Last night I decided foolishly to use my cellphone flashlight to illuminate the opening of my motorcycle’s gas tank so I would know when it was close to being full.

Thanks to the wonderful EPA nozzle that fails more than it works properly the nozzle was set to full open (which I wasn’t expecting) so when I went to move the nozzle to the gas tank my cellphone was completely soaked with 90 octane ethanol free gas.

My cellphone has a leather case that doubles as my wallet.

I put it in a bag with a bunch of bounce laundry sheets but that didn’t seem to help much.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get my phone to stop smelling like a fuel spill?

Maybe a long soak in hot water, Dawn soap scrub, lots of leather conditioner.

But if this is suede or the like, just get a new one.

I wouldn't put it in a bag, and it's in need of off-gassing (pun intended). Anyway I'm not sure what the best method would be, but I'd expect it's gonna take a bit of time regardless. You'll also probably need to apply some leather conditioner to it as the gasoline will remove oils from the leather that you'll want to replenish.

I did find this --> https://leathermilk.com/remove-gasoline-from-leather

If all else fails, perhaps get out the Hoppe's and attempt to clean some dirty firearm parts at night!

Put it in a bag of rice?

a match should take care of it

Hoppe’s No. 9 should fix the gas smell.

Replace it, you'll never get that out

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Replace it, you'll never get that out

If it truly got soaked with gasoline that's my thought. I've had paper towels I've used to mop up small gasoline spills I hung up or set outside to dry still smelling of gasoline long after they'd dried.

I hate to say it but you might never get the smell out like PASig said.

Years ago when I was an active fire fighter, one night after a call I went to fuel up the ladder truck.

At some point the tank became full and the diesel nozzle did not shut off right away.
It sprayed diesel all over my turn out pants. No matter how much I washed them I could never get the smell out.

Not only that it probably was not a good idea to go into a burning building with diesel still in embedded in the fibers of my turnout pants.

My pants had to be sent out to a company the specializes in cleaning fire gear. A few weeks later my pants were back as good as new.

You may have to find someone who specializes in cleaning fuel out of material like leather.

I think we are getting confused here. The OP title says "Cellphone wallet" but then asked how to get his phone to stop smelling like gas. I think most of us are replying about the wallet when he's really asking about the phone. I'm not sure if a solvent like gasoline will fry the electronics in a phone, but I would be prepared for that if it really got soaked. At least make sure you have good backups.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I think we are getting confused here. The OP title says "Cellphone wallet" but then asked how to get his phone to stop smelling like gas. \

I was under the assumption he was mentioning the phone/wallet case as a whole. I would think the leather case being soaked is the mail culprit for the smell.

For the phone itself, I'd probably wipe the thing down with isopropyl alcohol and air it out somewhere like in the garage for the day.

Toss the wallet.

Let it dry out then find that old British Sterling you hardly ever wear.