Well, this is kinda interesting
My phone is a Redmi Note 9 Pro (the global variant) and it went through the unthinkable…
Let me explain
It was a hot day (yesterday, that is) and my phone had slight heating (it was warm.ish rather than hot to the touch) issues while watching YouTube and I noticed it was not charging as fast as it normally does, so I did what I sometimes do when my phone is heating after an extreme gaming session or similar before I throw it into the charger… And that is… I put it in the fridge for around a minute, barely more or less, and once it’s cooled down a bit, I throw it into the charger, so it doesn’t heat up a lot when charging (which I noticed it sometimes does when I throw it into the charger and the phone is still warmer than usual after an extreme gaming session)
So, I threw my phone into the fridge (into the freezer compartment to be precise), and only this time round, I forgot to take it out the freezer 💀
Why? Well, for starters, I’m not JerryRigEverything, so I wasn’t doing an experiment or something along those lines, I don’t have the budget for that *cough* *cough*
Well, anyway, what happened is… I kinda went to my room and slept (totally forgetting my phone was in the freezer), and it was a long sweet sleep if I do say so myself (I slept from around 5 or 6 pm and I woke up today 4 am– and it’s 5 am when I’m writing this post)
So, I wake up… I have no idea where my phone is… I check under the pillow– not there! I check near the bed– not there! I go to the sitting to see if I left my phone charging– not there! Now I’m panicking. Where the heck did I leave my phone? Now as I’m looking around the house for the phone, I hear the all too familiar nature alarm sound and vibration. I follow the sound and it leads me to the kitchen. Now I’m wondering why would I leave my phone in the kitchen and the way it sounds it’s like it was inside something enclosed (like a cupboard maybe)
But that’s when it hit me… No sh*t Sherlock, you left your phone in the freezer. I freak out and when I open the freezer compartment, indeed, there my phone lay, as cold as ice to the touch with its Tropical Green back glass slightly frosted and the front screen frosted too… As usual, I tried the fingerprint sensor and it didn’t work, as expected. But the alarm ringing at least gave me hopes that the phone is still alive. I press the power/fingerprint key and indeed it lit up but Face ID didn’t work… Everything was foggy, as you’d expect… I tried the camera app, both front and back cameras looked foggy, again… as you’d expect… But the screen was still responsive, to my pleasant surprise
Now is when the horror stories I’d heard about people leaving their phones in the fridge/freezer started coming back to haunt me… I remember reading things like: “Don’t ever leave your phone in the fridge for more than 5 minutes” and I’m like “Oh, dang! Minutes, you say? Well, I just happened to leave mine for more than 10 hours in the fridge”… I remember also reading: “Doing so will cause a lot of problems, cameras won’t work well, and the biggest of all your battery might not charge” and I’m like: Oh no 💀
So… I decided to do the final test to see if the phone was 100% working… And that is… Charging the phone
So, before I put my phone in the charger, I grabbed a cloth and wiped the hell out of my phone to remove the slight moisture, similar to wiping the mirror on a very cold morning
Once the phone was fully dry, I restarted the phone and once it was fully booted, I plugged the charger into the phone and… Voila! Not only did the phone charge, but it was also fast charging (Mi Turbo Charge or whatever, but you get what I mean)
This was a frightening experience, to be honest, and I wouldn’t recommend anyone to try this at home 😂, mine was purely unintentional, but hey! If you ever wondered what might happen if you leave your phone in the fridge/freezer for too long, there you have it, from yourself truly
P.S. I thought it might have been important to mention that when I left the phone in the fridge it was only 51% but when I removed it today morning, 10 hours later, it had only dropped by 2% (it was at 49%)… Interesting, if I do say so myself
I’ll update you guys over the course of a few days/weeks if any problems occurred, till then
Yours truly,
Emerald Zhu… Out 💯
Main concern is condensation tbh
I don’t usually leave my phone around in freezer for more than 30 seconds.
think condensation is a bigger problem going from hot to rapid cooling.
Well good for you 😀
But I’d be more concerned about condensation, especially the one that may occur inside your phone.
Your phone is literally made of glass and one thing you’re not meant to do with glass is rapid changes in temperature. If this was a flagship or a good phone, you’re phone would’ve been fine. I’m pretty sure mrwhosetheboss or someone did a test with an iPhone 11 and Samsung s20(or something) where he put the phones in the freezer in a glass of water and they both survived. But this is a mi phones and especially a redmi, chances are low. There will be water damage, you almost certainly have to take it to a repair shop
That’s good
I unfortunately forgot mobile in pant & wash it in washing machine for 45 min. … But after Dry Rice process it still works .
Doing it right now lol
Why in tarnation would people put their phone in the fridge? If you want your battery to last longer just use normal slow charge
Mine didn’t switch off tho 🙂
Im no expert to tech stuff. Isn’t it bad enough when you throw in your hot/warm phone into freezer right away? The concept is the same as glass, when it’s hot and you put it in frozen place or pour cold water on it, it will break.
Anyway, keep monitor it when you charge. Don’t want anything to burn. Stay safe.
