My iPhone caught on fire.

Good afternoon,

We heard this in our Lenexa store recently – a customer brought in her now dead iPhone 4S and her Apple cable. Look closely at the burn mark on the end and how the plastic has started to melt and warp:

She plugged in the device like she has done for years but this time it was different. It started smoking and almost caught on fire. It’s no secret that electricity can start fires, but I’m sure that my customer didn’t expect to see this happen when it’s worked fine for the hundreds of times before.

The next question was, “why did this happen?”

Well, there are a number of factors that can cause problems with electronics. Water being one of the biggest culprits…electronics are very sensitive to the amount of electricity that each component receives.

When electronics get wet, the water conducts the electricity all over the place and zaps the components with voltages they are not designed to handle. Connections melt or burn.

Basically, it’s like what happens when a ocean wave crashes in on top of a sand castle. It obliterates the subtle design needed to make it function.

Was it water that caused this? Who knows…it could have been dust, or one pin on this cable that was slightly bent, or a myriad of other things. We don’t typically do detailed failure analysis on issues like this unless a customer wants us to do so. Typically, all that is necessary is a new cable and a charging port repair on the iPhone 4S which is exactly what this unit needed.

BTW, it’s safer to start your next camp fire with matches 😉

See you, Ryan