How to Save Your Apple Watch from Water Damage

While the Apple Watch is somewhat water resistant, that doesn’t mean it’s completely waterproof. Here’s how to save your Apple Watch from water damage if it goes for a dunk that it can’t quite handle.

You probably already know that electronics and water don’t go well together at all. However, with newer smartphones and other gadgets, manufacturers are making their newer products waterproof, or at least water resistant, meaning that you can accidentally expose it to water without it being a huge deal.

The Apple Watch falls under this category. While it’s not completely waterproof, you can wear the smartwatch in the shower, as well as expose it to other minor water situations, but you might be tempted to take things a bit further, and that could be when disaster strikes.

For example, after watching this video of an Apple Watch waterproof test, ScotteVest CEO Scott Jordan decided to take his own Apple Watch for a dip and discovered that it didn’t live up to the same hype as the unit featured in the video, and quickly found himself trying to save his new wearable from certain destruction.

If you have found yourself in a similar situation, here’s how to save your Apple Watch from water damage.

Don’t Panic, but Act Fast

When you find out that your Apple Watch took a dunk that it couldn’t handle, it’s easy to panic and just stand their screaming without actually doing anything, the quicker you act, the better chances that you have of recovering your Apple Watch. Here are some immediate steps to take.

• Shut It Down: This is the first step that you should take. Immediately shut down your Apple Watch as soon as you can. Water actually doesn’t hurt electronics at all when there’s no power running through the circuitry, but the opposite is the case when the device is turned on and juices are flowing.
• Remove the Watch Bands: Ideally you want to remove anything and everything that can be removed from a device that has suffered water damage in order to let water run out from anywhere it can. On the Apple Watch, though, the watch bands are the only thing you can remove, and it probably won’t help much, but do it anyway.
• Shake It Off: Just like Taylor Swift said in the song, shake it off. Get as much water out of the Apple Watch as possible by shaking it, blowing on it, whatever you have to do. Be sure to give special attention to the cracks and crevices where the digital crown and button is on the side. Canned air works great for this.

Skip the Rice

It’s the age-old tale that we all know too well. We’ve been told that putting our water-soaked devices in rice will help soak up the water and help the drying process, but it actually doesn’t work all that well.

One cellphone repairman says that he only tells customers to put their devices in rice so that they “they aren’t trying to charge it to get it to come back on. Attempting to charge your phone because it won’t turn on after dropping it in water is a sure way to short the board and make sure it won’t work again.”

Instead, he recommends putting your water-soaked gadgets in a food dehydrator. In fact, the repairman says that he does this at his shop. “If someone brings a phone in that was recently dropped in water, we throw it in there for 1-2 hours for free, and then let it cool for 10-15 minutes. Usually they either come back, or just need the battery replaced to work again after that.”

So if your Apple Watch had a bit too much to drink, throw it in a food dehydrator for the best results. Otherwise, you’re better off just leaving it out to air-dry in a cool, dry location.

Getting It to Work Again

If you leave your Apple Watch out to air-dry, it’s recommended that you leave it be for at least 24 hours, but even then I would recommend leaving it to dry for a couple of days, just to make sure all of the water is out of there before powering it back on.

Once you’re confident that it’s completely dry, try powering up the Apple Watch. If it turns on, then you’re good to go. If not, giving it a boost by charging it up could give the battery a kick-start, which will hopefully power it up after that.

If it still doesn’t turn on, your best bet is to take it to Apple or an authorized repair shop to have them look at it. AppleCare covers accidental damage, but you’ll most likely have to pay a deductible, which is $69 for the Apple Watch Sport.