Water spill on MBA

[benwiggy]

My daughter poured a pint of water over my wife's MBA. It shut off immediately and was absolutely soaking.
I took the back off, and there was water everywhere. All over the battery pack; all over the logic board, every point from the keyboard downwards.
I took the battery pack out, dried everything with tissues as well as possible, then put more tissue between the closed halves and left it on a radiator overnight.

I kept changing the tissues, as they were still coming up damp. Eventually, after more than 2 days, the tissues were staying dry. I put the whole thing back to together and pressed the power button.

It worked! I'm amazed, given the state of it, but it seems to be 100% fine. If the glass had contained cola, or fruit juice, or milk, it would have been a different story.

 

[Gav2k]

My daughter poured a pint of water over my wife's MBA. It shut off immediately and was absolutely soaking.
I took the back off, and there was water everywhere. All over the battery pack; all over the logic board, every point from the keyboard downwards.
I took the battery pack out, dried everything with tissues as well as possible, then put more tissue between the closed halves and left it on a radiator overnight.

I kept changing the tissues, as they were still coming up damp. Eventually, after more than 2 days, the tissues were staying dry. I put the whole thing back to together and pressed the power button.

It worked! I'm amazed, given the state of it, but it seems to be 100% fine. If the glass had contained cola, or fruit juice, or milk, it would have been a different story.

Even with water you will run into corrosion issues as water contains minerals.

My advice is...

Power it off ASAP and remover the battery.

Now pop to Tandy or RadioShack or maplins and grab some contact cleaner or circuit board cleaner and use this on the logic board etc. preferably with them removed from the top case.

Dry them out thoughrly in a warm place.

Now reassemble and use as normal.

 

[mreg376]

My daughter poured a pint of water over my wife's MBA. It shut off immediately and was absolutely soaking.
I took the back off, and there was water everywhere. All over the battery pack; all over the logic board, every point from the keyboard downwards.
I took the battery pack out, dried everything with tissues as well as possible, then put more tissue between the closed halves and left it on a radiator overnight.

I kept changing the tissues, as they were still coming up damp. Eventually, after more than 2 days, the tissues were staying dry. I put the whole thing back to together and pressed the power button.

It worked! I'm amazed, given the state of it, but it seems to be 100% fine. If the glass had contained cola, or fruit juice, or milk, it would have been a different story.

Your current story may not yet be fully written.

 

[alphaod]

I was expecting to read you say you sold your daughter for a new computer or something along those lines.

 

[coldjeanzzz]

I wouldn't be surprised if the battery life took a hit. I imagine a few weeks down the road you will run into a problem that can be attributed to this.

 

[cyber16]

The battery cells actually are sealed very well compared to everything else inside the air

 

[HarryWarden]

The battery cells actually are sealed very well compared to everything else inside the air

I thought that the MBA was soldered together so that taking it apart like described wasn't even possible. Guess not.

 

[iBlazed]

Even with water you will run into corrosion issues as water contains minerals.

My advice is...

Power it off ASAP and remover the battery.

Now pop to Tandy or RadioShack or maplins and grab some contact cleaner or circuit board cleaner and use this on the logic board etc. preferably with them removed from the top case.

Dry them out thoughrly in a warm place.

Now reassemble and use as normal.

Tandy? Really? That's pretty 80's of you...

 

[Gav2k]

Tandy? Really? That's pretty 80's of you...

I'm old! If I say to someone of a similar age Tandy, they know what I mean

 

[irnchriz]

I'm old! If I say to someone of a similar age Tandy, they know what I mean

Haha, I remember Tandy. I went in once with a group of mates and formatted all of the drives in their crappy pc's using a little program we made at college. Loaded it on and walked away, 2 mins later the drives wiped. Fun times.