- Football fans spilling and throwing pints could ruin your smartphone
- Cider, with its high sugar content, can destroy the very inside of an IP68 rated phone
- If you find yourself a victim of such spills and alcohol-based antics, be sure to take steps to clean and protect your phone.
As a man who hates waste and has a marked apathy for over-the-top football celebrations, the seemingly new phenomenon of throwing pints of alcohol into the air when runners-up England score a goal has left me with an even greater contempt for sloshed football supporters.
For American readers
A quick note for our US readers: this pint nonsense may not be something you’re entirely familiar with, but as host of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, it’s important that we also let you know about this danger the drinks pose to your smartphone.
Research from Aldi indicates that during the 2024 European Football Championship, almost 5 million pints were spilled every time the England team scored a goal, and as such, avoiding accelerated drinking during the 2026 FIFA World Cup could be a challenge, even for those of you lucky enough to support another nation.
The best I can do to combat this idiotic stupidity is to report which alcohol causes the most harm to smartphones – using data from phone comparison and recycling site Compare and Recycle – with the hope that the next time Freddie Flag-jumper, Gravy Dave and Barry Bulldogs decide to send their pint skyward, you’ll be prepared and ready to take cover.
My prejudices aside, even if you’re in a more civilized pub – perhaps with a nice selection of cask ales and fancy sausage rolls – pints can still be spilled by more innocent hand slaps or tray slides, and so I hope you find this information useful even if you’re not a football-mad hooligan.
Now you might say to me, “Roland, surely the best phones are waterproof…” and I would say, “that’s right, have a tech sticker.” But I’d also like to point out that the folks at Compare and Recycle have noted that the composition of commonly drunk alcoholic beverages can damage even phones rated against immersion in the drink.
“Although many modern flagship smartphones have an IP67 or IP68 rating, which gives some level of water resistance, this generally only applies to fresh water and offers little proven protection against sugary and alcoholic liquids found in beers and ciders,” says Lee Elliott, product manager at Compare and Recycle.
Even when a phone is cleaned of any spilled drinks, the sugars it contains can draw moisture from the environment and enter areas of the phone that might resist standard water but may be corroded by the sugar.
“Add in the alcohol content, which can act as a mild solvent over time, gradually degrading things like the oleophobic coating (an oleophobic layer) on your screen or the rubber seals around ports and buttons, and you can start to understand why a spilled pint is a much bigger problem for your phone than you might initially think,” says Lee.
Some pints are purveyors of cellphone palaver (thanks), with cider apparently the worst offender due to its high sugar content; I therefore suggest extra caution when viewing England in a Somerset based pub or alcohol dispensing establishment.
Beer is less of a problem, but Kronenbourg 1664 (a reasonable lager in this seasoned drinker’s opinion) is the most phone-unfriendly drink, according to Compare and Recycle’s list. Here is the complete list of drinks, ranked from most dangerous to least dangerous:
The ranked list
- Kopparberg
- Old Mout
- Recorderlig
- Magners
- Strongbow dark fruits
- Blackthorn
- Woodpecker cider
- Thatcher’s gold
- Bulmers
- Original strong bow
- Kronenbourg 1664
- Estrella Damm
- Saint-Miguel
- Stella Artois
- Peroni
- Heineken
- Grolsch
- Crown
- Birra Moretti
- Budweiser
Analysis: Clean your phone, master it
“Spills at a football match are inevitable. If you’re not the one spilling the drink on someone else, there’s a good chance your friend will spill it on you. It’s just one of those match accidents,” says Lee, which I think paints a depressing picture of British society in 2026.
Yes, we’re allowed an accident, but if you’re not careful with your drink in the age of the £7 pint, I think you really need to look in the mirror. If you deliberately throw a pint in the air when an overpaid, drama-loving kicker approaches the opponent’s goal line, well… I’m not sure I can really say what I think about that on TechRadar.
My advice is to keep your phone in your pocket or purse – if you’re in a pub you need to be sociable, not swiping on a screen – and act like a civilized human and just encourage the ‘fine game’ while holding your drink tightly. In short, don’t be a word that rhymes with stick or punt.
Still, if I put aside my point of view and accept Lee’s assertion that spills are inevitable, the question is: what should you do to protect your phone? Compare and Recycle suggests the following:
- Turn off your device immediately: While it’s tempting to check that your device is still fully functioning, electricity flowing through wet components causes short circuits.
- Remove accessories: Phone cases are great for protecting your phone from drops, but keeping it on after a spilled pint can prevent your device from drying properly. Remove it and all screen protectors immediately, as liquid can get under imperfections and damage the screen.
- Rinse with water to remove sticky residue: It may seem counterintuitive, but if a decent amount of pint or cider is spilled on your phone, then it may be beneficial to quickly rinse it under a low-flow tap to remove the spill as soon as possible. In fact, sugary residues can accelerate the corrosion of elements such as the motherboard. Only do this when your phone is completely turned off. Dry it quickly with a clean, dry cloth, paying particular attention to the charging port and speaker grilles, where liquid is most likely to have entered.
- Empty the ports by gently tapping on the top of your phone: Gently tap your phone against the palm of your hand to help gravity do its job with the charging port and speaker grilles facing down. This will encourage any excess liquid to drain through the openings.
- Resist turning it back on too soon: After following these steps, the instinct is to turn your phone back on and see if it still works, but it’s best to keep it off and let it dry completely, even if that means waiting for the final whistle.
So yes, follow these tips to help your phone survive spills.
But also, my advice would be to find friends who aren’t real galoots, thugs or idiots, or who watch a more civilized sport like tennis or F1.
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