Bheestie Bag Personal Electronic Water Removal System Review

Bheestie Bag Build Quality

Whether or not we want to admit it, we've all been there. We've all had that sinking feeling when we hear the plop of an electrical device hitting the water. Maybe it is in a toilet (a quick Internet search will tell you this is where a surprising number of electronic devices end up), maybe a puddle, or maybe you got rained on. Regardless, we all know what happens when an electronic device hits the water - we start checking out our warranties and hoping but mostly shopping online for replacements. As waterlogged devices tend to be cellphones and iPods, these can be hefty charges.

The Bheestie company decided to do something about this problem by inventing a bag. Well, it isn't the bag, per se, but the little pellets that are in it. This bag is compact enough to be taken nearly anywhere. The directions are simple - place waterlogged device in bag, seal tightly, wait. While they didn't add "pray" onto the end of that, you probably won't need to be reminded to do so (especially if it is your brand new iPhone).

Build Quality

Bheestie_backWhat is in a bag? Well, traditionally air but in the case of the Bheestie Bag, it is air and a smaller bag of pellets. There are clear instructions NOT to open this second bag of pellets. This makes sense as free pellets could work themselves into the nooks and crannies of your device, creating a different, though probably just as deadly, problem. The bag itself looks like something people on the space station would open to get a napkin or drink out of. The silver material is very space age in appearance with the blue and black highlights only adding to the effect.

The bag arrived sealed in another bag (that makes three so far) which was then sealed in a shipping bag (up to four). I couldn't see if the mailman carried the package in a bag (five) though that seems likely. Each of the top two bag layers need to have the tops ripped off before use: The top bag to get the Bheestie Bag out, the Bheestie Bag top to get the device in. There is a zip top closure on the Bheestie Bag to keep the device in and moisture out.

This is apparently a very key feature of the Bheestie Bag - the pellets on the inside are highly absorbent and will lose that absorbency quickly if exposed to the air for prolonged periods of time. Here in Florida, this is especially true as even in the winter the humidity can be quite high. This is why I conducted the tests first before I removed the interior bag of pellets for my picture. Each bag of pellets has a number of "indicator" pellets. These let you know when your Bheestie Bag needs to be replaced. While the pellets are still good and able to absorb moisture, they are blue. Once they turn gray, it is time to get a new Bheestie Bag. This is actually a feature I was hoping to see with the Bheestie Bag as it takes the guesswork out of replacement times.

With the supposed high absorbency of the pellets such an issue, I was surprised at how hard it was to close the zip top. Some of the newer bags these days have actual sliders which would have made things a bit easier, though I suppose those may not offer as airtight a seal. On the other side of the spectrum, there are also double zip tops out there for extra protection. Again, this seems like it would be a good step and one that shouldn't take a huge chunk out of the profits.

Hints for your wet electronic devices

Before we go any further, let's talk about some general hints. If you are to, say, jump into a pool after a drowning kid or maybe forget your cell phone is in your pocket and send it through the wash cycle - what should you do?

• Do NOT turn your device on to see if it works. This will quite possibly make things much worse. Instead, immediately remove the battery and any memory cards.

• Pat the device and all of the removed pieces dry.

• Do NOT use hot air (hair dryer) to dry the device. You're very likely to melt something important.

• Salt water is particularly bad. If your device has entered the sea or some other brackish body, you'll want to rinse it first (I know, counterintuitive but if the salt stays in the device, it is sure to die, with a rinse, you have a chance of saving it).

• Alcohol is good (I know, I didn't need to tell you that) at displacing water. If your device has been submerged for long, a quick bath in alcohol will help displace the water. It also dries faster than water and doesn't rust. While this all sounds like a great quick fix to a waterlogged cell phone, alcohol has a tendency to dissolve some of the adhesives used inside many such devices. I don't recommend this technique unless you are really desperate.

Experimentation and Use

OK, let's get down to it. I know what most of you are saying, "$20 for a bag? No WAY!" but let's think about this objectively. We all know (or at least most of us do) that there are DIY solutions for the wet cell phone problem. We'll address those in a moment but first let's talk about the benefits of the Bheestie Bag.

It's small. Well, the bag isn't small but the contents are tiny. The little bag of pellets inside or so small that you'd think they couldn't possibly absorb that much water. That remains to be seen at this point in the review but from a transportability standpoint, the small amount of contents of the bag means it can be easily placed in a laptop case, a gym bag, or just about anywhere else. Try lugging around a bag of rice "just in case." The compact size of the Bheestie Bag must be considered a huge plus.

At this point is where I run into a wall. Sure, it's small and transportable but for $20, it should work like a charm too. Well, that's where the test comes in. With help from Audioholics Editor-in-Chief Clint DeBoer, a unique test was devised to uncover just how good this Bheestie Bag was. We wanted to know not only if it worked, but how well and compared to the most obvious competition - a bag of rice.

