Coffee, shakes, water, beer—none of them are good for your laptop. But there is something worse: the way most people react to having spilled liquid into their computer.
We’ve gotten a lot of questions from readers over the years about liquid damage, ranging from typical coffee/tea/beer spills to an entire gallon of milk (real) to … a cat directly urinating on the keyboard (actual customer question, August 2018). We’ve seen an uptick in questions and visits to liquid-related pages and guides since people started working from home under coronavirus quarantine. People, it seems, are working on laptops more, are a bit more cavalier with their drinks, and are possibly working at the same crowded table where they put their mail or chop onions.
So here’s an all-in-one guide on what to do if you spill on on your laptop. These steps are also what you would do if you fully submerge your laptop (stupid faulty bath tray!), except in that case, you must assume the worst when it comes to how much you need to clean or dry. It’s also similar to what you should do if you spill on your phone, tablet, or a similar device. It will just be trickier to open and clean those devices. Let’s dive in.
The goal of this guide is two-fold. We’re trying to prevent the liquid, or particles and sediments in the liquid, from bridging an electrical connection where one should not exist, that will damage components inside (i.e. a “short” or “short circuit”). We’re also trying to prevent the liquid from corroding circuits and metal elements inside the laptop. This is why we need to turn it off, unplug it, and disconnect the battery. With power and heat flowing through a device with water or sediment inside—or even just a battery being present to potentially keep power flowing—the chances of something vital being shorted or corroded are much higher.
Step 1: Don’t Panic and Don’t Listen to Anybody Who Mentions Rice
The liquid landing on your laptop was an accident. Your frantic scramble to test if it still works, turn it back on, or get the liquid out without turning it off is on you. Your main job when there’s liquid all over your laptop is to turn it off and get it dry. Everything else you do is just giving the liquid time to do damage.
Most importantly, don’t try to use rice to “draw out the moisture.” It doesn’t work, at all. You’re giving water more time to corrode your laptop, and you’re probably getting rice inside your laptop or under your keys.
Step 2: Be Safe, Unplug It, Turn It Off
If you’re standing in water or soaking wet yourself, the device is submerged, or you see any signs of heat, smoke, bulging, bubbling, or anything else that mentally screams “Get Away”—get away. Turn the power off to the device at a circuit breaker instead of reaching for the cord or trying to press the power key. If you see, smell, or hear any signs that the battery is reacting to the water damage, don’t touch it. Get an ABC or BC fire extinguisher ready (lithium-ion battery fires are technically a “B” fire)
Otherwise, your goal is to unplug your laptop, then turn it off fast. Don’t bother heading to the Windows/Apple/Chrome menu and choosing Shutdown or Power Off—every second counts here. Hold down the power button until the device turns off. If the screen or lights on the laptop can’t prove that it’s off, usually holding it for 5-10 seconds should do it.
Step 3: Get the Liquid Out
Let’s do some triage. Grab a paper towel or clean rag or towel and mop up whatever liquid is present on the surface of the device, and visible just beneath the keys. Take care not to move liquid around inside, or push it deeper into the device. Also be sure not to press the power button and turn it on again!
Now turn the laptop upside down, above some paper towels or absorbent towel. Get as much liquid out as you can, especially if you’re not able to open it in the next step. Tilt the laptop from side to side a little to let it run out, but don’t flip it back over and let it travel around the logic board or battery near the bottom.
Step 4, If Possible: Open It Up and Dry It More
If you can remove the bottom of your laptop, or even just open up a battery/memory/hard drive compartment with a switch on the bottom, do that. Not to brag, but we’ve been taking apart laptops and disconnecting the batteries as the first step since way before everyone was dropping iced coffee on their quarantine workstations. Search out your model, be it a PC, Mac, or Chromebook, and choose a battery replacement guide, or another guide that gets the laptop open.
If you’re not keen on opening up your laptop, and you sense liquid got deep into it, you should skip to Step 6, Option 2: Seeking out a local repair shop to help.
