Water Eject: remove water from your speaker
Phone got caught in the rain or dropped in the sink, and now it sounds muffled or crackly? Turn the volume all the way up, place the phone speaker-down and play the 165 Hz tone — the speaker cone vibrates and pushes the droplets out of the grille. Below it there is a speaker test: left and right channels, a 20 Hz to 20 kHz frequency sweep and a bass check.
The sound is generated in your browser with the Web Audio API: no app to install, nothing is recorded or sent anywhere.
1. Eject water from the speaker
Volume all the way up, phone speaker-down. Disconnect headphones and Bluetooth speakers: the sound must come from the phone itself.
Press “Eject water”. The sound only starts after a tap — browsers require it.
2. Test your speakers
Lower the volume to 30–50% for these tests: the sweep reaches high frequencies that are harsh at full volume.
Did the left tone play on the left and the right tone on the right?
Important. Sound only pushes fresh-water droplets out of the grille and the space in front of the cone. It will not help if water got inside the body or the phone was in salt water, and it does not replace a repair shop. If the phone won’t turn on, gets hot or won’t charge — switch it off and take it in for service.
The sound is generated in your browser. Nothing is recorded, sent or saved — no microphone access needed.
What next
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How to eject water from a speaker, step by step
- Disconnect headphones and Bluetooth speakers, and remove the case if it covers the speaker grille.
- Turn the media volume all the way up. On an iPhone, turn off silent mode with the switch or the Action button on the side.
- Place the phone speaker-down, or hold it tilted with the grille facing the floor — the water needs somewhere to go.
- Choose a mode and duration and press “Eject water”. Droplets may appear on the grille within 10–20 seconds — dab them off with a tissue.
- When the timer ends, play a video or some music. If it still sounds muffled, pause for about 10 seconds and run the cycle once or twice more.
Don’t hold the phone to your ear while it runs: a low tone at full volume is unpleasantly loud up close.
Why 165 Hz
A speaker is a cone that moves back and forth and pushes air. When water sits in the grille and in the narrow chamber in front of the cone, the cone is pushing a droplet instead of air, so the sound turns quiet and muffled. A low tone makes the cone move with its maximum excursion, and the droplet gets pushed out. 165 Hz is a frequency a phone speaker can still play loudly, yet low enough for a large cone movement. The built-in Water Lock feature on Apple Watch and the water ejection on some phones work the same way.
Tone or vibration: which mode to pick
The 165 Hz tone is a steady signal — the classic method and a good place to start. Vibration sweeps the pitch smoothly between 125 and 205 Hz twice a second. The cone shakes at different frequencies, and a droplet stuck to the mesh breaks free sooner. If the sound is still muffled after the steady tone, run vibration for 60 seconds.
How to tell the water is out
Play a song you know or a video with speech. The sound should be as loud and clear as before, with no hiss or rattle. A rattle on bass notes after a cycle usually means a droplet is still in the grille — run it again. If the sound is gone completely or crackles even at medium volume while the phone has been dry for a day, it is no longer about water: the speaker may be damaged and needs a repair shop.
What not to do
- Don’t dry the phone with a hair dryer or on a radiator: hot air drives moisture deeper and can harm the battery and the adhesive seals.
- Don’t poke the grille with a needle or a cotton swab — it is easy to puncture the protective mesh and the cone.
- Rice doesn’t help: it dries worse than open air, and its dust gets into the ports. Apple itself advises against putting an iPhone in rice.
- Don’t charge while the port is wet: many phones warn you about this themselves.
Test your phone speaker: stereo, sweep and bass
After drying, test the speaker right here in the second block of the tool. What each test checks:
- Left and right channels. Short beeps in each channel in turn. In phones with stereo speakers the second channel often plays from the earpiece at the top of the screen. If everything comes from one place, the device has a single speaker — that is not a fault.
- 20 Hz – 20 kHz sweep. The tone rises smoothly from the lowest to the highest frequencies over 24 seconds. Mark when the sound appears and when it fades, and the test shows the range you hear. A phone usually starts at 200–300 Hz, a laptop at 100–150 Hz and headphones at 20–40 Hz. The top end depends on both the speaker and your hearing: after the age of 25–30, frequencies above 15–16 kHz get harder to hear, which is normal.
- Bass test. A 30–100 Hz tone of your choice for 8 seconds — to check a subwoofer, a speaker or the bass in headphones. Rattling, crackling or a buzz on a low tone is a sign of a damaged or loose driver.
If the phone was in salt or dirty water
Sea water, pool water, coffee and sugary drinks leave salt, chlorine and sugar behind. Sound won’t remove them: once dry they stay in the grille and on the contacts and cause corrosion over time. IP67 and IP68 ratings are tested with fresh water. If your phone went for a swim in the sea, rinse it gently under fresh tap water right away (only if it is rated IP67 or IP68), dry it and run the eject cycle. When in doubt — take it in for service.