We don’t live in a vacuum. Neither do our gadgets. From steamy bathrooms to grubby, sweaty hands, little bits of moisture tend to creep into our electronics.
Enter the Bheestie, an airtight plastic pouch that sucks— in a good way. It holds two smaller, porous bags that contain several peppercorn-sized pellets. In theory, these bags act like molecular sieves, absorbing moisture that’s managed to get inside your device. After 24 hours, goes the company claim, the beads will extract almost twice as much water as a cup of uncooked rice (a common DIY method for saving soggy gadgets).
The idea is twofold: Use the bag to de-moisturize your gadgets on a semi-regular basis for routine maintenance, and keep it on hand for H2Opacalypses.
Now, the company’s FAQ doesn’t promise miracles. But it does say reviving a phone dropped in the toilet isn’t out of the question. We started by stuffing a damp sponge into the bag and were impressed by how much water came running out only an hour later. So we decided to go BIG.
So we sacrificed a first-gen Droid (oops!) by letting the phone cannonball from waist high into the bowl. We fished it out, shoved it into a virgin bag, and waited. Within an hour, the bag was giving off noticeable heat— a byproduct of the absorption. Color us optimistic. But after 72 hours (the recommended duration), we cracked the Bheestie and found a dead Droid.
So if you’ve spilled a drink on your phone and can get it into a Bheestie fast enough, you might be ok. But if your device has spent any time completely submerged in water (or worse), you’re out of luck. But you already knew that.
WIRED Resuable: beads supposedly last up to year, depending on usage, and change color to indicate when a bag is past its prime.
TIRED 7.5″ x 5.5″ = pretty small. (Good luck fitting a tablet in there!) Even if rice isn’t quite as effective, it’s much cheaper, and more widely available.