On a MacBook the logic board sits right under the keyboard. That means almost any liquid that hits the keyboard ends up on the electronics. It also means the first few minutes matter more than anything else.
The first five minutes
- Turn it off immediately. Hold the power button until the screen goes black. Do not wait to save your work. Current running through wet electronics is what destroys them.
- Unplug the charger, and remove anything else from the ports.
- Wipe off what you can see with a soft cloth or kitchen roll.
- Turn it upside down like a tent: lid open, keyboard facing down, standing on the edge of the screen and the base. That way the liquid runs back out through the keyboard instead of further in.
- Leave it. Do not turn it on to test it. Not tomorrow either.
What not to do
- Turn it on to see if it works. It often works fine at first. That is not a sign it has been saved, it is just current running through a wet circuit.
- Hair dryer or radiator. Heat pushes the liquid around and can damage the battery and screen.
- Rice. It does not draw liquid out of a closed machine, and rice grains in the keyboard are the last thing you need.
Why coffee is worse than water
Clean water is bad enough. Coffee, tea, juice, soft drinks and wine are worse, because they contain sugar, acid and milk. When the liquid dries, the residue stays on the logic board as a sticky, conductive film, and it starts eating at solder joints and connectors.
That is why a MacBook can work for a week after an accident and then suddenly refuse to start, stop charging, or develop sticky keys. The damage was there all along, it just had not shown itself yet.
Still working? Back it up now
If your Mac was off and dry and you have turned it on anyway, use that window. Back up with Time Machine or copy your most important files straight away. Corrosion does not stop by itself, and you do not know how much time is left.
What we do
Proper treatment is not drying the machine. It needs to be taken apart, the battery disconnected, and the logic board and affected parts cleaned of the residue the liquid left behind, before the corrosion spreads further. The sooner, the better. A MacBook we see the same day has far better odds than one that has sat for a week.
Liquid damage cleaning costs the same whatever the model, because it is labour and not a part. You see the price in our price calculator. If it turns out afterwards that a part needs replacing, typically the keyboard or the battery, you see the price for it before we go any further.
We want to be honest: liquid damage is the only repair where we cannot promise a result in advance. If the liquid has already destroyed the logic board itself, we cannot save the machine. We find that out once it is open, and you hear from us before anything else happens.
Warranty and insurance
Apple’s standard warranty does not cover liquid damage. If you have AppleCare+, it covers accidents for a service fee. Many Danish home contents insurance policies (indboforsikring) cover it too, so it is worth checking your policy before you decide anything.