Here’s the trick with most MacBooks out there: the screws on the bottom are pentalobe screws. Specifically, they are P5 screws. They’re intentionally uncommon. We sell pentalobe driver bits in our Essential Electronics Kit, our Mako Driver Kit, and by themselves (though the kits will ensure you don’t run into this problem with other devices, too). Having them on-hand for your MacBook is a good idea. If you really want to get your MacBook open to dry it out and disconnect the battery, you don’t have pentalobe drivers handy, and you’ve got little left to lose, you can try:
- The tip of a pocket or kitchen knife
- A properly sized flathead, or a flathead you don’t mind filing down to size
- If you have an old clear Bic pen, an exceptionally clever pen-case-melting maneuver
Be warned, though, that the pentalobe screws on Macs are very easy to strip. Order some replacement MacBook screws (assuming the device survives) and some drivers while you’re at it!
Step 5: Disconnect and Inspect the Battery
If it was a lot of liquid that dropped into your laptop, carefully inspect the battery inside. As stated in our wet-device cleaning guide:
If your device has been submerged it is likely that you will need a new battery. Lithium and other types of rechargeable batteries do not tolerate submersion well. Again, any sign of bubbling, bulging, melting, or discoloration on the battery indicates that it is toast. Dispose of it only at a battery recycling facility.
As with laptop cases, battery-replacement guides are kind of our thing here at iFixit. Search for your device and look for a battery replacement guide. If the battery looks okay, disconnect it while you do other cleaning. If anything looks dicey at all, ditch it.
If you believe you’ve gotten most of the liquid out, and the liquid you spilled wasn’t exceptionally acidic (cola, lemon juice) or basic (soapy water), as detailed at the bottom of our water damage guide, you might be okay to wait a while before trying to turn it on again. Waiting a full 24 hours is best, if you can swing it. If you’re unsure, or the liquid you spilled is far from neutral, it’s time to get in deeper.
Step 6, Option 1: Clean the Board Yourself
If you’ve got the laptop open and the battery disconnected, you may as well go just one level deeper: look for corrosion and clean it. Circuit boards are orderly affairs, with everything placed just so; anything that looks like a wily liquid blob, or menacing discoloration is likely the result of the liquid. Our water damage guide has detailed steps, but if you’re reading this in a hurry, the summary below should suffice.
Grab a toothbrush (thank goodness for dentist freebies) and some isopropyl alcohol, at least 90 percent strength. As iFixit’s Kay-Kay Clapp told the New York Times‘ (and also kinda-iFixit’s!) Whitson Gordon:
… scrub away any residue you can find on the components. “Use caution as you clean to avoid damaging or accidentally knocking off small board components,” she advises. “Pay close attention to the connectors and ends of ribbon cables to prevent corrosion of their contact surfaces.” Once the board is clean and dry, you can check the cable ends for signs of corrosion, then reassemble everything and turn it on.
Step 6, Option 2: Bring it to a Repair Shop
If you don’t want to open up and clean the components of your laptop, get a hold of a nearby repair shop as fast as you can. Seek out a shop that repairs laptops, offers water damage service, and agrees to look at your laptop, before you waste time driving there to find out.
Repair shops have quite a few advantages over you. They generally know what water damage looks like on a laptop. They have more cleaning tools available to them then alcohol and a toothbrush, sometimes including ultrasonic cleaners. And should something look unsalvageable, they can tell you whether they can get a replacement for it, and whether it’s worth it.
Step 7: Turn It On Again
This is the tricky part, where you need to observe and guess. Turn your device on after you’ve done everything you can to dry it out, and potentially clean any corrosion inside. Look for any signs of glitches or failure. The most likely things to fail are the battery (see Step 5), the screen or the cable connecting the screen, and then a distinct part of the logic board.
We exist to hear stories about miraculous water-damage rescues. Tell us your best, and worst, liquid damage stories in the comments, or let us know your tale of victory or woe on social. We’re @ifixit on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and elsewhere.
댓글 29개
I dropped my iPod into a commode while I was on a trip. I fished it out ASAP, and watched as the screen displayed some funky patterns and then turned black. It showed no signs of life, and being away from home I had no way to deal with it (no rice
Hamilton Richards - 답글
They said no rice, mate.
mehuneau -
Gee, I love Fried Rice! ;-{
Dan -
Waht is your opinion on using a hairdryer to dry up as fast as possible (especially if water was spilled over)?
Elmar Grass - 답글
A hair dryer may push the liquid in further and you also have a high change of melting keyboard keys and other thin/soft plastics.
David Fear -
Just to point out that one of your links must have got wet and needs fixing under Step 2: “are technically a “B” fire”
El Pinche Inglés - 답글
I had soup spilt over my MacBook Pro. Used a vacuum cleaner immediately to suck it out from the keyboard and screen hinge. Idea: get fluid out as soon as possible. Worked perfectly.
