WikiHow made a nice article today explaining how you can possibly save a wet cellphone by following a few simple steps. Here are the first, and most important, steps that will help to determine how good the chances are for your cellphone to survive:

  1. Remove the Battery. This is one of the most important steps. Don’t take time to think about it, electricity and water do not mix. Cutting power to your phone is a crucial first step in saving it.
  2. Dry your Phone. Obviously you need to remove as much of the water as soon as you can to prevent it from getting into the phone. Use a towel or a paper towel to remove as much of the water as possible.
  3. Allow the phone to dry. Since you do not want to ruin your phone or lose all the numbers in your phone book, you need to allow the phone to dry. Don’t try putting the battery back on to see if it works as this would risk damaging the phone with a short circuit. Leaving your phone in a bowl of dry rice will help to expedite moisture evaporation.

Another thing that is required is a lot of patience. You have to wait for 3 days at least before trying to turn on your cellphone, and until then, you won’t know if it will work or not. But considering how expensive some cellphones are nowadays, I think it’s preferable to wait 3 days than work for almost a month in order to purchase yourself a new one.

My girlfriend accidentally dropped her cellphone in water once and was able to recover it by following most of the steps mentioned above. The only thing she had to replace was the battery. So this isn’t just an “urban legend”, it’s ForeverGeek-editor confirmed. But be sure to read the other tips and warnings on the site before attempting to do anything.