MacBook Pro 14" Spill Coffee

[berkdmrc]

Hi,

I'm using a MacBook Pro 14 (2021). Last week, while sitting in a cafe, I spilled some coffee (cold, unsweetened Americano) on the keyboard. Approximately 3/4 cup. Maybe a little less or more.

I'm actually quite careful. Even in the cafe I sat at a table with two small tables and the coffee was on the left table. A difficult scenario to spill coffee. But these things happen.

I immediately pushed the spilled coffee away with my hand, turned the MacBook upside down and took some napkins and carefully dried it. The MacBook was still open in the meantime.

Then I went home, let it dry upside down until the morning and handed it to the technical service the next morning.

In the evening I accidentally pressed the keys on the keyboard and it rebooted a few more times. I tested it with Diagnostics and it was giving a touchpad error. In the morning I ran a new Diagnostics before handing it over to the service center and everything seemed fine.

I live in Turkey and Apple does not offer AppleCare here. This annoys me a lot.

My MacBook has been in technical service for about a week and still no news. I'm curious about what's going on. Has anyone experienced this or know how resilient MacBooks are?

 

[Fishrrman]

Time to either:
- take it to Apple for repair (you're going to pay)
or
- start shopping for a replacement.

 

[maerz001]

There is no waterproofness. Thats why a keyboard and logic board swap is necessary. Costs half of the computer

 

[berkdmrc]

The technical service called me. The water hadn't penetrated the motherboard and there was some under the keyboard. They said there was no problem in the diagnostic tests. The warranty is still on. I think I landed on my feet.

 

[spiderman0616]

This story sent chills down my spine. I would cry.

 

[arcite]

I spilled water on my old Air. Over several months time…. It shorted out several of the keys forcing me to use external keyboard. Other than that, it continues working fine to this day. So maybe you lucked out and the techs were able to clear out all the liquid. Definitely keep your files backed up; it could short out at any time, you just never know.

 

[antonrg]

I had spilled wine on my MacBook 2016 model and Apple said I’d need to pay 1200€ for it or buy a new one. I left the laptop for a year just on my shelf. It started working as normal about 12 months later. It still works. This happened back in 2017.

 

[berkdmrc]

I spilled water on my old Air. Over several months time…. It shorted out several of the keys forcing me to use external keyboard. Other than that, it continues working fine to this day. So maybe you lucked out and the techs were able to clear out all the liquid. Definitely keep your files backed up; it could short out at any time, you just never know.

If there was an obvious problem, I think they would have asked me to pay. I am relieved to know that even if there are problems in the future, they will be limited to the keyboard.

 

[spiderman0616]

If there was an obvious problem, I think they would have asked me to pay. I am relieved to know that even if there are problems in the future, they will be limited to the keyboard.

I think the issue with spills like this is that they can take time to fully mess up your machine. As the liquid dries out and oxidizes on the internals it can cause corrosion and other problems down the line.

That's always the thing I hate about situations like this--you may OR may not have problems down the road. As long as you're comfortable with the unknown, it's not that big of a deal, but I don't think I would ever fully trust a laptop that's had anything spilled inside of it. Not without at least an offsite backup somewhere. (iCloud, CCC, etc.)

 

[sack_peak]

Wish Apple offered spill-resistent keyboards for all their products. I wouldnt mind paying an extra $50 for that.

 

[spiderman0616]

Wish Apple offered spill-resistent keyboards for all their products. I wouldnt mind paying an extra $50 for that.

I think that's just opening themselves up to scandal when their spill resistant keyboards are unsuccessful at resisting spills. It does seem like a problem Apple could solve better than some of the other brands have so far.