Spilled water

[boast]

I spilled some water on my macbook yesterday and it quickly shut off (I assume it has some short circuit prevention system?). I left it drying upside down for almost 24hrs. I turned it on and its working again.

Is there anything special I need to do? I heard something about the minerals from tap water that stays when it evaporates which can affect the copper traces/pins and reduce its lifespan? (chemistry is not my strong point)

 

[GoCubsGo]

You should have stuck it in rice to try and evaporate any moisture. The short circuit system deal you're thinking of is when water hits electronics and shorts them out. That's not a safety feature.

You may be fine but sometime down the line it's possible that you could run into issues, only time will tell.

 

[praktical]

Rice

You should have stuck it in rice to try and evaporate any moisture. The short circuit system deal you're thinking of is when water hits electronics and shorts them out. That's not a safety feature.

You may be fine but sometime down the line it's possible that you could run into issues, only time will tell.

In all my years this is the first time I have ever heard of this one. Good advice if the theory behind it is sound.

 

[mikeo007]

24 hours is not long enough for the water to evaporate. Keep the macbook in a dry place for at least a couple more days. Rice can't hurt at this point, but it's too late for it to absorb since the majority of the moisture is already evaporated.

 

[yusukeaoki]

I spilled some water on my macbook yesterday and it quickly shut off (I assume it has some short circuit prevention system?). I left it drying upside down for almost 24hrs. I turned it on and its working again.

Is there anything special I need to do? I heard something about the minerals from tap water that stays when it evaporates which can affect the copper traces/pins and reduce its lifespan? (chemistry is not my strong point)

that doesnt sound too good...

Leave it in rice for about 1~2 weeks.

 

[user418]

Bummer. Always hate to hear about accidental damage. Hope it all works out ok for you.

 

[goRoostr]

that doesnt sound too good...

Leave it in rice for about 1~2 weeks.

Putting it in rice wont do nothing more than get rice in your MB Pro. There's nothing in the machine to absorb and hold the moisture in, its best to disconnect power, open the back cover( if you have tiny screw drivers), disconnect the battery, let it drip out ,and fully air dry.

What I would recommend is taking it to a shop or someone that knows Macbooks ( Apple store wont touch it if its water damaged) and have them clean the logic board to try and prevent further corrosion. If its working now that's good news that you didn't short anything out, but corrosion might or might not kill it in the near future.

 

[yusukeaoki]

Putting it in rice wont do nothing more than get rice in your MB Pro. There's nothing in the machine to absorb and hold the moisture in, its best to disconnect power, open the back cover( if you have tiny screw drivers), disconnect the battery, let it drip out ,and fully air dry.

What I would recommend is taking it to a shop or someone that knows Macbooks ( Apple store wont touch it if its water damaged) and have them clean the logic board to try and prevent further corrosion. If its working now that's good news that you didn't short anything out, but corrosion might or might not kill it in the near future.

The rice absorbs the moisture mate.
Its been done and proven.

 

[sweetbrat]

Putting it in rice wont do nothing more than get rice in your MB Pro. There's nothing in the machine to absorb and hold the moisture in, its best to disconnect power, open the back cover( if you have tiny screw drivers), disconnect the battery, let it drip out ,and fully air dry.

Rice, like silica gel, will absorb the moisture. It's faster and more effective than just letting it air dry. It's actually a pretty common thing to do after having gotten liquid into an electronic device. Most people don't have large quantities of silica gel on hand, but it's easy to get lots of rice in a hurry.

 

[Liquinn]

The manual does say you shouldn't eat or drink near the machine so I have no sympathy for you.

 

[Suno]

You're lucky it's only water. I've been roaming these forums since December and I've read some crazy spillage incidents, from milk to freaking wine. There always seems to be one every page...

 

[adnbek]

The manual does say you shouldn't eat or drink near the machine so I have no sympathy for you.

Who the hell asked for it anyway? Go away.

 

[thekev]

Putting it in rice wont do nothing more than get rice in your MB Pro. There's nothing in the machine to absorb and hold the moisture in, its best to disconnect power, open the back cover( if you have tiny screw drivers), disconnect the battery, let it drip out ,and fully air dry.

What I would recommend is taking it to a shop or someone that knows Macbooks ( Apple store wont touch it if its water damaged) and have them clean the logic board to try and prevent further corrosion. If its working now that's good news that you didn't short anything out, but corrosion might or might not kill it in the near future.

This is actually good advice. If you take it to Apple directly, they'll most likely say it needs a new logic board and provide a quote. They might provide more detail, but typically the response to liquid damage is not very positive. I've bought my machines from local authorized retailers before even with Apple stores all over the place here. I pick based on what shop is likely to help me out quickly if something goes wrong with it 🙂. The third party retailers know it's pretty easy to just buy from Apple, so they do try pretty hard to help you out if you find a good one. Some of them are much more helpful than the genius bar, but it's probably hit and miss.

The rice absorbs the moisture mate.
Its been done and proven.

I've always wondered about the validity of this. I know rice absorbs moisture, but I wonder if it's actually the right thing to do.

The manual does say you shouldn't eat or drink near the machine so I have no sympathy for you.

You don't have to be mean.

 

[MadTester]

Ok here's some news for you... Especially Liquinn......... I have spilled (well a friend of mine) a bottle of beer on my 17"mbp... complete freak accident, walking past the table my machine was on and he went over on his ankle.....

Guess what... I just tipped it on it's side with the lid open (by the way it was actually running when this happened) left the beer to drain out.... still running today... ok.. the left hand side still gives off a faint whiff of bud every now and then but no damage done 😀

So accidents happen....

