Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

It's been 24 hours now...

cedwhatev

cedwhatev

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 22, 2011
317
38
Canada
OK.. so exactly one day ago, I accidentally spilled some beer onto my keyboard on my MBA.. and it was a very small amount, mind you.. only happened to get the 1, Tab, Q, A, and Shift buttons. I quickly soaked it up with paper towel, and left it for the night. Woke up today, everything works great. The shift and tab keys mentioned have a bit of a stick to them, nothing major.. so my question is, should I be worried? It really wasn't that much beer.. and I am one of the anal people when it comes to my Air.. I take extremely good care of it, and am still cursing myself for doing such a dumb thing.

Should I take it to be cleaned to avoid any long term damage? I went on YouTube and it showed me how to clean the keys, but I don't trust myself enough that I wouldn't break one if I tried pulling it off. So yeah.. any ideas?

Oh, and my wife got a great kick out of it, because she knows how much I love the damn thing.. lol
 
If everything is working fine I wouldn't mess with it. Anything you do is liable to make things worse so just let it be.

(I once put a keyboard in the dishwasher after I spilled beer all over it. It worked but I wouldn't recommend that for your MBA!)
 
If you're really worried about it you could cover it in rice or oatmeal to soak up any moisture that might be left. I did this for my wife when she dropped her iPhone 4 in the toilet. Still works to this day.
 
tpu keyboard protector -- <$10 on ebay/amazon.

doesn't interfere with typing or screen closing. keeps the keys clean (no greasy look) and protects from small spills.

had one on all my macbook, macbook airs...
 
I'm not suggesting you do this, merely saying I would do this:

Follow the ifixit guides to take the entire computer apart and clean everything perfectly. It helps that I already have all the necessary tools (pentalobe screw driver, etc).

As a side note, I'm almost tempted to do this to see if reseating the heatsink with higher quality (and properly applied) thermal paste will improve the temperatures...
 
Hope its ok, you'll have to start drinking vodka round your air, that shouldn't cause as much damage if you spill any!
 
I know someone posted recently about spilling something over a month ago, and they were just starting to see the side affects :(
 
With any kind of water damage, there is always the risk of future corrosion. Traces, surface mount components, etc. could fail if they begin to corrode.

That said, there would be very little you could do to prevent it anyway - even a full dissembly and visual inspection wouldn't really help. The best advice I could give you is to make regular backups of any critical data.
 
I've got a question for those who use the keyboard protector:
Does it leave key marks on the screen? Every time i see someone with one they have the marks on the screen.
If it does/doesn't which one are you using?
 
asting I had a moshi keyboard protector for my MBA. However I took it off. I only put it on, if I am going to be eating or drinking near my MBA. As the moshi keyboard protector leaves marks on the screen. Plus its so much easier to type without the protector. But if your going to be eating and drinking when using the MBA then have it on, for them moments only.
 
only drink diet stuff around your air. since diet soda contains no sugar it doesnt get sticky from spills. its the sugar in liquids that make them sticky.
 
Acorn said:
only drink diet stuff around your air. since diet soda contains no sugar it doesnt get sticky from spills. its the sugar in liquids that make them sticky.
Click to expand...

While diet soda isn't sticky, it's just as corrosive as regular soda (if not more so because of all the chemically fake sugar). The corrosiveness is what I would worry about, more than the stickiness.

Large Coca Cola truck drivers have to be hazmat driver certified because they are carrying over the statutory quantity of acid in all that Coke. In spills, those big quantities of soda can actually eat away at the tar and ruin asphalt.

Imagine what it could do to the thin circuit etchings and solder inside your computer.
 
oneMadRssn said:
While diet soda isn't sticky, it's just as corrosive as regular soda (if not more so because of all the chemically fake sugar). The corrosiveness is what I would worry about, more than the stickiness.

Large Coca Cola truck drivers have to be hazmat driver certified because they are carrying over the statutory quantity of acid in all that Coke. In spills, those big quantities of soda can actually eat away at the tar and ruin asphalt.

Imagine what it could do to the thin circuit etchings and solder inside your computer.
Click to expand...

Never mind the circuit... I'm now scared to just touch a can of Coke :p
 
It was Strongbow.. which technically is cider, but I call it beer because it has the same alcoholic percentage.. hahaha.. and "beer" sounds way better than "cider". Thanks for all the replies, sarcasm or not.. but I think I will just risk it. It really was a very, very small amount, and I did soak it up quite quickly. It just sucks that I did it, considering I just got the damn thing a week ago.

Sooo... I'm going to play the part of optimist, which has come back to bite me in the ass on more than a few occassions.. we shall see. Talk to you all in a month.. :confused:
 
cedwhatev said:
It was Strongbow.. which technically is cider, but I call it beer because it has the same alcoholic percentage.. hahaha.. and "beer" sounds way better than "cider". Thanks for all the replies, sarcasm or not.. but I think I will just risk it. It really was a very, very small amount, and I did soak it up quite quickly. It just sucks that I did it, considering I just got the damn thing a week ago.

Sooo... I'm going to play the part of optimist, which has come back to bite me in the ass on more than a few occassions.. we shall see. Talk to you all in a month.. :confused:
Click to expand...

Just make sure you regular back up your data on to some sort of cloud back up service or external back up drive, just in case.
 
abz1981 said:
asting I had a moshi keyboard protector for my MBA. However I took it off. I only put it on, if I am going to be eating or drinking near my MBA. As the moshi keyboard protector leaves marks on the screen. Plus its so much easier to type without the protector. But if your going to be eating and drinking when using the MBA then have it on, for them moments only.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the answer. I think I'll probably pass on this laptop's guard then. I've never spilled on my laptops in the past, and doubt a new fancy mac will cause me to start.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back