Can an iPhone Run Under Mineral Oil?
Water vs. Electronics
We all know water and electronics don’t mix. But here’s the thing—it’s not actually the water that fries a phone, it’s the minerals and impurities inside the water that conduct electricity.
That got me thinking: what about mineral oil? Mineral oil is non-conductive, which means in theory, it shouldn’t damage electronics at all. So naturally, I had to test it out.
Setting Up the Experiment
For this test, I grabbed an iPhone and a big container of mineral oil. Here’s the setup:
| 1. Pour the mineral oil into a container. |
| 2. Boot up the iPhone so it’s fully running. |
| 3. Submerge the iPhone and see what happens. |
To make things even more extreme, I decided to open the iPhone first, leaving its internals exposed before dropping it into the goo.
Submerging the iPhone
With the phone powered on and working, I lowered it into the mineral oil.
At first, nothing happened, it looked almost beautiful in there, floating around like a display piece. The screen was still working, the phone was responsive, and it actually looked really clean inside the oil.
But then I noticed the oil seeping under the LCD. The screen still lit up, and the camera even worked, but things started to get weird.
The Results
The iPhone turned off briefly but managed to restart, proving it could still power back on after being submerged. However, the touchscreen functionality stopped working entirely, leaving the device unresponsive to touch even though the system itself was still running in the background.
On top of that, the display became harder to see as mineral oil seeped underneath the screen, further reducing its usability.
So technically, the iPhone survived being submerged, but usability went downhill fast.
Final Thoughts
The mineral oil didn’t short out the iPhone like water would, proving that it really is non-conductive. But that doesn’t mean your phone is safe, screens, connectors, and moving parts don’t play nice with oil.
In the end, the iPhone lived, but it wasn’t exactly usable anymore.
See you in the next article.
