Protect your iPhone from water damage - Dunk it in Cat litter! Yes, it works

Whether you are a proud owner of an iPhone 12, iPhone 13 or are planning to own the iPhone 14, accidents happen and sometimes phones end up in water. But this genius home remedy might actually save your device.

Have you ever buried your iPhone in a bag of rice after it fell into water in order to dry it out fast and protect it from damage? There might be a far better method — cat litter. (Flipkart/Canva)

iPhones, especially the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 have some pretty good water resistance capabilities. Equipped with IP68 water damage resistance certificate, these devices can tolerate light drizzle and occasional water spillage. But at the end of the day, these are sensitive electronic devices and if they slipped out of your hand and fell in a body of water, there is little that the device can do to protect itself. And once the device takes water damage, you have very little time to protect the electronics from getting damaged. One possible solution is to take it to the Apple service center and get it repaired but that will cost you a lot of money. There are other solutions as well, like the age-old remedy of burying it overnight in a bag of rice which is supposed to absorb the water and dry your smartphone from the inside. But it is a hit or miss and if you are planning to buy an expensive smartphone like iPhone 14, that's not good enough. But we might have a remedy that is more effective and actually designed to absorb, what shall we say, water. What is it? Cat litter.

Cat litter can save your drowning iPhone

It might seem strange that the little box where your pet cat buries its pee and poop can protect your iPhone from water damage but it is actually true. The box contains granulated clay, sawdust, corncobs, baking soda and even silica gel. The result? It is a super absorbent structure that catches all the pee and its smell along with it.

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And that is exactly what your iPhone 12 or 13 needs once it has finished its swimming session. The absorbent can pull and trap the moisture that has gone inside the smartphone and dry up the internal instruments before it can take any serious damage.

However, there are a couple of things that you should remember. The effectiveness of this depends on various factors. If the smartphone was inside the water for a long time, the damage might already have been done and the cat litter won't be able to make a difference. Second, if the cat litter is not fresh, it might not be able to absorb the moisture properly. Third, things like water pressure, depth it fell into and others also affect the rate of damage. If you suspect the smartphone has taken more damage than the litter can handle, you'd be wise to take it directly to the Apple service center as soon as possible.