Carmel entrepreneurs, Verizon revive water-damaged cellphones

Using some old-fashioned workbench tinkering, Joel Trusty revived his wife's cellphone after a full cycle through the washing machine, only to get another challenge from her:

Make a business out of it, she suggested. The world needs a reliable fix for water-damaged cellphones.

With the help of engineer and friend Reuben Zielinski, Trusty did.

Their made-in-Indiana handiwork is rolling out to Verizon Wireless phone stores across much of the nation this month. It's a desktop machine the size of a home printer that subjects water-damaged phones to 30 minutes or so of gentle heat and a vacuum to dry them out and restore their functioning.

The machine's success rate tops 90 percent if the phone is treated within 12 hours of the water damage, the battery is promptly removed and the phone hasn't been plugged in for a recharge, says Redux, the Carmel company that Trusty and Zielinski created.

The machines are being installed at about 300 Verizon retail stores in Indiana and 22 other states run by Carmel-based TCC. Additional locations are planned.

"It's a dream," said Trusty, 52, who is president of Trusty-Cook Inc. in Indianapolis, a maker of polyurethane hammers and other industrial products. "We've been working very hard on this."

Water has long been the bane of cellphones. Phones find their way into bathtubs, sinks, toilets and creeks. Beer or soft drinks are spilled on them. They end up in dishwashers and kiddie pools.

Estimates are that about 5 percent of users have their phones damaged every year by water or other liquids. That's a lot of folks hungering for a good way to restore their phones (and avoid typical replacement costs of $300 to $700), as well as save the often invaluable photos, videos and contact information stored inside.

TCC is charging $10 to put a customer's smart phone through the Redux machine and $90 more if the process verifiably works. The cost is less if someone has insurance.

Trusty and Zielinski are matter-of-fact about their machine's ability to revive water-damaged phones. This week, they stood inside a Carmel Verizon store where one of the first Redux machines was installed last fall. Their confidence comes from tests on hundreds of phones they dunked in water or other liquids and then ran through their machine. It has gone through numerous prototypes and is still being refined.

"Definitely we can say, if you can get your device to us in a 12-hour window, your success rate would be in the 90 percent range," said Zielinski, 54, a former IBM engineer who has started working full time for Redux.

Redux's competition includes two other startup companies that use drying machines: TekDry of Denver, with machines installed in Colorado and Michigan; and DryBox Rescue of San Antonio, which has machines in kiosks or stores at 10 U.S. locations, according to their websites.

Redux also faces competition from a host of home remedies, including the popular one of immersing your phone in rice to absorb moisture.

Trusty doesn't think much of the rice remedy. "The starch can actually do damage. It's not a good thing."

At the Carmel Verizon store, sales associate Matt Raabe said the Redux machine has revived numerous soaked cellphones. One woman brought in a phone she dropped in a bathtub, hoping to save baby pictures stored in the memory.

"We ran it through this, it worked like a charm," Raabe said of the black machine, which sits on a counter in the front of the store.

Redux did much of its engineering work at its lab off U.S. 31 in Carmel, where it shares offices with TCC's parent company, Moorehead Communications. Moorehead has bought a minority stake in Redux.

Redux contracts with GMI Corp. of Franklin to make the machines, which are leased to TCC and serviced by Redux.

The Redux machines also can be used to dry other electronic devices, including tablets, small cameras and even hearing aids. Those are markets Redux hopes to grow.

Studying soaked electronic devices for three years has given Trusty and Zielinski ideas that have led to 27 filed patents. They cover numerous methods of protecting cellphones and other electronic items from water damage or restoring their functions after a liquid bath.

Bringing soaked cellphones back from the dead is "just the tip of the iceberg," Trusty said.

Call Star reporter Jeff Swiatek at (317) 444-6483. Follow him on Twitter: @JeffSwiatek.

TCC Verizon locations in the Indianapolis area that offer Redux cellphone drying machines include:

•10930 Pendleton Pike, Suite 106

•4335 E. 82nd St., Suite 101

•4903 S. Emerson Ave.

•1352 S. Rangeline Road, Carmel