A photo posted by Rice Don't Fix This (@corrosion_explosion) on Jan 15, 2016 at 4:43pm PST
www.riceisfordinner.com
Pasted from linked page:
“Over the past year, I've amassed quite the collection of corrosion damage photos. This corrosion is mostly from phones that got wet, then got tossed into rice. The more time that ticks by without actually trying to remove the water and subsequent corrosion, the worse the problem becomes. While the problem may have originated in dropping the phone in water, it is magnified many times over when you do something silly, like toss it in rice.”
and....
“Damaging by wasting time perhaps. The moment water with an electrolyte in it (virtually any water source you'd actually drop your phone in) enters your phone and comes in contact with dissimilar metals (there's somewhere around 15 different types of metal in the phone), corrosion begins to grow immediately. Add electricity (the battery or plugging it in before it's dry) or more electrolytes (ocean vs lake) and the speed at which the corrosion grows increases.
Corrosion, not water is the actual reason a wet phone stops working. There is NO desiccant that can remove corrosion, let alone water. That's right, I said a desiccant cannot force water out of the phone. Desiccants absorb water from the air, or that it's in close proximity (ie, touching) with. When water is inside an aluminum and glass box (ie, a phone), there is no amount of silica gel or rice or kitty litter that is going to "make" the water come out.
Eventually, the water evaporates and exits the phone. A true desiccant will then absorb this water. This is a moot point because the corrosion left inside the phone is the true killer/problem."
and....
“Thanks. Finally. Someone who has a brain. You can keep rice in a humid environment and the rice will still be hard. Water means mold. This is why rice is able to last practically forever in a box.”
You decide. There are a lot more sites and articles from electronics experts, saying the same thing.
Added for those that like videos on RICE: