Many companies featured on Money advertise with us. Opinions are our own, but compensation and
in-depth research may determine where and how companies appear. Learn more about how we make money.

Anyone who's dropped their phone in a toilet, sink, or swimming pool has probably heard that the way to salvage a waterlogged device is to submerge it in a container of uncooked rice. The theory is that the rice will suck all the moisture out off your phone's nooks and crannies and bring it back to life.

But does it work in practice? Money decided to find out. For the test, we bought two (functioning) used phones on eBay, dropped them in buckets of water and left them submerged for several seconds, then plunged them in uncooked rice and left them over the weekend. Here's what happened.

Read next: The Trick to Getting a Really Good Cell Phone for Less