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Product Details Edit
The Thirsty Bag is a simple, inexpensive, and effective response to electronic water damage. It uses top of the line Molecular Sieve to quickly and consistently pull all of the water out of any device you leave inside. The special beads are engineered to grab water molecules out of the air, and never release them. It can reduce the atmospheric humidity to 1% RH and remove all liquid water overnight.
Why it Works ¶
Modern, low voltage devices typically do not "burn out" immediately upon water contact. Instead, tiny microscopic beads of water in chip housings and on circuit boards are re-routing the power erratically to places it doesn't belong. This can cause a cellphone to malfunction, or not work at all.
This means, luckily for us, that if you can remove all the water from the phone it is likely to work again. Unfortunately, this is not as easy as it sounds. Water will cling to the smallest spaces where towels and sponges can't reach. We can't heat the phone to get the water out, or we may cook the sensitive flash memory, or melt delicate components. So we must turn to science to get our phone dry.
Liquids, in an atmosphere, will reach what is called an equilibrium vapor pressure. Which means that liquids will evaporate into the atmosphere around them until the atmosphere reaches a saturation limit based on the temperature. We recognize this as air drying. It is why when you spill water on your linoleum kitchen floor and leave it till morning, it will be gone. Water will continue to evaporate into the atmosphere until the atmosphere reaches this equilibrium vapor pressure*. This means if we keep drying out the atmosphere, water will keep evaporating. This allows the Thirsty Bag to maintain an extremely low vapor pressure in the bag, and suck the water out from the tinniest cracks in the phone.
*About 2.5% RH at room temperature
Reviews ¶
"... A good deal that will offer peace of mind for those who have any worries at all about spills"
- iSource
"iFixit's new "Thirsty Bag" can very effectively clear liquids from electronics."
- Cnet
"The iFixit Thirsty Bag can be a life-saver when it comes to salvaging water-damaged iPhones and iPads… if you happen to have one around when an accident happens."
Homebrew Tactics ¶
Rice ¶
A common recommendation to those with wet phones is to use uncooked rice. Theoretically this would make sense, as it appears to do the same thing as Molecular Sieve while being readily available to anyone with a well-stocked kitchen.
Unfortunately, rice is not an effective desiccant for a couple of reasons. Rice has a low capacity for atmospheric absorption. It may absorb the liquid water on the case, but our real problem are the tiny drops inside. Also, as rice sits on your shelf, and the shelf at the store before you bought it, in unsealed boxes and bags it slowly sucks in water out of the atmosphere around it, reaching it's absorption capacity. Thirsty Bag Molecular Sieve pouches are sealed at the factory where they are made, and not exposed the the atmosphere for longer than 2 minutes during packaging where they are resealed and prepared for you.
Heating Methods ¶
A bad idea is to cook your phone to evaporate all the water. Like was said above, increasing the temperature will increase the equilibrium vapor pressure, causing more water to be evaporated. In reality, the temperatures necessary to properly dry a phone with heat will actually damage the memory in the phone, and melt some plastics. The sun won't come close.
Stories
My Problem
I wanted to upgrade a spare 2010 Mac Mini with an SSD boot drive and 1 TB hard drive so it could use it as a server for 13 other computers.
My Fix
As usual, it was very easy to follow the iFixit guide -- those things really are a godsend! I swapped the existing HDD for the 1 TB drive and put the SSD in the iFixit SATA optical bay enclosure. All done in two hours (apart from earlier cloning the existing drive to the SSD) without any problems at all.
My Advice
When replacing the power supply in the Mac Mini you might need to take a little time to wiggle it it position -- it doesn't automatically slot back in.
Aside from that, take note when the guide tells you to be gentle -- the SATA connectors and the temperature sensor connectors can take a bit of patience to remove.
My Problem
Student had smashed the LCD panels on 4 Macbook's.
My Fix
Fantasticly smooth! I had no problems.
My Advice
The worst part of the process was taking the tape off of the connector. Once it came off you have to try and put the new connector into place which isn't really possible without a pair of tweezers!
My Problem
My wife broke her screen...
My Fix
Its was pretty easy. The templates were great and the magnetic pad made sure noting got lost. The guide took me through the whole process in about an hour of my time.
My Advice
Buy the mag pad and the print out the templates. Keep the parts organized
My Problem
TO SAVE MONEY
My Fix
PERFECT !
My Advice
AGAIN BE PATIENT !
My Problem
My daughter dropped her iPhone 4S face down, shattering the screen. It was a mess and unusable with all the sharp edges.
My Fix
I followed the iPhone 4S Display replacement guide on the iFixit iPad app. Using the iPad app was pretty slick. I discovered that you could zoom into the images by double tapping the picture. This was pretty valuable given my eyes could use an upgrade for doing these type of microscopic repairs.
