John Rudy, from Wired.com
I am a big fan of Wired Magazine, which puts most of their material on http://www.wired.com.
In Feb 2021 they had an article titled “Here’s the Right Way to Rescue a Soaking Wet Smartphone”. I will provide some of the highlights from this article since sooner or later you will likely need this material. Of course these suggestions also work for other electronics and it is best to have it on hand…
Do: Retrieve it as quickly as possible. The longer it's in the liquid, the greater the likelihood of damage.
Do: Power it off right away. Don’t try to press any of the other buttons or load any apps, just switch it off. Remove the case if you have one. If you have a phone with a removable battery, pop the battery out.
Do not: Blow-dry your wet phone or stick it in the oven! Heat can damage the delicate electronics inside.
Do: Give the naked, case-free phone a quick wipe with a clean towel If there are traces of water trapped inside cracks or indentations in the case, try carefully and conservatively using compressed air to blow it out. If you don’t have a can of air lying around, you can use your mouth to gently blow the water out.
Do not: Stuff your device in a bag of rice. While rice is absorbent, it’s incapable of collecting all the moisture hidden deep within your phone,
Some retail stores like Staples offer TekDry wet phone repair services that use specially designed machines to pull the water out.
The smartest option is to keep synthetic desiccants (drying agents) on hand. These usually take the form of those small, square packets that you find in shoeboxes. These packets typically contain little beads of silica gel, which absorbs moisture around them. They work more quickly and efficiently than rice, and they are far less messy. You might as well hoard the packets you're already getting for free. (You can also buy desiccant packets in bulk.)
Just drop the dunked phone into the container so it’s surrounded by packets, seal the container, and wait 24 to 48 hours.
The “Nine Lives Wet Phone Fix” is a ready-made solution you can order and keep on the shelf at home.
“Nanoflow X” is another option.
The phone (and dessicant) needs to be in a sealed container so that it will absorb water only from your phone, and not from the outside air.
Also, you need to have enough of the desiccant present to absorb all the water.
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