What Happens Inside Your Device After a Spill?
The moment liquid enters your MacBook or iPhone, a damaging process begins. Water — even pure water — is a conductor when it carries dissolved minerals. The moment it bridges two electrical contacts on your logic board, it creates a short circuit. Current flows where it should not, components overheat, and damage begins.
Within hours, the liquid begins to evaporate — but it leaves behind mineral deposits and corrosion products. Coffee, sugary drinks, and salt water are particularly destructive because they leave highly conductive residues that continue to cause damage even after the liquid has dried.
This is why rice does not work. Rice can absorb some moisture from the air, but it cannot remove the corrosion and conductive deposits from the logic board. By the time your device feels “dry,” the corrosion is already eating through your board's copper traces and component pads.
Professional ultrasonic cleaning — the kind we perform in our Hyde Park workshop — physically removes these deposits using ultrasonic vibration in a cleaning solution, stopping the corrosion process before it causes permanent irreversible damage.
Repair Pricing Guide
MacBook Air
M1, M2, M3, Intel 2018–2020
MacBook Pro
13", 14", 16" — All M-series & Intel
iPhone
iPhone 8 through iPhone 16 Pro Max
iPad
All models including M4 iPad Pro
Apple Watch
Series 3 through Ultra 2
iMac
21.5" & 27" — M1, M3, Intel
* Assessment is free. Final price depends on extent of damage. No Fix No Fee guarantee.
Our 6-Step Repair Process
Intake & Assessment
Free inspection. We assess the extent of liquid exposure, identify affected areas, and provide an honest quote.
Ultrasonic Cleaning
Full disassembly. Logic board and components cleaned in ultrasonic bath to remove corrosion and contaminants.
Diagnostic
Post-clean diagnostic to identify damaged or failed components. Tested against known-good reference boards.
Component Repair
Board-level microsoldering to replace failed chips, capacitors, resistors, and connector pins under magnification.
Testing
Full functional test — display, keyboard, trackpad, ports, charging, Wi-Fi, camera, and all sensors.
Return
Device returned clean, fully functional, with a 12-month ZA Support warranty on all repaired components.
Why Rice Doesn't Work (And What to Do Instead)
The rice myth is one of the most damaging pieces of consumer advice circulating online. Placing your MacBook in a bag of rice may feel like you are doing something — but it is actively making the situation worse.
Rice can absorb atmospheric moisture, but it cannot reach the corrosion that is already forming on your device's logic board inside a sealed chassis. While your device sits in rice for 24 or 48 hours, corrosion is actively spreading across your board's copper traces and component pads.
Even worse, rice can introduce small starchy particles into your device through vents and openings, which can cause additional problems later.
The correct action: switch off immediately, do not attempt to charge, remove any accessories, and bring it to our Hyde Park workshop as soon as possible. Every hour matters.
When Liquid Damage Affects the Logic Board
In severe liquid damage cases, corrosion can damage the logic board itself — affecting chips, capacitors, and copper traces. Standard cleaning is not sufficient for these cases. Our engineers use microscope-guided microsoldering to replace individual components at board level, which is far more cost-effective than a full logic board replacement.
Common logic board failures from liquid damage include: no power, no display, USB-C not charging, keyboard not responding, and data inaccessibility. Our logic board repair service handles all of these.
Liquid Damage Repair by Device
Liquid Damage Repair — Common Questions
Book Free Assessment — We Respond Within 1 Hour
No Fix No Fee. Honest prognosis. 12-month warranty on all work.
Call 064 529 5863