The guide was very useful and accurate. The disassembly and reassembly went as described. You need to be really patient with this repair since there are a lot of very small screws to deal with and an abundance of adhesive assembly.
There we a couple of areas that were very difficult. The biggest issue was the one screw securing the display in the corner near the headphone jack assembly. You can't get a #0 Phillips driver into the screw straight-on since there is a bunch of assemblies that are not removed during the process still in the way. I has to us a micro straight slot drive to get into the cross-recess and slowly back the screw out. Reassembly was about the same in this corner; very tight and lots of potential to cross thread the screw and strip the slot out of the screw.
Removing and replacing the Home button was also a surprise. It is secured to the back of the display assembly with adhesive tape. You have to gently try to scrape the Home button and the rubber spring off the old display without separating the adhesive from the rubber, which isn't easy. About half the adhesive stayed on the rubber, the other half on the display. This made for some time consuming work trying to reset the adhesive to the rubber. The Home Button eventually was attached to the back of the new display but the final click quality of the button is not what was before the repair and the button rattles a little more than it did.
I also had some trouble getting the old display to separate from the frame. I had to use a small straight blade screw driver to push at one of the lower corners from the inside of the frame to push the display out enough to get a plastic opening tool in between the display and frame from the outside. There is some adhesive used to hold the display to the frame, so you need to overcome that before the display will separate from the frame.
Otherwise, the repair was pretty straight forward. It took about 2 hours to do. I don't think iPhones were designed with repair in mind so you don't want to take it apart too many times since the screw and adhesive won't be in very good shape the second time.
My Advice
I would recommend buying a new Hom Button assembly to use with your new display assembly. I think the quality of the repair would be better using new parts in this area.
I recommend buying a brand new #0 Phillips driver for the repair. It pays to have sharp, undamaged drivers so you don't wreck your tiny screws. I would also find the thinest #0 Phillips I could find for removing the corner display retaining screw in step 33 of the repair instructions.
I purchased a Pentalobe screwdriver for the bottom back case screw, which made that part easy. I also got a Magnetic Project Mat which helped keep everything organized, which could have been a major issue given the number of small parts you have to deal with.
I also brought the replacement Phillips Bottom Screws, but I think with a good "Pro quality" pentalobe driver, you wouldn't need them.
My Problem
I accidentally washed my son's I-Touch. Before buying a new one, I wanted to at least try repairing it. I'd heard that if you put the device in rice there is a chance the water could be absorbed. So, I immediately put it in a bucket of rice. Knowing that may not work, I searched the internet to see if there was anything else that could be done. That's when I found the Thirsty Bag. I ordered it and it came within a couple of days.
My Fix
I took the I-Touch out of the rice and put it in the bag. After 24 hours in the bag, I asked my son to give it a try. It appears to be working ok (except the camera). For now, I've avoided having to replace it. Thank you!
My Advice
Always keep a Thirsty Bag on hand AND make your kids do their own laundry!
My Problem
Because my coworker had broke his screen on his iPhone 4 and needed me to replace it.
My Fix
It went well, I had previously had problems with getting the screws back in the right place, but now with the screw mat, I have no problems at all!
My Advice
Don't drop your phone!
My Problem
Hard disks are expensive these days and I had a spare SSD. I wanted to replace my PowerMac G4 which held the time machine backups and I needed an iTunes server for the Apple TV and to sync the iDevices wirelessly. So I took the cheapest mini which is like 100 times faster than the G4 I guess and installed the RAM and Disks I have.
My Fix
I wasn't very comfortable doing this, I didn't want to mess up my shiny mini, but it all went good. I was astonished at how they managed to cram in those parts while keeping it relatively simple to maintain.
My Advice
It's VERY important to insert the upper hard drive very precisely, otherwise you can't install the antenna plate. The antenna cable is very fragile, don't insert it before you got the drive right!
My Problem
My 2011 2.3 GHz MacMini came with a 500GB HDD. But EyeTV filled it up quite fast. An external 1TB FireWire HDD didn't prove itself as reliable enough for HD Recording.
My Fix
I got myself the Mac Mini Dual Hard Drive Kit and followed the instructions provided.
Worked seamlessly for me. Set up as a RAID 0 i now have a 2TB media center/PVR.
My Advice
Just go for it. It was easier than i thought.
My Problem
My first iPod was not charging right and not responding.
My Fix
I thought the old iPod was past it's life. I ordered a replacement battery and installed it. Opening the case was not easy but I managed. I reformatted, synced, and charged the iPod and it's back to life. Instructions were very clear.
My Advice
I am a 40+ year old female and not a tech y. I have good dexterity skills for fine work. Weak eyes may need strong glasses and good light. I've ordered a battery for an iPod gen 4.
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