Carl H. Pohle - 답글
I like the idea with the vacum cleaner!
Elmar Grass -
now your vacuum cleaner is liquid damaged :D
Fixandinstall -
It can’t be stressed enough to people lacking any technical skill that time is of the essense, and the device should be brought in asap. Every hour, every minute even, matters. Unfortunately, the rice myth is very pervasive and the majority of devices with liquid damage that we get in our shop (and we get A LOT of these) is at minimum days old and often weeks.
Frankly, I would suggest anyone lacking the proper tools and skills to bring it in, because a sloppy cleanup will still result in damage, either soon when using the device again (short was not removed) or after some day/weeks/months (partial short has put stress on component for prolonged time and component fails, or component has corroded away).
Fixandinstall - 답글
I have repaired many 35mm and digital SLR cameras that have been water damaged. One way to stop corrosion until the device can be taken in for repair is to seal it in an airtight plastic bag and freeze it. Just make sure the water has been shaken out as well as possible so the expansion as it freezes doesn’t damage anything.
I’ve worked on cameras that have been frozen for weeks (while awaiting estimate approval) that were frozen right after they were dunked and they had no corrosion whatsoever when they were opened up. Just keep it sealed in the plastic bag until it reaches room temperature again to prevent condensation.
Bob Kilbourn - 답글
At a previous employer, we repaired laptops for extended-warranty companies. One of the other techs received a laptop in a ziploc bag; it was dripping blood! The durned fool OPENED THE BAG and the stench of death hung over the shop for hours.
We didn’t even bother trying to repair that one.
——-
(This one does not involve liquid, but…)
At the same company, I received a laptop that was overheating. Turns out the heatsink assembly was completely blocked with cannabis dust. The desktop wallpaper was a photo of tables piled with bud, and the “My photos” folder fully documented a large scale processing facility. This was before any of the legalization stuff had started. I cleaned it, had to replace some heat-damaged diodes on the mainboard (soldering that mainboard was fun! :- ) and we sent it back to the customer without comment.
Gordon Hlavenka - 답글
You could always bring it to Trek PC in Vancouver. They fix MacBook liquid damage in Vancouver
phoneguru - 답글
I’d like to add one Advanced tip to spill mitigation: Rinse with fresh water! If the spill was heavy, or the unit was completely submerged, rinse it with clean fresh water. This presumes you have the ability to open it up and fully dry it out immediately. Back in my Navy days I saved many boomboxes that had gone for a swim in saltwater; I always started with a dip in a bucket of fresh and had good success.
——-
Finally, I’m typing this on a Dell XPS 15 laptop with severe liquid damage. We got it at work as part of a pallet of scrap and I talked the boss into letting me have it since we can’t reliably fix it for resale or use its parts. There are blobs of green fuzz in many places on the mainboard. It’s so thick that I’m afraid I’ll cause more damage trying to clean it. Thing is, it’s been my Daily Driver for over a year and it’s still going strong.
I still expect it to fail at any moment but it surprises me every time I turn it on.
Gordon Hlavenka - 답글
I also thought of a vac. Don’t think it will necessarily be damaged. How much water can a laptop hold, anyway? Yet my only actual experience was w/a hairdryer. It worked fine. A neighbor called me one day in hysterics after spilling her coffee. Didn’t expect help, just knew I was a fellow work-at-home writer who’d understand her despair: a week’s work lost , none backed up, deadline looming. At her place I thought of the hair dryer. I pried all the keys off and aimed the airstream at the machine, more or less full blast. Now comes the funny part. After about 5 min., while she moaned constantly in the background, the laptop, like the supposedly dead monster in a horror movie, begins coming back to life before our eyes. Elation from neighbor. But then after 5 min it dies again. Despair from neighbor; tearing of hair, rending pf garments, etc. Still I kept on w/the hair dryer & after 3 repetitions of this scene—w/the revival a little longer each time—the laptop revived permanently.
bill marsano - 답글
I had a $20,000 GPS based agricultural tractor controller that refused to boot up after being stored in the tractor in a shed for the winter. After the authorized repair shop called it toast, I disassembled and cleaned it and did a microscopic inspection of it. Not finding any catastrophic damage, I baked out the circuit boards (Not the plastic parts!) at 230 F for 30 minutes, in the oven, on a cookie sheet, on top of crumpled parchment to avoid metal-to-metal contact with the cookie sheet. After reassembly, it works. I suspect moisture from the winter storage was the culprit, possibly coupled with the dust and dirt that was in the unit, and possibly tin fronds, but those are too small to see. A very gentle bake-out solved the problem. Certainly worth a shot when something is wet.
