MacBook Water Damage Repair (Chemical Wash) in Singapore

Spilled water on your MacBook? Hold the power button until it switches off, unplug it, and don't charge it. Then read the rest of this.

A MacBook has no water resistance at all, so liquid that gets past the keys lands on whatever is underneath, the logic board included. Much of the damage is corrosion, and corrosion carries on after the liquid has dried. Our MacBook water damage repair starts with a chemical clean of the board from $80. If the clean turns up parts that are already damaged, those are quoted after diagnosis, and nothing is done until you say yes.

Spilled Water on Your MacBook? What to Do in the First Hour

Switch it off, unplug it, let it drain and bring it in. What you leave out matters as much as what you do.

1. Switch it off now. Hold the power button until the screen goes black. Don't stop to save your work.
2. Unplug everything. The charger first, then drives, dongles and any monitor.
3. Don't charge it, and don't turn it on to check. Power running through a wet board is how a spill turns into a board repair.
4. Let it drain. Open the lid wide, turn the MacBook upside-down and stand it like a tent on a towel, keyboard facing down, so the liquid runs out rather than further in.
5. No rice, no hairdryer. Neither gets the residue off the board, and the residue is what corrodes it. Both just cost you time.
6. Bring it in. The sooner the board is cleaned, the less time corrosion has had to work.

The steps are the same whether you spilled water on a MacBook Pro or an Air. Our article on MacBook liquid damage goes further into the warning signs. This page is about the repair.

Spilled Water on a MacBook but It Still Works?

Have it checked anyway. Corrosion keeps working after the spill dries, which is why a MacBook that seemed fine afterwards can fail a week or two later.

When the water evaporates, whatever was in it stays behind on the board. Minerals from tap water. Sugar and milk from a coffee. That residue sits on the connectors and the tiny components around them and slowly eats into them. The first sign might be a key that stops working, or a battery that stops charging, or nothing at all until the morning it won't start.

If it's been running since the spill, back it up today before anything else (more on that below). Then switch it off and bring it in. Cleaning a board that still works costs a lot less than repairing one that has corroded through.

What Does MacBook Water Damage Repair Involve?

The core of it is a chemical clean: we open the MacBook and clean the logic board and its connectors to get the residue off and stop the corrosion before it does more damage. That's the price in the table above, set per model, and the process is the same for MacBook Air water damage repair as for a 16-inch MacBook Pro.

Then we test it. If everything works, that's the job done. If the clean shows something already damaged (a corroded connector, a failed component on the board, a keyboard that won't come back), we tell you what it is and quote it before doing anything more. You approve that quote or you don't. Nothing gets replaced without your say-so.

Damage that has reached the board itself becomes MacBook motherboard repair, quoted after a free diagnosis in the same way. And if your MacBook has AppleCare+, check your cover before you pay anyone: AppleCare+ covers accidental damage for a fee.

MacBook Keyboard Water Damage

A spill hits the keyboard first, so that's often where it shows. Sticky keys after coffee or juice are sugar residue under the keycaps. Keys that repeat or stop registering mean the liquid has got into the switches or the connection beneath them. And a keyboard that's completely dead except for the power button means the liquid went further than the keys.

We clean first, test, and only then say whether the keyboard needs replacing. If it does, the model matters. On the butterfly-keyboard MacBooks (the 12-inch MacBook from 2015 to 2017, the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro from 2016 to 2019, and the MacBook Air from 2018 to 2019) the keyboard is riveted into the top case, which makes it a bigger job than on earlier MacBooks or anything with the Magic Keyboard. Every model's price is on the MacBook keyboard replacement page, and our guide to a MacBook keyboard that's not working covers faults that have nothing to do with liquid.

A trackpad that stops clicking or tracking properly after a spill gets the same treatment, clean first and replace only if it has to be, through MacBook trackpad repair.

Back Up Your MacBook as Soon as It Works

The clean doesn't touch your files. Nothing is wiped and nothing is reinstalled. The risk to your data is the board, and on newer MacBooks that risk is bigger than people expect.

On the MacBook Air from 2018, the Touch Bar MacBook Pros from 2016, the 12-inch MacBook and every Apple silicon MacBook, the storage is soldered to the logic board. On the 2018 to 2020 Intel models with Apple's T2 chip, and on every Apple silicon MacBook, it's encrypted to that board as well. If corrosion kills the board on one of those, your files come back only if that board can be repaired. We can't promise that ahead of time, and nobody honest can.

So if it's been running since the spill, back it up today. If you switched it off straight away, leave it off and back it up the first time it's working again after the clean. Our guide to backing up a MacBook before a repair walks through Time Machine and iCloud.

Where to Get MacBook Water Damage Repair in Singapore

Citri Mobile handles MacBook Air and MacBook Pro water damage at four walk-in branches in Singapore: People's Park Centre in Chinatown, Tampines, Yishun and Jurong Point, open 11am to 9pm daily. Addresses and directions are on the locations page.

For a fresh spill, come straight to the nearest branch. No appointment is needed for the check and the clean. If it turns out to need a replacement part afterwards, such as a keyboard, message us first with your model so we can confirm the part is in stock before you make a second trip.

Related Guides and Repairs

• MacBook liquid damage: what you need to know: the warning signs and what to do
• MacBook motherboard repair: when a spill has damaged the logic board
• MacBook keyboard replacement: prices for every model
• How to back up your MacBook before a repair: Time Machine, iCloud or an external drive
• MacBook Pro or Air not turning on: for a MacBook that won't start at all
• MacBook repair shop: every MacBook repair we do, model by model