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Around Brisbane · Beach and bay

Taking Your Phone to the Beach: Salt, Sand and Sun at Sandgate, Shorncliffe and Redcliffe

Salt spray, sand in the port, sunscreen on your hands and a hot car park: how a day by the bay wears on a phone, and the simple habits that stop it.

By the Mr. Phone Taigum repair team, checked by David, our senior technician 5 min read

The bay is closer than you think

From Taigum it's a short drive to the water: the foreshore at Sandgate and Brighton, the pier at Shorncliffe, the boat ramps and creeks around Cabbage Tree Creek, and a little further, Suttons Beach at Redcliffe and the beaches on Bribie. Moreton Bay is calm, shallow and lovely, and it's still salt water.

A day there tests a phone in four ways at once: salt, sand, sunscreen and heat. None of them usually kills a phone on the day. They wear it down over weeks, and then the charging port stops working or the speaker goes quiet.

Salt: the slow one

Salt water is more than wet. When it dries, it leaves salt behind, in the speaker grilles, the microphone holes and the charging port, and salt attracts moisture from the air and corrodes metal contacts.

  • Samsung says that after contact with salt water, a water-resistant Galaxy should be washed with fresh water, because otherwise salt can build up as it dries and block the microphone, earpiece or speaker. It suggests rinsing in clean water for one to three minutes, wiping it, and letting it dry fully before connecting a charger, with no heat and no compressed air.
  • Apple lists salt water among the liquids to keep off an iPhone, and says that if a liquid other than water gets on it, you should rinse the affected area with tap water, then wipe it and dry it.

Only do this with a phone that's rated water resistant (most recent iPhones and Galaxy phones are), and only a gentle rinse under the tap, not a soak or a spray. If your phone has been repaired or dropped, treat it as no longer water resistant.

Splashed, or dropped in?

A splash from a wave, or wet hands, is one thing. A phone that's gone into the water off the pier or a boat is another. For that, read what to do when a phone goes in the water, and get it checked within a day or two: corrosion from salt keeps going after the phone seems fine.

Sand: the port's worst enemy

Fine beach sand gets into everything, and the charging port is where it causes trouble. A cable pushed into a port with sand in it presses the grit deeper each time until the plug won't seat properly and charging becomes hit and miss.

  • Don't blow into the port or use compressed air: it pushes sand further in.
  • Don't dig with a pin or a toothpick: the contacts inside are delicate and easily bent.
  • Tap it out gently with the port facing down, or use a soft, dry brush.
  • Brush the speaker grilles lightly with a soft, dry toothbrush.

If it still won't charge properly, our guide to a phone that won't charge walks through the checks.

Sunscreen: keep it on you, not your phone

Queensland's UV index reaches 3 or above somewhere in the day, every day of the year, according to Cancer Council Queensland, so sunscreen is a daily habit here, not just a beach one. Apple and Samsung both list sunscreen, lotion and insect repellent among the things to keep off a phone, and Samsung's guidance is to rinse them off a water-resistant Galaxy.

We haven't found any official evidence that sunscreen harms a screen on its own, so we won't tell you it does. What it does do is leave a greasy film that smears the screen and the camera lens, and it gathers sand and grit. The easy habit:

  • Wipe your hands before picking up the phone.
  • Clean the screen and camera lens with a soft, slightly damp cloth, not with your shirt.

Heat: the car park is hotter than the beach

Apple says an iPhone works best between 0 °C and 35 °C and should be stored between −20 °C and 45 °C, and that the inside of a parked car can go past that range. Samsung gives the same 0–35 °C range for Galaxy phones. Using a phone in very hot conditions can permanently shorten its battery life. Here's more on phones in a hot car.

At the beach, that means:

  • A towel in the full sun gets the phone hotter than the air temperature.
  • The dashboard or the seat of a car parked at the foreshore is worse. Take the phone with you, or put it in the glovebox out of direct sun.
  • If it warns you it's too hot, don't put it in the freezer or the esky. Move it into the shade, turn it off if you can, and let it cool down slowly. Sudden cold can cause condensation inside.

What should I bring for the phone?

  1. A waterproof pouch on a lanyard, or at least a zip-lock bag. Test the pouch with a tissue inside before you trust it with your phone.
  2. A case that covers the edges and lifts the screen off the sand. A screen protector helps too: sand is hard enough to scratch glass.
  3. A small towel that's just for drying hands.
  4. Shade: a bag under the umbrella, not on the towel.

How do I know the beach has got into my phone?

Get it looked at if, in the days after a beach trip, you notice:

  • charging only works at an angle, or the phone says liquid or moisture is detected when it's dry;
  • the speaker sounds crackly or muffled, or people can't hear you on calls;
  • the camera's photos look hazy even after cleaning the lens;
  • the battery drains noticeably faster than it used to.

Sources

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