We do not buy water damaged iPhones. Here is why, and what to do instead.
This was a deduction for years. It is now a decline, and telling you here is fairer than telling you after the courier has already been.
Water is not an event, it is a process. A drop cracks one component and then stops. Liquid spreads across the whole board, settles under shields where no clean ever reaches it, and corrodes on a timeline of months. The phone that works perfectly today is very often the phone that dies in six weeks, and there is no test that reliably tells the two apart.
We bought and resold these for years and absorbed the failures. The honest problem is that the risk cannot be priced fairly. Any number low enough to cover the phones that die is an insult to the phones that would have been fine, and we are not willing to quote a figure we would want to revise after testing.
So the calculator now says so the moment you tick the box, rather than at the end. If your iPhone has been in water, we cannot make you an offer for it, and we would rather you knew that in ten seconds than in ten days.
What counts as water damage.
Any of these means we have to decline, including the phone that dried out and has been perfect ever since. Apple's moisture indicators are permanent and we check them, so it surfaces in testing whether it is mentioned or not.
Dropped in a bath, sink, pool or the sea
Even briefly
Went through a washing machine
We see this constantly
Caught in heavy rain and never recovered
Counts
Dried out and has worked ever since
Still counts
Moisture indicator already red
The strip in the SIM tray
Charging port corroded or green inside
A late sign of it
If you are upgrading, you are not selling. You are part-paying.
We cannot buy the wet one, but trade-in credit still applies to anything else you are selling, and water damage is the fault most likely to have you replacing a phone the same week.
Take the payout as EpicDeals.co.za credit instead of cash and we add 12% on top. That is us paying you for not needing the money in your account today, and it costs you nothing if you were going to spend it here anyway.
The 12% is only worth taking if you were going to spend it. If you need the cash, take the cash, and we will not make the voucher hard to refuse.
What to do with it instead.
Do not switch it on to check
If it is recent, power it down, do not charge it, and leave it somewhere dry and warm. Powering up a wet board is what turns a phone that could have been saved into one that cannot, and every attempt makes that likelier.
Rice does nothing
The most persistent bad advice in phone ownership. Rice draws no meaningful moisture out of a sealed device and it puts starch and dust into the ports. A hairdryer is worse. Time, warmth and leaving it switched off are what actually help.
A repair shop is the better call
An ultrasonic board clean, done soon after the event, saves a fair number of phones. It is worth a quote from an independent repairer while the corrosion is young, and worth much less six months later. That is the honest argument for doing it now rather than deciding later.
If you are not certain it ever got wet
Shine a torch into the SIM tray slot. A white or silver strip means no liquid contact has been detected. Red or pink means it has. If it is white and the phone simply stopped working, that is a different problem, and one we do buy.
Things that do not disqualify it.
Every one of these lowers the offer. Not one of them ends it. Pick the matching condition, say what is wrong in the notes, and the price you are shown already accounts for it.
- Cracked or shattered screen
- Dead or badly degraded battery
- Will not switch on, with no history of liquid
- Face ID or the front camera not working
- Charging port worn out from use
- Rear glass cracked
- Buttons or speakers failed with age
- Screen burn or discolouration
Three ways to take the money.
Cash
Instant offer
Assessed within 1-3 working days of arriving, paid within 5 working days of your offer being confirmed.
+12%
Trade-in voucher
Take it as credit on EpicDeals.co.za instead and we add 12%. Useful if the plan was always to upgrade.
+10%
Consignment
We list it, we sell it, you get 10% more than the instant offer. Most sell within 13 days.
Trading since 2014 as Epic Deals, with 2,500+ reviews and 30 people who answer the phone. Not a stranger with a bakkie and a WhatsApp number.
water damaged iPhone questions.
Also selling one of these?
One minute, one number.
No account, no obligation, no salesperson phoning you at supper time.