sound."
The best real-world example of how this can work is probably the Apple Watch, which has a dedicated feature for ejecting water after you've gotten it wet. When I first reached out to iFixit to ask about my water-expulsion mystery, Carsten Frauenheim, a repairability engineer at the company, said the Watch works on the same theory as the videos. "It's just a specific oscillating tone that pushes the water out of the speaker grilles," he said. "Not sure how effective the third-party versions are for phones since they're probably not ideally tuned? We could test."
So.... (Score:2)
Re:So.... (Score:5, Funny)
Yup it definitely works (GUARANTEED!).
Feel free to soak your phone and then use this; I hear saltwater is the best because of its healing properties and also it has electrolytes (which plants crave). Plus saltwater has a bit of lithium in it, so your battery will be as good as new afterward and your phone will be upgraded to the latest tech.
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Oh man your comment would hit hard in 2010. Unfortunately these days phones are so sufficiently waterproof that last time I was sailing around the Greek islands one of the tourists jumped off the catamaran, iPhone in hand and swam out into the ocean to take a selfie with the boat.
No case!
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It would really help if the language used to describe waterproofing was a little easier for consumers to understand. How many people here know exactly what IP68 means, for example?
In fact IP ratings are a bit misleading, even if you do understand them. IP68 is supposedly no ingress for dust and other small particles, but that doesn't mean that you can't get e.g. sand in the speaker assembly and screw up your sound. The 8 is for water ingress, but it's vague (at least 1m depth, at least 30 minutes), and actu
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Is this really a THING???
Who brings their phone with them in the shower or bathtub?!?!
Are there really that many people out there that cannot put their phone down and leave the room for more than a minute at a time...?
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Do they even work with wet hands?
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Do they even work with wet hands?
Yes, if the screen/fingers are only coated with a thin film of water. If there's enough water to bead up into droplets, they confuse the touchscreen. A quick swipe with a dry (ish) washcloth fixes it.
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People bring books and newspapers into the bathroom too. Maybe not when using a shower, but certainly when using a bath. People also have radios in the shower too, so it would make sense for them to bring their phone to stream music. Some people time their showers as well, for water saving. Again, phones have replaced mechanical timers for many people, not that mechanical timers do well in wet environments either,
As I said in another comment, the real issue here is confusion over what "waterproof" and "IP68
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Ok, seriously.....are you pulling my leg here?
Timing a shower?!?!?
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Most navies do it to conserve fresh water, an important resource on a ship or submarine. That seems to be how it started, but people to do it to save water at home as well. It keeps bills down and preserves potable water which is in short supply in some places.
The timing is more of an aid to help you know how quickly you should be doing things, and to remind you not to daydream or get distracted.
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Who brings their phone with them in the shower or bathtub?!?!
I do, daily. I like to listen to music or audiobooks while I shower or bathe. I have a steam generator for my shower, too, making it a small steam room. I often sit in there for 20-30 minutes, playing a game while listening to a book. I keep a washcloth handy to wipe the moisture off the screen when it begins to confuse the touchscreen. When I get in the tub the phone not infrequently falls in, too.
I also use my phone when sailing my Hobie trimaran, both for navigation and for playing music or audiob
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Of course in the shower. Steaming music and video is all the rage these days.
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Interesting...when I'm showering, I'm just trying to get clean and in/out as rapidly as possible...I usually take a 5-8 minute shower I guess.....You could only barely squeeze Stairway to Heaven in that gap....
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It doesn't "Fix" anything. This only works on phones that are rated for water submersion, and that get water in their speakers. If you don't want to wait for it to dry you can play this tone and it will pump the water out. Yes it works. Yes I've done it but it's not going to fix your phone if water gets in somewhere it's not supposed to.
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Re:So.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Not this, but my daughter left one of her earbuds in a pocket and it suffered a wash cycle and while it was working afterwards, it definitely had some water in it, I could hear that the sound was garbled a bit. I told her to let it dry as didn't see any other option, but later she told me she found an audiofile, something like this and it did fix the earbud. It's one event and I have no way to confirm it was playing the file that helped, or did it dry by itself or if any other file would have had similar effect.
Samsung Galaxy Watch has the same feature (Score:4, Interesting)
Samsung Galaxy Watch has had the same feature for years.
You enable the "Water Lock" mode before taking a swim.
Afterward, you hold the "Home" key and the watch emits a loud sound through the speaker to (hopefully) eject the water.
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That works only if everything is sealed besides the speaker.
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Of course it is. The speaker shell is sealed to the body of the phone, and the speaker membrane is sealed to the shell. The thing would not be waterproof if not.
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Of course it is. The speaker shell is sealed to the body of the phone, and the speaker membrane is sealed to the shell. The thing would not be waterproof if not.
I’ve had this happen on a different but similarity waterproofed phone. The speaker can take on water if it gets wet and then it sounds awful, thought I shook and blew it off enough and played just what I was listening to loud but it barely helps. After not getting that much better when I tried it two hours later I just set a hair dryer on low and propped up the phone and that had it all fixed in 20 min or so. It’s annoying, like getting water stuck in your ear. Maybe next time I’ll tr
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What do you mean? The Galaxy Watch is waterproof.
Re: Samsung Galaxy Watch has the same feature (Score:2)
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It's right in the instructions.
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Like most flagship phones and watches.
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That works only if everything is sealed besides the speaker.
You mean like on every device? Do IP ratings mean nothing to you?
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As does the Apple Watch. In fact, I think it's automatic where the Apple Watch detects it's underwater and locks itself, then when you get out of it, it plays the tone to clear out the speaker.
People belief stupid crap (Score:2)
What else is new?
Yeah, I'm with you on this one. Old school answer (Score:2)
If it gets wet enough that you're worried about water intrusion, power the unit down (if it's still powered on) and dry it out before any attempt to power on. Dessicants/gentle warming can accelerate the process.
But that's just how I'd handle it. If the guys that made the thing included this procedure, I'm going to at least acknowledge that it could work exactly the way they say it does. I'll still handle wet electronics my way as described above, but as has been noted elsewhere, the electronic section
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In other Internet news, people sometimes type stupid crap -- like "belief" when they meant to write "believe".
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And there are abjectly stupid people that think criticizing spelling makes them look educated and sophisticated. Quite the opposite. What a fail.
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Who meant "who", not "that". We also correct grammar -- for free, even!
CAT S60 had the same feature (Score:2)
If your phone isn't waterproof then consider your phone lost due to a chemical circus between any metal parts and impurities in the water.
This method only ejects water from the waterproof speaker compartment.
This video is just advertising clickbait.
Might as well put up a video : 'How to remove water from your phone with a blow torch'.
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Just sing. Has worked for thousands of years.
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Just sing. Has worked for thousands of years.
I tried that. My wife told me to stop.
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Well, at least since Fred Astaire did it.
Now I'm Salivating (Score:2)
Probably shouldn't have listened with headphones.
Sticky monitor and keyboard (Score:2)
Just wondering if anyone has a solution to that.
Music (Score:2)
The strange song "Metallica" by Toxic AKA B0B Barker [youtube.com] causes some very strange airflow effects around your speakers at about 2:13 and 4:24 into the song. Stick your hands in front of the speakers and you'll feel it. You might need decent speakers for this one.
Don't sound waves push and pull? (Score:2)
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That's new? (Score:2)
In 1988, I got a copy of a program for a floppy that showed a prompt, then, hitting any key, announced that water was detected in drive A:, made the sound of a washer spinning, then stated water now gone, and ended.