Why aren't cell phones gasketed like lights?

So my cell phone went for a swim tonight.

It, and it's slip case, spent about three-quarters of a second in the toilet. It didn't take on much, if any, water (I'm pretty damn quick), the slip case took the brunt of it, and was still working when I pulled it out. I powered it off, dissassembled it, and found barely a drop in it. Anyways, it's sitting in pieces right now drying, just to be safe.

So it occured to me, most any of my lights could LIVE in the toilet and be just fine (OK, they would need a good scrubbing and may still smell a bit). O-rings and gaskets are wonderful things. It would take a lot for most lights to take on water. So if a cheap $8 mini-mag could safely go for a swim, why can't my cell phone?

That's a pretty good question. I guess it'd be a bit hard to have good sound quality while keeping the speaker and mic waterproof and sealed, but possible... I'm going to assume that service providers don't really like the idea of a durable phone since they'll make more money off of replacing customers' waterlogged ones.

EWWWW in the toilet? BURN THAT PHONE! haha.

I too have wondered this, it would be so easy to add a gasket to a phone. Especially the non-flip phones. My guess is they wan't you to spend more money if they get wet. They even build them with somethign that can let the carriers know if it was exposed to moisture so you don't get a swap for free.

Hopefully that was after a flush and before a wee. :laughing:

I was just, eh, sitting down, shall we say, so the water was clean (as can be expected) thank god. If the water was in any other state, I may not have been as quick, or might still be washing my hands.

I've read about the moisture sensitive dot. Very cool stuff.

Hadn't thought about the difficulty with the mic and speaker. Good point carrot. The charging port and headphone jack may present difficulty too.

My phone is a 'brick' style, I'd probably be screwed if it was a flip. Too many crevices for water to infiltrate quickly.

saw an article in the paper today by a cell phone repairman. he said most phones have a "white dot" under the battery, and the battery may have one also. it turns red or pink when the phone is exposed to water. if the factory repair center see this, they can say, sorry, no warranty. i looked at my sanyo 8100 and it had 2 pink squares. one on the phone, and one on the battery. i had dropped it in a basin full of water. having drowned 2 phones, found best way for me to dry them out is to put them on car dash in the summer. let the heat from the sun cook it for 1-2 hours. worked for me.

Because, the manufactures of cellphones like it when you pay 500 dollars for a new phone every 6 months to a year.

i have dropped the phone i'm using now in the toilet twice! thankfully it was in "clean" toilet water. i had to immediately disassemble and dry it out. still, i've always wondered why no one ever made a real useable water resistant cell phone case (for nokia style phones). at least something that could survive a small dunk in the water.

They may be looking for planned obsolecence, but they sure give out a lot of free phones when you sign up.

Many phones are fairly water resistant. The keypads are generally a rubber sheet. The small holes are small enough that surface tension will keep some of the water at bay for a few seconds. Waterproof jacks are available. Mine came with rubber plugs blocking all holes (an older LG model).

I'd guess that they don't make them watertight for the same reason that they don't make cars water tight. It's much cheaper (and almost as effective) to print "Do not immerse in water" in the owner's manual.

Daniel

Havent any of you seen Nokia Rough-n-Tough Series phones... they are water resistant (if not water proof)

some of the more expensive models actually are water resistant. There are a lot of buttons and hinges and openings and seams on a phone that are much more irregular than could be just covered by a simple O-Ring like in a light though.

It could certainly be done, but unfortunately people want the cheapest phone possible, they want it for free and they want another new one next year when the latest fashion changes. In that commodity marketplace no phone is ever going to get expensive treatment like sealing up all those gaps, nobody would pay for it.

Why aren't cell phones gasketed like lights? Maybe its so you would throw it away after flushing it? I could never hold something to my face after dropping it in the toilet. YUK!!!

I ve too often wondered why they do not have gaskets when it appears the face and buttons are protected. Whats strange is to take a cell phone apart and seeing a heavy wire grid between the phone and battery, nothing between it and your face.