Spilled water, tea or coffee on a laptop: step-by-step guide

You knocked a cup over the keyboard. Unpleasant, but often fixable if you do the right things in the first minutes.

The first 30 seconds

Turn the laptop off immediately. Not through the Shut Down menu: hold the power button for 5–10 seconds until it goes dark.
Unplug the charger from the wall.
Disconnect USB drives, the mouse and all cables.

The next few minutes

Turn the laptop upside down, opened like a tent (Λ shape), so the liquid drains out instead of flowing deeper towards the board.
Blot visible liquid with paper towels. Don't rub, just press.
If the laptop lets you remove the battery without tools (older models), remove it.

What not to do

Turn it on to check, even an hour later. Liquid can still be inside, and powering on causes a short circuit.
Use a hair dryer: hot air pushes liquid deeper and can damage the keyboard and display.
Put it in rice: useless for a laptop.
Wait a week for it to dry. The water dries, the corrosion stays and keeps eating the board.

Why tea, coffee and soda are worse than water

Sugar, milk and acids leave a sticky conductive residue. Keys stick, contacts oxidise and corrosion forms under the chips. Even if the laptop turns on after drying, in a week or two it may start acting up or stop turning on.

What the technician does

Opens the laptop, removes the board, cleans it with a special solution in an ultrasonic bath, removes oxidation, dries it and tests it. The keyboard is checked separately; it often has to be replaced if something sweet was spilled. The sooner you bring the laptop in, the better the chance that cleaning alone will do.

About MacBooks

On a MacBook the board sits right under the keyboard, and liquid reaches it fast. Do the same: turn it off, flip it, bring it in, and don't try to turn it on.

More: laptop water damage repair and MacBook repair. Spilled something? Message us on Telegram right away and we'll book you in as soon as possible.