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Level 1

5 points

Spilled water on MacBook Air - safe to use after a week?

Last Friday I spilled a glass of water all over my MacBook Air's keyboard. I jumped up, tipped the laptop over to get as much water off as possible, and dried off the outside. I took it in to Apple immediately and was told it needed so many repairs, that it would cost more than the laptop itself. The guy who looked at my Air was able to turn it on, but the monitor was flickering and had horizontal lines. He took it apart and said the motherboard was fine, but I would need a new logic board, speakers, screen, etc. and said I should be able to get my files off onto an external hard drive. Since it was such a costly repair that I couldn't go for, I didn't get a list of everything that had to be replaced.

When I got it home, I wasn't able to power it on like he could. I let it sit on my dresser all week, open and upside down, to let it dry and allow any extra water to drip out the front. Tired of looking at it, tonight I decided to try one more time and turn it on, and it did! I was able to email myself some important files that I thought I would never see again, so programs and internet worked. The monitor seemed completely fine, the brightness goes up and down normally, the speakers work, and I didn't notice any problems with the keyboard.

It seems to be completely fine, but I'm a bit worried about whether or not it's safe to use, and if there's anything I should be looking out for. At the Apple store I was told that it needed so much, but maybe it's fine for now? If I am able to use it, should I be thinking about replacing it anyway? I'll be wanting to use it next fall for school. Sorry for the huge wall of text, I thought it would be best to know as much as possible.

Thanks.

MacBook Air

Posted on Dec 30, 2011 6:31 PM

33 replies

NaidaZ Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 30, 2012 10:13 PM in response to steve359

Come on, it was an accident, there's really no need to tell her to learn from her mistakes. No one purposefully spills liquids on their electronics. I'm sure she already feels terrible about it (I know I did when I spilled water on my macbook, I cried the whole day, even in the Apple store - I think I really scared the Genius who was working with me) and she's face-on with the consequences right now. She's the one who is probably going to have to foot another bill to pay for her mistake, not you, so it doesn't matter.

I think she probably realizes that she might not be so lucky whether you told her so or not, she was just looking for advice. I've busted electronics before, but it didn't keep me from accidentally swiping a glass of water onto my laptop. I doubt it will be the last thing I ruin because hey, I'm human and accidents happen.

NaidaZ Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 30, 2012 10:18 PM in response to Mandy.L

No problem 🙂 good luck! I hope everything works out for you. Let me know how everything pans out if you can.

Jul 7, 2014 8:34 AM in response to NaidaZ

This threat was the best one I found to solving my water-spill problem as well. I spilled about 4 ounces on my MacBook Pro last week and it's still working great. Here are the steps I took to dry it out:

1. Calm down (no really) 🙂

2. Turn the laptop upside-down immediately and let as much water run out as possible.

3. Try shutting it down as you normally would (it worked for me, even holding it up-side-down). If that doesn't work, try force-shotdown by continuously pressing the power button, if that doesn't work, call customer support, because don't know what to do in that case.

4. Dry the keyboard and any other parts with paper towels while still and always holding it upside-down.

5. Prop it up somewhere safe where you can leave it upside-down for a day or two. Make sure air can circulate under the keyboard. The monitor makes a pretty good "stand" on something soft, like a couch with a tall arm rest, but make sure the keyboard isn't covered by anything.

6. Remove the cover on the back. The screws are very small, but hopefully you have a screw driver that fits. I stuck the tiny screws on painter's tape in the same pattern as they were in the computer, followed by another strip of tape on top to seal them off. You don't want to lose these, and you might not remember which one goes where.

7. Carefully dry off any water you see after removing the cover.

8. Some say to remove the battery, but I didn't have the right screw driver, so I left it

9. Carefully blow WARM, NOT hot air with a blowdryer, followed by cool air, keep switching back and forth between warm and cool, never hot.

10. See the two fans on the motherboard? Blow warm and cool air straight on them from a save distance (4 or more inches) to make the fan spin (one at the time). This is probably what saved my laptop. It gently dried the board from underneath without ever removing it.

11. Repeat off an on throughout the next 24 - 48 hours. I left the ceiling fan on at full speed too in that room.

12. When you feel confident that it is likely dry, then put the cover back on, hope for the best, and start it up. I waited 24 hours.

Good luck! If I start having problems with mine after a while, I will post that, but so far everything is as if nothing ever happened.

Spilled water on MacBook Air - safe to use after a week?