Apple's iPhone is boiling oil resistant — briefly

The iPhone apparently has more than just water resistance, as one survived a brief and accidental dip into boiling oil, as shown by a viral TikTok video.

Malaysian cook, Zaiem posted a TikTok video in which he explained to viewers how to tell when deep-fried chicken has been cooked and is ready to remove from the oil. However, an unknown iPhone model accidentally falls into the boiling oil during recording.

@zaiem_ainn peminat iphone tolong hadir#fyp #fypviral #iphone original sound - Abey Ayam King's Paya Keladi

The iPhone continues to record as it boils for roughly 12 seconds before getting rescued. Then, with it covered in oil, the video shows Zaiem carrying it away to clean it.

The video then cuts to a clip at a different time where the recording is clear once again, showing Zaiem and another person showing amazement that the iPhone still works. In the end, text over the video gives thanks to the iPhone.

Of course, there's no way to tell if it's the same iPhone at the end, although the recording didn't cut away while it was submerged. It's an interesting video nonetheless and a testament to the durability of iPhones.

Most iPhones have an IP68 rating, meaning they are dust-tight and can survive immersion in water to a depth of three feet or more. However, the IP code does have supplementary letters for additional protection, such as "F" for oil resistance — and there is no F-rating for the iPhone.

Obviously, we don't recommend trying this at home. Apple doesn't either, as the oil at probably about 400 degrees Fahrenheit vastly exceeds the recommended temperature bands for use.

8 Comments

iOS_Guy80 5 Years · 905 comments

About 1 year ago

Give me a minute to think, when was the last time I was boiling oil?

maltz 13 Years · 507 comments

Wow, that could have gone REALLY REALLY badly. The battery reaches venting and thermal runaway far below the temperature of fry oil. I bet if it had been in there just a few seconds longer, the battery would have caught fire, and lithium ion battery fires are very energetic. Not quite explosions, but it would have lit the oil and then sprayed the flaming oil everywhere. Probably almost as bad as pouring water on a fryer fire.

They were super lucky.

(As for oil resistance - oil is a much large molecule than water, so anything water-tight would likely also be oil-tight. I suspect that such an oil-resistance rating would be related to the oil damaging (or rather, not damaging) the materials themselves somehow, rather than being about ingress.)

DAalseth 6 Years · 3067 comments

iOS_Guy80 said:

Give me a minute to think, when was the last time I was boiling oil?

That’s a good point. I LIKE french fries, fried chicken, all sorts of things like that, But I can’t remember when the last time I actually MADE them myself. Frying is such a PITA to do at home and it makes an awful mess.

(The last time might have been a couple of decades ago when we deep fried a turkey for Thanksgiving. That was an adventure.)

chadbag 13 Years · 2029 comments

DAalseth said:

iOS_Guy80 said:

Give me a minute to think, when was the last time I was boiling oil?

That’s a good point. I LIKE french fries, fried chicken, all sorts of things like that, But I can’t remember when the last time I actually MADE them myself. Frying is such a PITA to do at home and it makes an awful mess.

(The last time might have been a couple of decades ago when we deep fried a turkey for Thanksgiving. That was an adventure.)

It’s not all that uncommon. I was doing it often enough at home that I purchased a miniature version of a commercial fryer. (About 12”’wide and 20” long physically). My frying is on temporary hiatus due to space problems in our rental house but once we live I’ll start making Korean fried chicken wings again. Best you’ve ever had.