iPhones and Box Gutters

Well, friends, I dodged an expensive bullet today. Two words that will surely raise the hair on yer neck.  "Wet iPhone".

Our house, built in 1870, has box gutters and some craptastic aluminum soffit and fascia installed circa 1960. When "icicle" conditions prevail, we can have problems. Sometimes it's water leaching through the double layer of bricks that are our walls. (Correct, no insulation.) It's caused by melt water backing up from the downspouts, to the inside of the soffits, and down the outside of the brick wall, where it re-freezes (on good days), or finds a way inside (on really bad days).

Something demonic happened last night. I left my iPhone lying face down on the windowsill at the top of the steps. It's the kind of spot that tends to accumulate things that need to go downstairs in the morning.  We've had snow for four days, ice around the downspout for three. Elements have remained where they belong, outside.

Knowing that Pitt was going to be closed again today, I slept in. (Good use of time in weather like this.)  Get up, blearily make my way to the top of the stairs and saw a towel on the windowsill, and my phone on the floor. Uh-oh.  It seems that barefooted Maggie detected water on the carpet this AM, and Liz noted that the windowsill was awash in snowmelt.  I picked up the phone. A little wet on the outside. Hmm, it's dripping. I gave it a good shake, and water comes out. Many shakes. Mucho water, reminding me of a wet dog coming indoors. EEEK! I press the button, the boot-time apple symbol appears, flickers, and goes out. Double EEEK!

Now, old houses commonly have one good feature, and that is floor-mounted heating vent.  We have one near the front door. Great place for drying gloves. Resting the phone there for half produces a change status: moisture fogging up the inside face of the display. This is NOT encouraging. Time for deeper intervention.

So, back upstairs, pick up my screwdrivers and browse my way over to iFixit.com , making my first visit down the iPhone take-apart section of their site. Half an hour later, (20 minutes spent looking for an appropriately sized suction cup,) and I have it broken down into 5 parts. Display, battery, logic board, plastic case, and carefully stowed microscopic screws.  Back to the heating vent everything goes. All day I fight the urge to reassemble it too soon.  Would give "half baked" a whole new meaning.  The windowsill is dry again: I actually never saw the water. It came, it sogged, it conquered.

Five hours pass, parts (and gloves) are now dry and warm. Back together, wishing I had smaller fingers. Press boot buttons, wait, gee this takes a long time to boot. But YAY, at long last the familiar wallpaper appears. Oh, happy day.

Another lesson learned, one for the book, in the category of Avoidable Risks. Repairing laptops for Goodwill has already shown me the wisdom of "never put your laptop where anyone one MIGHT sit. Never ever". Now we have another: "never leave your iPhone in a spot that gets wet one one day out of every two or three thousand."

Marty (adrenaline rush now complete)