Posted Wednesday, June 13, 2012 by John Ennis in Reviews

[Review] Aqua Dry Bag from XO Skins

With a material that’s 700 times more absorbent than rice, the Aqua Dry Bag is the last line of defense when your phone gets wet. The bag is cheap, it works great and I can’t recommend it enough.

Ever dunk your phone and had that horrible realization that your beloved device is now shot? You pray, you hold it under a hair dryer, do a dance to the cellphone gods, if you are smart you get yourself a bag of rice and hope for the best. What if I told you there is a product out there that can increase the odds that your $600 (or more) phone survives a brush with death and lives to entertain you with Temple Run another day? Enter the Aqua Dry Bag.

How do I review a product that’s supposed to save a dying phone?

When the guys at XO Skins contacted me to review their new product, I was astounded by what a great idea it is. It’s like that stabby-needle thingy in the movie Pulp Fiction; you know when the hot chick overdoses and they stab her in the heart with the big fricken needle and she gets up? Like she was DEAD and all of a sudden she’s alive! Who wouldn’t want that kind of “get out of jail” card laying around? Then it hit me. How am I going to review this?

Normally, reviewing things means sitting somewhere and figuring out how something works, and writing about it. There are other times like the “Orange Goop” incident where Android Central EIC Phil and I had a demonstration involving our hands, some orange goop and fricken hatchet.

So how do I review a product that’s supposed to save a dying phone? I love my job at Android Does, but I am not exactly going to throw my Galaxy Nexus in the tub for this review. So I did what any experienced editor does, and I sat on the story, confident in knowing that the solution would somehow come to me. Somehow.

Not a day had passed since I placed the Aqua Dry Bag on the counter in my kitchen when my kid had one of those moments of panic looking for his phone. It didn’t take him long to realize that he last had his phone in the jeans of his pants. Problem was he put his jeans in the washer, and the phone was wet for a good 20 minutes before he fished it out.

The iPhone was toast when it was in the water that long, and add in the detergent and you have a recipe for a dead device.

The phone was dead, totally dead. No screen, wouldn’t turn on. Now I know that some of you will rejoice at the idea of an iPhone 4 dying a watery death, but this was a pretty bad situation. Can’t take the battery out, can’t do anything to help the phone dry out. We had to hold the phone so the water came out of the headphone jack.

After getting what water we could out of the phone, we placed it in the bag and waited for the magic to happen. After talking to Joe over at XO Skins, we decided to let the phone sit for 48 hours to make sure the phone gets as dry as possible. So what’s going on in the bag? How does it work? Well the bag has a material in it that absorbs water 700 times better than rice. Pro tip: you don’t have to open the little packet of magic beads inside the bag. You know those little packets that say “Do Not Eat?” The material in the Aqua Dry Bag can pull moisture from those packets! The Aqua Dry Bag is the very best place for your wet phone.

After 48 hours in the bag, we took the phone out and looked it over, it’s then that we made a mistake. Even though there was water behind the screen, my kid went ahead and tried to charge the phone. It seemed to take a charge and appeared to be working just fine. After telling me that he noticed the water behind the screen, I suggested that we try and put the phone back in the bag for another 24 hours.

Well for whatever reason, the battery was shot when we tried to power the phone back on after the 24 hour period had passed. It just wouldn’t take a charge. I was able to replace the battery and everything is perfect with the phone now.

While I feel like it would have been a better story if I was all ZOMG the phone is soaked, Zomg the Aqua Dry Bag is saved the day!!!!, it wouldn’t really be truthful. Long story short, the iPhone was toast when it was in the water that long, and add in the detergent and you have a recipe for a dead device. However, the Aqua Dry Bag saved the phone, despite the fact that the battery had too much damage to be saved. Sometimes batteries just get diluted and can’t be saved.

However, I can recommend the Aqua Dry Bag with absolutely no reservations. This little bag is the best thing to have around, because you never know when you are going to need it. Get one for the car, and one for the house. If you have a pool or a lake on your property, get a few extra and you know, charge $50 for your drunk friends to use one. Lucky for you, they are only $13.49 so getting a couple isn’t a problem at all.

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John Ennis

Sr Editor at Android Does

Editor
When the USAF dropped this New Jersey boy off in Louisiana, he had no idea that the fun was just beginning. John has turned wrenches on jet engines in a Combat AGE team, raided Molten Core in the day, pwn n00bs in Battlefield 3, and can speak iOS and Android.

John has a BS degree in Culinary Arts, and is working on a Master’s in Education. Married and a father of 4 boys, John gets his screen name, Broadwayblues, from the NHL team the New York Rangers, loves the NY Giants and admits that he likes the NY Mets too. He cuddles his Galaxy Nexus at night.