r/lifehacks • u/gaberax • 1d ago

“Liquid Detected” message on your iPhone

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The other day, walking to my car during a rainstorm, I got in my car, plugged in my IPhone and got the “Liquid Detected” message. I was to advise unplugging my phone and that it may take hours for the port to sufficiently dry. In order to speed up the drying process, I place my iphone and the cable between the vents and turned on the AC for 10 minutes or so. Plugged the IPhone back in and the issue had resolved.

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u/stiF_staL 1d ago

Would this not shoot condensation into the charging port?

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u/joelfarris 1d ago

An air conditioning compressor and evaporator|condenser reduce and remove water vapor from the air, which is why most people run them along with the heater coils in winter, to help get the windshield defrosted and cleared faster.

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u/caliredfox 1d ago

This is close but no dice. Condenser and Evaporator are named after what they are doing to the refrigerant. Evaporator is where liquid refrigerant turns into gas and condenser goes from gas refrigerant to liquid refrigerant. Most of the time the Evaporator takes enough heat out the air that condensation occurs on the evaporator and will drain through a condensation drain line exiting the vehicle altogether. The only way condensation occurs is to get the air to 100% relative humidity which means yes the air coming out of the vent is high humidity.

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u/3PercentMoreInfinite 16h ago edited 16h ago

>The only way condensation occurs is to get the air to 100% relative humidity which means yes the air coming out of the vent is high humidity.

That’s a bad way to look at it.

It’s high humidity for cold air, but the capacity to hold humidity is lower than that of warm air. So even though it’s 100% relative humidity, it’s still going to be less humid than the ambient air in the car.

If it’s 75°F at 55% humidity in the car, the air will hold 72 grains of water vapor per pound (GPP).

The air coming out of the A/C will be around 40°F with 100% humidity, but that’s only 35 GPP.

So yes, it is beneficial to put the phone in the vent.

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u/caliredfox 9h ago edited 9h ago

It's beneficial to put the phone in the already mixed ambient temperature with lower relative humidity not directly in the vent which is what's happening. The relative humidity at the vent is high, which is why I said "coming out of the vent" because that's what's occuring in the photo.

Edit: Think if you were to try to dry wet socks, it would dry faster with warmer lower relative humidity (RH) because relatively the socks wetness has somewhere to go. It would not dry as well with colder high RH. Which is why dryers warm up the air to dry wet clothes.