 

[Queen6]

The manual does say you shouldn't eat or drink near the machine so I have no sympathy for you.

Life often throws people "fast balls" others offering help softens the blow, when something personally untoward happens, you may want to reconsider your words, of course you can always follow your own sage advice...

 

[thetitans]

i just wondered; did u take it to the apple care? or r u still using it?is there any corrossion?

 

[Arnezie]

Just curious how many people on here have 20lbs of uncooked rice in there kitchen right now? It always trips me out when someone says you should have immediately placed it in rice for a year. Look put it somewhere dry run a dehumidifier near it and in a day or two turn it back on and see

 

[AlphaDogg]

Just curious how many people on here have 20lbs of uncooked rice in there kitchen right now? It always trips me out when someone says you should have immediately placed it in rice for a year. Look put it somewhere dry run a dehumidifier near it and in a day or two turn it back on and see

I have a couple pounds of rice in my cupboard right now and that's more than enough to cover an entire MBP. Nobody said to put a water damaged MBP in rice for a year, but one or two days is not long enough. 3 or 4 is a good number to ensure you've let all the water evaporate.

 

[Arnezie]

I have a couple pounds of rice in my cupboard right now and that's more than enough to cover an entire MBP. Nobody said to put a water damaged MBP in rice for a year, but one or two days is not long enough. 3 or 4 is a good number to ensure you've let all the water evaporate.

Ok the year was sarcasm apparently you missed that and actually a dehumidifier in close proximity of the computer like within a few inches will pull 10 times more moisture than rice.

 

[AlphaDogg]

Ok the year was sarcasm apparently you missed that and actually a dehumidifier in close proximity of the computer like within a few inches will pull 10 times more moisture than rice.

I didn't miss any of the sarcasm, I just thought you were disrespecting other members when you said that it's unreasonable to do what was suggested.

 

[Arnezie]

I didn't miss any of the sarcasm, I just thought you were disrespecting other members when you said that it's unreasonable to do what was suggested.

Not unreasonable just not logical. Rice rice rice everyone always says rice. But does anyone know the absorption rate of rice ??? No but they say rice when someone says they spilled liquid. A cheap dehumidifier has 10+ times the ability to draw the moisture out

 

[thetitans]

which one is more more reachable? u can reach to some rice anytime anywhere..Maybe Dehumidifier is more effective than rice but rice is more reachable and absouletly harmless..

 

[marc11]

Not unreasonable just not logical. Rice rice rice everyone always says rice. But does anyone know the absorption rate of rice ??? No but they say rice when someone says they spilled liquid. A cheap dehumidifier has 10+ times the ability to draw the moisture out

I dehumidifier removes moisture from the air by slowly passing air over warm coils, it is not a shop vac, it has a rather low drawing fan pulling the air in and discharging air out, how is it going to suck the water and moisture from inside the machine? Sure, it will accelerate the evaporation but not at a rate you may think over just leaving the laptop open on a counter. Especially if it is already in a dry room, say under 50% humidity. The small water in the laptop and lack of air circulation isn't going to raise the rooms humidity level nor draw in dry air.

Unless you are able to put the keyboard right up against the intake or exhaust of the dehumidfier it isn't going to do much. A dehumidifer running in a large room isn't going to dry out the computer all that great or all that fast.

Now, rice, will absorb water, and if you put it in large quantities in small closed bag where the majority of the space is taken up by moisture loving rice and very little air, you can control the humidty level and lower it far more than in an open room, the rice will do a far better job in such a small space then a dehumidfier drying the entire air of an entire room to a very low humidity level.

I am also willing to be more people have a bag of rice in the pantry than a dehumidfier in the house.

 

[Arnezie]

I dehumidifier removes moisture from the air by slowly passing air over warm coils, it is not a shop vac, it has a rather low drawing fan pulling the air in and discharging air out, how is it going to suck the water and moisture from inside the machine? Sure, it will accelerate the evaporation but not at a rate you may think over just leaving the laptop open on a counter. Especially if it is already in a dry room, say under 50% humidity. The small water in the laptop and lack of air circulation isn't going to raise the rooms humidity level nor draw in dry air.

Unless you are able to put the keyboard right up against the intake or exhaust of the dehumidfier it isn't going to do much. A dehumidifer running in a large room isn't going to dry out the computer all that great or all that fast.

Now, rice, will absorb water, and if you put it in large quantities in small closed bag where the majority of the space is taken up by moisture loving rice and very little air, you can control the humidty level and lower it far more than in an open room, the rice will do a far better job in such a small space then a dehumidfier drying the entire air of an entire room to a very low humidity level.

I am also willing to be more people have a bag of rice in the pantry than a dehumidfier in the house.

Your information is incorrect and I'd love to go over the science with you if you wish. Rice is not the best thing the dehumidifier will in fact draw out any moisture notice the one thing I said it's very important close proximity very close right next to a dehumidifier it will dry it better than rice what is rice on top of the keyboard going to do to dry out the internal parts of a computer nothing that's what

 

[Interstella5555]

I spilled some water on my macbook yesterday and it quickly shut off (I assume it has some short circuit prevention system?). I left it drying upside down for almost 24hrs. I turned it on and its working again.

Is there anything special I need to do? I heard something about the minerals from tap water that stays when it evaporates which can affect the copper traces/pins and reduce its lifespan? (chemistry is not my strong point)

This is incorrect, as others have said the shut down immediately afterwards is slightly worrying, you need to leave it in rice for longer than 24 hours to get all the liquid out.