My $4 running phone decision

Tonight's dish: wet phone over rice

Today's run (street): 2.5 miles

After my pool screw up on Sunday, I got a tweet from a colleague, who suggested that I place my nearly drowned cellphone in rice. My daughter said that her teacher had done that and successfully restored her smartphone after an accidental bath. I figured, what the heck, I'll try it. I placed the phone in a small container and covered it with brown rice.

Last night I removed the phone from its rice bed and replaced the battery, but it didn't power up. That wasn't a big surprise. I expected that the lithium ion battery would have fully discharged after being held under water for a time. I plugged the phone into its charger and the Verizon screen came right up. I thought I might have lucked out, but immediately after the welcoming message, the screen said, "Use genuine battery. Power Off."

To be fair, the battery is genuine

Now I must decide whether to invest in a new battery in hopes of bringing this phone back to life. It looks like I can buy one for about $4 online (plus tax and shipping) but I'm not sure it's even worth doing that. There are still some drops of water trapped under the lens of the TFT that may interfere with the display. Also, the battery cover no longer stays in place and would need to be secured using a rubber band or something similar.

I'll make my way to the Verizon store at some point to get a new "running" phone. I ran without a phone this morning but felt okay about that, since I didn't stray too far from my home. Ironically, I looked to take off my SPIbelt when I got back, but realized I hadn't needed to wear it. I wish I'd remembered it as well last Sunday.