Cleaning diet soda from insides of MacBook Pro unibody?

[chris666wtf]

Okay so a week ago I spilled Diet Coke on my 13.3 inch unibody MBP. I immediately pulled the plug, did a hard shut-down, and flipped it upside down. I put it in a bag of rice and let it dry and didn't touch it until yesterday, so it's had a week to dry. It seems to work perfectly fine; keys aren't sticky at all, all keys are fully functional, trackpad is fine, no screen or performance anomalies...

This has made me cautiously optimistic. The thing I'm really worried about right now is corrosion due to substances in the Diet Coke that may have seeped under the keys. I didn't have the technical expertise or tools to open up my Mac so the only thing I did was let it dry. So what would be my best option with dealing with this?

I've thought about taking it to an Apple Store and ask them to clean up any traces of Diet Coke residue from the insides. How expensive will this be? Will they do this at a reasonable price? Or where else should I go to have this done?

Also, what is the possibility that liquid damage will become apparent later on? I see absolutely nothing wrong with it right now...

 

[balamw]

Read: https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=14598715#post14598715

They didn't even spill anything on their computer.

Apple will void your warranty for liquid spills/corrosion so I would not recommend volunteering that information to them by asking them to clean it up.

B

 

[chris666wtf]

Read: https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=14598715#post14598715

They didn't even spill anything on their computer.

Apple will void your warranty for liquid spills/corrosion so I would not recommend volunteering that information to them by asking them to clean it up.

B

My computer is long out of warranty...I bought the Mid-2010 MacBook Pro a few days after it came out so its been about a year and a half. i'm thinking asking someone to clean it up would be my best option because of this...

 

[balamw]

My computer is long out of warranty...I bought the Mid-2010 MacBook Pro a few days after it came out so its been about a year and a half. i'm thinking asking someone to clean it up would be my best option because of this...

IMHO a third party Apple shop might be a better bet than a Genius Bar, but even then they may not be equipped to clean PCBs.

B

 

[NickZac]

No one can say the chances of damage but you did everything by the book and so they are a lot better than 99% of cases given you followed the correct protocol. I'd personally go to a standard 3rd party shop that can do Apples simply because they are often much, much cheaper.

 

[Swain]

Like the above poster said, your odds are rather good for the circumstances.

Off topic though, why do people have a bag of rice, that's big enough to fit an MBA in, laying around in their house?

 

[squeakr]

Definitely get it cleaned as the acids and sugars in sodas are highly corrosive and the sugars can be conductive which can cause issues down the road. If you take it to Apple, they will more than likely ship it to depot to be dealt with.

 

[outz]

Off topic though, why do people have a bag of rice, that's big enough to fit an MBA in, laying around in their house?

asians eat rice like crazy. my wifes asian and i had to get a huge bag because she goes nuts if she runs out.

im on rice strike.

 

[thekev]

Definitely get it cleaned as the acids and sugars in sodas are highly corrosive and the sugars can be conductive which can cause issues down the road. If you take it to Apple, they will more than likely ship it to depot to be dealt with.

The only real solution is to keep these things away from your computer, but I'm wondering, does aspartame have the same corrosive properties? The OP mentioned diet soda. It's not really sugar.

Edit: still an acidic pH balance though, so it could be bad either way..... and depot repair is sometimes just a flat $300 or something of that sort in my own experience. If it's offered it might not be as bad.