Water Eject: Clear Water From Your Phone Speaker
Point the speaker down, press Start, and let a low hum shake the drops out.
- Turn the volume all the way up and take the case off.
- Hold the phone with the speaker grille pointing down.
- iPhone: switch off Silent mode (the ring switch or Action button).
Nothing plays until you press Start. Press it again to stop.
Speaker sounds muffled after rain, a pool or the sink? This free water eject plays a low 165 Hz tone that makes the speaker cone move hard enough to shake trapped drops out of the grille. It runs in your browser on iPhone and Android, so there is no app to install and nothing to subscribe to.
If the phone went fully under water: power it off first, don't charge it, and let it dry for several hours. A sound can shake drops off the speaker mesh. It can't dry the inside of the phone or the charging port.
How to use the water eject tone
- Turn the volume up. The page can't change your phone's volume. Press the volume-up button until it stops. A quiet tone barely moves the speaker.
- Point the speaker down. On most phones the main speaker is the grille on the bottom edge. Gravity helps the drops fall out instead of running back in.
- Press Start and wait. You will hear a low hum and may see tiny droplets on the grille. Wipe them off with a dry cloth.
- Repeat once or twice. If sound is still muffled, run it again with Pulses, then Sweep. Different frequencies move different amounts of water.
Also muffled on calls? The earpiece speaker at the top of the screen is smaller. Hold the phone screen-down while the tone plays; on many phones the sound comes out of both speakers.
Why a 165 Hz tone pushes water out
A phone speaker is a small cone behind a fine mesh. Water clings to the mesh by surface tension and sits in the gap in front of the cone, so the sound comes out dull. A low tone makes the cone travel much further per stroke than speech or music does. That pushes air in and out of the gap, and the drops break loose. The Apple Watch uses the same idea: its built-in Water Lock plays a series of tones to clear the speaker when you turn it off.
165 Hz is the frequency the popular iPhone "Water Eject" shortcut uses, and it works on most phones. If your speaker sounds rattly at full volume, slide the frequency up a little. Pulses turns the tone on and off twice a second, which gives the water a series of pushes. Sweep glides between 120 and 300 Hz, so it passes through whatever frequency your speaker moves most at.
Water eject on iPhone
Open this page in Safari, take the phone off Silent, and press Start. On an iPhone 15 Pro or later, Silent mode is on the Action button; on older models it's the switch above the volume buttons. Newer iOS versions let the page play even in Silent, but turning Silent off is the sure way.
Recent iPhones (iPhone 12 and later) are rated IP68, which means they survive a dunk, but the speaker still sounds muffled until the water clears. Some people install a third-party "Water Eject" shortcut in the Shortcuts app instead. It plays the same kind of tone, and this page saves you installing it.
What this won't fix
- Water inside the phone. If the screen flickers, the phone gets hot, or it restarts by itself, stop using it and dry it powered off.
- The charging port. iPhones warn "Liquid detected in Lightning / USB-C connector". Sound doesn't reach the port. Tap the phone gently against your hand with the port facing down and leave it to dry for 30 minutes or more before charging. Apple advises against rice and against blowing into the port with compressed air.
- A blown or torn speaker. If it crackles at any volume after the phone is dry, it needs a repair shop.
Other devices
- Water eject for Android: Samsung, Pixel, Motorola and other phones, plus Samsung's own speaker tools.
- Water eject for AirPods: play the tone through wet AirPods or other earbuds.
FAQ
Can the tone damage my speaker?
At normal phone volume, no. Your phone limits how far the speaker can move, and a 30-second tone is gentler than a bass-heavy song played loud. Stop if you hear rattling or buzzing and try a higher frequency instead.
How long should I run it?
Two or three rounds of 30 seconds clears most splashes. Water left after a swim can take a few minutes total. If the sound is still dull after that, let the phone sit speaker-down for an hour and try again.
I pressed Start but hear nothing.
Check that the volume is up, Silent mode is off, and no Bluetooth headphones are connected (the tone goes to them instead). Some in-app browsers block sound, so open the page in Safari or Chrome.
Do I need an app?
No. The water eject apps in the stores play the same kind of tone, and many of them charge a weekly subscription after the first use. This page is free, and once it has loaded it keeps working without signal.
Does it remove dust too?
A little. The vibration can loosen dry dust in the mesh, but packed lint needs a soft dry toothbrush brushed gently across the grille.