So, at this point you've got your device off, apart, and as dry as possible. You've got a choice, a Bheestie Bag or a bag of rice. Here is the tale of the tape:

Bheestie Bag Experiment Results and Conclusion

The experiment was designed to show not only which solution absorbed the most water but did it the fastest. I took a normal kitchen sponge and cut it in half. Each of the halves weighed 8 grams. These halves I submerged in normal tap water until they weighed a total of 25 grams. That's 8 grams of sponge and 17 grams of H2O for the mathematically impaired. These sponges were immediately placed in the two bags which were sealed up tight and left in my office (away from the prying fingers of little children). Care was taken not to squeeze the bags and the sponges though I did rotate them from time to time (i.e. move them out of my way) which should have shifted the contents slightly. I then weighed the sponges periodically.

My initial observations were a little concerning. First, the rice got EVERYWHERE. I thought I'd take the sponge out, dust off the rice, and then weigh it. That wasn’t the case. The rice got into nooks and crannies of the sponge that were impossible to remove. This posses a real problem for devices with headphone jacks and the like. Plus, rice isn't always as solid as you'd believe. There is a good deal of powder mixed in along with it. I can easily see a device coming out with a good deal of rice in impossible to clean places (like the grates over the speakers/mic) in a cell phone.

That being said, the clear winner performance-wise was the rice. In 72 hours it brought the sponge back to its initial weight. When I would open the Bheestie Bag I always checked the blue indicator pellets to make sure it had some absorptive ability left. At 72 hours, those had all turned gray. While the instructions on the Bheestie Bag clearly state that it should work over night, that doesn't seem to be the case in this test. At the end of 24 hours, not only was the sponge still wet, but there was visible water on the interior walls of the bag. While you could make the argument that the sponge is not an electronic device and reacts differently, one would think the free water within the bag should have been absorbed readily.

While I really like the story behind the creation of the Bheestie Bag, this test reveals one of two things. Either the bag doesn't really work, or it is designed to absorb a very small amount of water. For $20, I expect a lot more than 3 grams of absorptive ability. That said, it did absorb 2/3rds of its total water capacity in the first 24 hours which is something… I suppose.

Conclusion

Regardless of the marketing literature and anecdotal evidence about the Bheestie Bag, the data doesn't lie. After 24 hours it had absorbed a total of 2 grams of water in our testing. After 48 it reached its maximum of 3 grams. While I didn't test it, I'm convinced that just leaving the sponge out on the counter would have performed better. $20 seems like a steep price for 3 grams of absorption. While the bag is infinitely more transportable and rice tends to get everywhere - let's face it, your device is probably dead anyhow. If you really want to have a chance of getting the water out of it quickly, you're just going to have to risk having it smell of rice for the rest of its (probably short) life.

As you might image, Bheestie Bag & Co had some complaints about the above testing procedure. Here are a few excerpts from their comments:

While the Audioholics testing was done meticulously what I would say to him is that the BHEESTIE bag was designed to remove small amounts  of water - which is realistically what an electronic is exposed to -even if dropped in a pool it rarely will have more than a 1/2 teaspoon of water in it.  His testing was definitely done with more water than BHEESTIE could ever adsorb. In all of our testing BHEESTIE works much better then rice when using an equivalent amount - if he had tested a pound of BHEESTIE beads against a pound of rice  there would be no contest.   Its frustrating to us when BHEESTIE is tested in a way that doesn't fairly represent how the product should be used.  No electronic will absorb 17 grams of water (like a sponge does) - therefore we didn't design BHEESTIE to be capable of that type of performance.  It is designed to remove everyday moisture and as an added benefit it may be able to help an electronic dropped in water - that is what it was designed for.

While I'm sure that an equivalent amount of Bheestie beads would at least absorb as much (if not more) than the same weight of rice, the fact is that the real competitor to the $20 Bheestie bag is a bag of rice. At a pound, I'm guessing that others would use much more than I did. Also, the rice did absorb much faster than the Bheestie beads (perhaps due to its added mass - I don't know).I'll leave it up to you to decide if the comparison is apt or not.

Bheestie Bag

MSRP: $20

BHEESTIE & Co., llc
Portland, Oregon

www.bheestie.com

About Bheestie & Co., LLC
BHEESTIE & Co., llc, began when a new Gameboy® was dropped in a pond. Due to her lifelong hearing loss, co-founder Karen Wildman was able to transfer her knowledge of drying out hearing aids to save her son's Gameboy®. She shared her idea with her sister, Lisa Holmes, who, living in Oregon, had her own battles with wet iPods® and cell phones. Together they formed BHEESTIE & Co., llc. and created the BHEESTIE Bag™.
You can check them at: www.bheestie.com

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The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

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Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

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