> designed to work very hot conditions
I used to work for an institute where we issued certificates for various medical devices and we regularly exposed them to high temperatures and measured components inside as well. And yes, to pass the test, not only it had to still work, but it shouldn’t overheat as well. So safe to say, unless you put it under extreme conditions, the phone should be just fine.
Why are you guys doing that “freezer” thing at all? If you overheat your device (while gaming, for example), it gets like 80-90C hot. So it is 60-70C hotter than the \~20C ambient temperature. If you put it in the cooler which has 5C it changes merely to “75-85C hotter”. It is roughly the same if you put the phone into freezer briefly. Not much difference. If assume that the phone touches just air here and there it will just cool maybe 10% faster in the fridge. More advantage can come from the contact with ice – but you can do almost the same with keeping it in your hands (they’re watercooled – well, blood-cooled – too ;))
Unless we’re talking about some Dubai 40-45C temperatures, the problem is not the temperature reached while gaming, but heat dissipation. So rather glue some CPU cooler to your case (screen would be better, but… well :-\] )
And taking your frozen phone to the outside world will cause condensation not only on the surface (which you can “wipe like a mirror”) but also inside! You should never turn it on before it dried completely (hence warmed up…). Even then such wetting is dangerous to the device and surely will limit its life. I’m not even mentioning the battery – Li-Po are more forgiving than Li-Ion but still below freezing point provide much lower voltage during initial discharge. And charging frozen battery can damage it permanently.
Likewise, don’t know how I forgot this time round
They can be found from industrial and hospital suppliers in sizes larger than supermarket versions.
For example: https://ziploc.com/en/Products/Closet-Storage/Big-Bags/Big-Bags-L
This is a good phone imo… I’ve used worse budget devices
The phone is designed to work very hot conditions
(Imagine using GPS navigation on your phone, in the sun on the dashboard, in a hot car that you just got into after parking hours in the sun, while charging, after being in your pocket for an hour, in a hot and humid climate…)
The phone is also designed to work in very cold climates (imagine people in canada for example)
The issue begins with RAPID change of EXTREME temperatures (from 50C after gaming – to -20C in the freezer…)
The quick and different expansion\\contraction of different materials (glass, plastic, rubber) in the phone – can cause them to separate from each other, and also break, or at least break the sealing of the phone.
After the materials separated from each other when freezing – you took your cold phone and put it in (relatively) hot environment, and humidity started condensation on it. (take something out of the freezer – and see how wet it gets outside.)
Now remember that your phone is not sealed anymore – and that condensation also happens inside it, on the printed circuits, and NOW you understand the issue…
Now for the last part:
Corrosion doesn’t necessarily happen immediately, but it can appear gradually over a few days, weeks, or months…
Good luck 🙂
No shit, Sherlock 😐
Yep, I’m still monitoring it… Will update if I notice any issue
Why do you do this? I honestly can’t even begin to describe how bad it is to put electronics in a freezer, evr if it’s just for a few minutes
Condensation and the rapid temperature changes will kill the phone sooner then you think. It’s not worth it
Well, let’s just wait and see… I’m hoping for the best while preparing for the worst
You should be fine I watched a YT video where they froze 2 phones for like 4 hours and nothing happened to them
In extreme cold the phone will switch off, experienced it before in extreme freezing temperature, but a little bit of warmth it can still be switched on again
Xiaomi phone are intended to work in cold and hot, don’t you know there are region in China that can easily hit -20 °C (north east) and there are region that can easily hit 40°C (west desert)
I’m not saying your phone is bad but despite the ip rating, I’ve never trusted Xiaomi’s waterproofing. In the redmi note 10, in many tests there has been water damage despite the ip
Glad you got away with a slight scare.
I would probably have turned it off for a few hours to minimize damage from water condensation due to the temperature change.
Should have dried out the condensation first.
Face palm.
Before Step 2, I’d suggest sealing the phone in a zip-lock bag, evacuating as much air as possible to minimize interior condensation.
I once worked as a photographer in a heavily air conditioned environment. Before I would go outside into a warm, humid environment I would always seal my cameras into zip-lock bags until they warmed past the condensation point.
Going from cold into humid hot can really do a fast number on electronics (and lenses)
Its not yet extreme cold in your situation
I’m actually surprised my camera lens aren’t foggy, like at all…
Interesting.
Thanks for sharing 👍
There was a post on Twitter where some guy wanted to cool his mi 11 ultra and he ran it under cold water. Next thing you know his camera lens’ got foggy from the inside
I regularly leave my phone in a fridge at work (in an insulated lunch bag) for an entire shift… it gets quite cold but dont have any issues … POCO X3
Yessir, lol 😂
Hopefully nothing broke this time round 😂
Thanks for the ton of good news, man 😂🤝🏼
u/profanitycounter
Oh, I am gladly surprised…? And you had no issues?
Oh, that I did… Though not for a few hours *cough* *cough*
😂
Why would you do that?
I used to do this with my Redmi 4X. I also once forgot my phone in the freezer until it froze and I had to leave it to thaw. The phone also survived, thankfully.
Fortunately I never had to do this with my Redmi Note 7 again because it doesn’t have a metal backplate so it doesn’t really get too hot to be uncomfortable to touch.
Awesome story. Hahahaha.
Defrost it in a bag of rice