Dontneedtosay - 답글
Back it up often just in case you spill, drop, lose, or otherwise lose access to the machine.
And if you are fortunate enough to get it to restart after you dry it out … immediately back it up onto your second backup drive because there is no guarantee it will keep running. https://www.carbonite.com/blog/article/2...
anonymous 2716 - 답글
My 18-yo son spilled cranberry juice on his laptop. A lot of it. Enough that the keyboard was slow and “crunchy” after it dried. In the end we removed the keyboard and washed it in warm water using the sprayer on the kitchen sink. Finished with a final rinse of isopropyl alcohol and left it to dry overnight. It was good as new the next morning! :-)
Richard Holmes - 답글
I think the first thing to do is to upside down the keyboard AND try to power off at the same time? and what exactly wrong with the rice? I know it is wrong but why?
Tomofumi - 답글
https://www.ifixit.com/News/30047/rice-i...
907fixer -
When it comes to liquid damage, it is best to do NOTHING, DO NOT DRY, DO NOT TEST. Just take to your local microsoldering expert and they are your only hope. Liquid damage is not something you can fix at home, so don’t try it. You could be making matters worse. But if you do not wish to spend the money or have the budget for it and fix it yourself, above is a great guide. DO NOT USE RICE !!!!!!
Tony Tone - 답글
This guide would’ve been perfect a few months ago when I spilled a whole glass of milk on my early-2011 13” MacBook Pro, but hey, at least I took all the recommended steps above, and I got it back together and working, after a few hours and a major alcohol cleaning.
Jackson - 답글
I spilled water on my early 2015 MacBook Pro in March. Apple was closed; I had no choice but to take it to a local repair shop. They cleaned everything including the logic board but it still did not work, so they said I’d need to have it replaced. It was $400 for labor + new board. It was refurbished.
Ever since I received the MacBook again, I have noticed that when I do certain things on it, it starts to lag, sounds choppy, and the WiFi connection disconnects multiple times (ex: facetime, using webex for class lectures where I need to have my webcam on, playing games like the Sims, even watching Instagram Live videos). I took it back to them 2 weeks ago and they said they couldn’t detect anything wrong, they even added more thermal paste and inspected it further but could not detect any hardware issues.
I thought maybe it was my connection but it does the same thing when I’m near the router and even when I use a hotspot. I have one month left of warranty with this logic board.. what should I do? Please help.
Stephanie - 답글
https://trickiknow.com/how-restore-a-wat...
Tanvee Kalra - 답글
A week ago I dropped tea a little bit on the side of my laptop and i think it got into the HDMI and headphones port and I put it upside down for it to dry but I tried to turn it on or usey laptop charger and it never worked I even unscrewed the bottom and open it to see if it got Into the battery I went cleaned it put the svrew’s back I turned it on and it didn't turn on, help, I really need this laptop for school work
Reka - 답글
Nowhere is open now … I don't have the tools to open my Chromebook… I spilled a cup of tea (no sugar) on it, I turned it upside down and got as much liquid off as I could and will leave it upside down overnight ..what's the chance it'll be ok??
suziemitch.sn - 답글
Freak Accident. My dog wanted to be outside, so I thought I could just work from the porch and I brought the laptop onto the porch and was working. Suddenly my dog threw up on the driveway. I thought of cleaning her vomit and opened the hose. There was a hole in the hose and water sprayed from the hole onto the laptop. I think it would be difficult to even plant it. My laptop was over 15 feet away from the hose, but, it is as if I placed the laptop perfectly for it to be sprayed with water. I immediately put the laptop upside down and turned on the fan for 2.5 days. It seemed to have worked. My laptop booted correctly, and I was able to log back on. Thank God.
pradeep - 답글
i spilled orajel into my laptop i don't know if any of it went in the laptop it still works i turned it upside down nothing came out will it be ok
jackie hammack - 답글
great one to read
Grace Janice - 답글