Lexi Phillips answered the call of nature and soon heard an alarming splash: Her cell phone toppled into the toilet.
It wasn’t the first time the 19-year-old had lost her Motorola to the Kohler.
“Both times, my cell phone was in my back pocket … it fell out and went right into the bowl,” said Phillips, a cosmetology student who lives in Milwaukee.
Mobile phones are the most popular personal technology around, but the ability to take them anywhere–including the occasional trip to the bathroom–carries risks. Plumbers, building managers and cell phone insurers say such phone fates are more common than many people realize.
On two occasions, several months apart, Phillips’ mobile phones were powered on when they plunged into the porcelain bowl in her home. She went after them both times. She tried drying them out–to no avail.
Yet a third phone has fallen victim to the perils of Phillips’ bathroom, slipping off the edge of the sink into several inches of water.
In addition to the costs of replacing the phones and the inconvenience of being disconnected, Phillips discovered another hassle that comes when your phone takes a swim. “I lost all these new phone numbers I had just put in,” she said, noting that she had not bothered to write them down.
Phillips isn’t alone in her phone fiascos.
Tracy Robertson, an information technology manager in Chicago, saw his cell phone slip from its belt clip and drop into the toilet.
“It was one of those things, where it was the perfect timing and the perfect position,” Robertson said. “It just went in, just as it was flushing too.”
Little did he know he would be reunited with his phone a few days later.
“The toilet was working fine, but then it started backing up eventually,” Robertson said. “I had to remove the toilet from the floor in order to get it out.”
Neil Strother, a senior analyst with the research firm Instat MDR who specializes in mobile devices, said it’s difficult to determine how many mobile phones meet their end in the drain.
Manufacturers don’t offer many water-resistant devices, he said. Only a few handset makers, such as Motorola, offer “ruggedized” lines of mobile phones designed for emergency workers that can survive being dropped in water.
“Any little increase in cost for a basic phone, and there has to be a good reason for a manufacturer and wireless carrier to do that,” he said. “Phones are so cheap now, it just makes more sense to offer them cheaper instead of ruggedized water-resistant.”
Some waterlogged cell phones can be revived if you remove the battery and then let them dry for several days, Strother said.
Michael Powers, vice president of product management at Asurion, the second-largest provider of wireless phone insurance in North America, said the number of claims last year had “gone up dramatically” compared with previous years, but he declined to give numbers, citing competitive reasons.
Powers said that last year, about 20 percent of the claims coming in were because phones were damaged by some kind of liquid, including “being dropped in a lake, pool, and, yes, in toilets.”
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
