Coffee on the MacBook keyboard: what to do in the first ten minutes
A knocked-over cup, the Mac switching off, or worse, carrying on working: in both cases every minute counts.
A MacBook's keyboard sits directly on the logic board. A liquid passing between the keys reaches the components within seconds, and the battery's current does the rest: electrolysis, corrosion, shorts.
The first ten minutes
- Switch off immediately by holding the power button, without waiting to save.
- Unplug the charger.
- Turn the Mac upside down open in a V, like a tent, so the liquid drains out through the keyboard.
- Don't switch it back on, even if it “seems” dry the next day.
- Book an appointment or send it the same day.
What we do at the workshop
Open up, disconnect the battery, remove the logic board, ultrasonic cleaning and corrosion removal (89 € on a MacBook), inspection under the microscope. Sugar, coffee and above all fizzy drinks leave conductive residues that we remove mechanically. Then we test: if components are dead (often on the power rails or the charging circuit), we replace them at component level, price announced first.
The data
On an Apple Silicon MacBook the SSD is soldered. If the board is too damaged for lasting use, we often get it running long enough to copy your files (249 €, nothing if we recover nothing).
From experience: a Mac brought in within 48 hours, never switched back on, has excellent odds. A Mac switched on several times “to see” has far fewer.
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