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Buying a MacBook Air with water damage

50L

50L

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 2, 2014
141
4
I'm looking for a Laptop I can take with me everywhere and call me a *****, but I'm not feeling safe with my 1200dollar macbook pro retina


I have an eye on a water-damaged macbook air mid 2013 1.4ghz 128SSD

He's in perfect cosmetic wear and only problem with it is that there is no sound
(also no sound if you plug in external soundsystem)

This one goes for 400dollar, to buy or not to buy?
 
Definitely too expensive for a defective machine which could go titties up anytime.

What country do you live in? There should be some better options on the market.
 
I wouldn't do it... because right now only sound is gone but other parts of the board could be getting rusty and will eventually stop. What if you get it and it dies just a few days later? That's a lot of cash to throw away.
 
If this was in front of me, I would take a assessment of the inside & I'd be all over it.
Have had several of those water damaged units in the past.
The worse is the audio chip was fried and you CAN send audio via airplay or via bluetooth speaker or headset since neither of those use the digital to analog conversion.
 
Well on ebay auctions if you are lucky you can snatch a bit older, but fully functional MBA for $500-$600.
 
Last edited:
I, myself, did a number on my old MacBook Pro with water. For the first month it was no sound but everything else worked. Then slowly, the keyboard started failing, one key after another. I still have it as an emergency backup. No sound, no keyboard functionality at all. The keyboard backlight went about four months after the fact.

Point: Problems don't always reveal immediately and could arise over the long term due to corrosion, etc. I would avoid this one.
 
Next time you must open dissemble it and remove ALL moisture within it.
That would be the only reason further corrosion took place and traces went bad after the initial accident.
 
SmOgER said:
Well on ebay auctions if you are lucky you can snatch a bit older, but fully functional MBA for $500-$600.
Click to expand...

Not in Belgium. You have to know the new prices are in a somewhat different league compared to the US. The cheapest 13" Air (4/128GB) in Belgium sells for 1029 Euros - that's about 1400 USD (!)
You can therefore imagine the used prices....

Oh and in addition: there are no refurbs available in Belgium...
 
MarvinHC said:
Not in Belgium. You have to know the new prices are in a somewhat different league compared to the US. The cheapest 13" Air (4/128GB) in Belgium sells for 1029 Euros - that's about 1400 USD (!)
You can therefore imagine the used prices....

Oh and in addition: there are no refurbs available in Belgium...
Click to expand...

Right, but many ebay sellers ship internationally, and there shouldn't be many taxes (if at all) if you buy from EU. ;)
 
SmOgER said:
Right, but many ebay sellers ship internationally, and there shouldn't be many taxes (if at all) if you buy from EU. ;)
Click to expand...

There are no taxes if you buy from within EU indeed.

But the price levels in the EU are all very high (although Belgium is still a tick higher), the keyboard will be different (Belgium has its very own odd keyboard layout) and there is always the risk when buying a high value item on Ebay.
 
MarvinHC said:
There are no taxes if you buy from within EU indeed.

But the price levels in the EU are all very high (although Belgium is still a tick higher), the keyboard will be different (Belgium has its very own odd keyboard layout) and there is always the risk when buying a high value item on Ebay.
Click to expand...

Well in EU ebay high specs 2011 13" MBA (i7/4GB/256GB) you can find for $800. But with a bit of luck on auctions you could get them even cheaper I suppose. Expensive when compared to US where students can get brand new MBA for that, but I imagine it's still cheaper than in Belgium based on what you are saying. You are using AZERTY keyboard layout I suppose? There should be some azerty models on the market as well. Or you could just buy something like this.
 
I'm with the considerable number of posters who have recommended that you stay away from a 'water damaged' machine. Seriously, why waste money on a model which you know to be defective, and which may have further hidden faults? I wouldn't touch it with a brave pole.

I'm rather surprised when you write that it is not possible to find a refurb model in Belgium, because, in my experience, they are easy to obtain in western Europe. This is the route I would recommend; sometimes, authorised Apple resellers have second-hand models for sale, as well; I suggest that you ask around.

However, do not buy a water damaged computer; pout your money instead towards a proper computer.
 
Well it isn't like you wouldn't find any in EU, it's just that most Apple re-sellers in EU drop the prices very little for refurbs and I guess some of smaller shops aren't even stating that particular products have been refurbished or bother explaining the term, they just get away with it making it look like a irrelevant detail.
 
SmOgER said:
Well in EU ebay high specs 2011 13" MBA (i7/4GB/256GB) you can find for $800. But with a bit of luck on auctions you could get them even cheaper I suppose. Expensive when compared to US where students can get brand new MBA for that, but I imagine it's still cheaper than in Belgium based on what you are saying. You are using AZERTY keyboard layout I suppose? There should be some azerty models on the market as well. Or you could just buy something like this.
Click to expand...

I luckily can get products from Apple HK which is pretty much in line with US prices since I do not live in Belgium any more. I just wanted to explain. The keyboard cover can indeed work, provided the keyboard layout is a European one, i.e. with the large Enter key which is different from the American English keyboard. I personally hate the AZERTY layout but that's a different topic...
 
SmOgER said:
Right, but many ebay sellers ship internationally, and there shouldn't be many taxes (if at all) if you buy from EU. ;)
Click to expand...

Won't there be local tax and import duties when importing from outside EU?

For example, here in Denmark, you have to add 25% (and ~$30 postal service fee) of the item's value to its price if you import it from outside of EU. I read that Belgium has 21% VAT.
 
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