If your iPhone, iPad, or MacBook just had a liquid spill, the next few hours genuinely matter. Corrosion progresses while the device sits — even after the outside is dry. This guide covers the immediate actions that protect your odds of liquid damage board repair, the actions that quietly make things worse, and how the work goes once the device reaches a microsoldering bench.
If your device is currently wet: power it off immediately, do not plug it in to charge, and read the rest of this post before doing anything else.
Step 1: Power it off
The single most important step. Power flowing through a wet board causes shorts and accelerates corrosion. Hold the power button until the device shuts off completely. On a Mac, that's the power button held until it shuts down. On an iPhone or iPad, use the standard power-off slider or force a power-off if needed.
Step 2: Don't charge it
Plugging in a wet device is one of the fastest ways to turn a salvageable repair into an unsalvageable one. The charger pushes current through corroded paths, shorts out components that were merely wet, and damages the board further.
Step 3: Don't try to dry it with rice or a hair dryer
Rice doesn't pull water out of the inside of a sealed device — it just sits in the rice bag. Hair dryers and oven trays add heat that can damage components, warp the chassis, and reflow solder in places it shouldn't be. Stand the device in a tent or fold to drain residual liquid, but skip the home-remedy drying methods.
Step 4: Skip DIY board cleaning if data matters
Opening a wet device on a kitchen table to wipe it down sounds reasonable, but it's where a lot of liquid-damaged boards get further harmed — connectors snapped off, components bumped, electrostatic discharge into sensitive ICs. If the data on the device matters, please don't take the device apart yourself. Bring it (or ship it) to a microsoldering bench while the corrosion is still localized.
Board-level data recovery
If recovering files from a dead device is the goal, start here.
Step 5: Contact a microsoldering shop sooner rather than later
Time matters with liquid damage. Sugary drinks (juice, soda, coffee with milk and sugar) and salt water cause faster, deeper corrosion than plain water. Even with plain water, the longer the device sits, the more the residue inside the board oxidizes copper traces. We'd rather see the device right away than next week.
Liquid damage board repair on a MacBook usually involves disassembly, ultrasonic cleaning of the board, microscope inspection for damaged pads or lifted components, and replacement of any failed parts. The same general approach applies to iPhone and iPad logic boards — see our dedicated MacBook logic board repair and iPhone & iPad logic board repair pages for the device-specific details.
What to expect at the bench
A typical liquid-damage workflow looks like:
- Intake and history — what spilled, when, and what's been done since
- Disassembly and visual inspection of the board
- Ultrasonic cleaning to remove residue from corroded sections
- Microscope inspection for lifted pads, missing components, and corroded traces
- Power-rail testing under controlled conditions
- Repair quote and a clear explanation of what's realistically possible
- Approved repair work and final functional testing
What it costs, and the extra time it takes
Water-damaged devices get a liquid-damage treatment instead of the $55 diagnostic: $100 for phones, $150 for laptops. The treatment adds at least 24 hours to the repair: ultrasonic cleaning, a bath in 99% isopropyl alcohol, then drying overnight.
Realistic limits
Liquid damage is one of the harder repair categories because every spill is different. Some boards come back fully — the damage was localized, the corrosion was caught early, and a few components were replaced. Some boards are unrepairable — corrosion has progressed through internal layers of the PCB, or critical components have been damaged beyond replacement. We share an honest read after the diagnostic before any soldering work is approved. Board-level work is no repair, no fee: if we can't fix it, you pay nothing. On mail-in repairs, shipping costs still apply.
If you have time, write down what spilled (water, coffee, beer, salt water), roughly when it happened, and any actions you've taken since. That history is genuinely useful at the bench.
Where to start
If the priority is the data on the device, start with our board-level data recovery page. If the priority is restoring the device, the MacBook logic board repair or iPhone & iPad logic board repair pages cover the workflow for each device family.
MacBook logic board repair
MacBook board-level repair — liquid damage, no power, USB-C, charging circuit.
iPhone & iPad logic board repair
iPhone and iPad board-level repair — no power, boot loops, water damage, IC failures.
Frequently asked questions
Should I put my wet phone in rice?
No. Rice doesn't pull water out of a sealed device. It just sits in a bag of rice while corrosion continues inside. Power the device off, leave it off, and contact a microsoldering shop as soon as possible.
How much does water damage repair cost?
Water-damaged devices get a liquid-damage treatment instead of the $55 diagnostic: $100 for phones, $150 for laptops. The treatment adds at least 24 hours to the repair: ultrasonic cleaning, a bath in 99% isopropyl alcohol, then drying overnight.
Can you recover data from a water-damaged iPhone?
Sometimes. Water-damaged iPhone data recovery starts with a board-level diagnostic. If we can repair the underlying fault — usually a power management or charging IC, or a corroded section — the iPhone may come back far enough to be unlocked and backed up. We don't promise recovery. We keep recovered data for 7 days after the job is finished, then delete it.
How long can a wet device sit before it's not repairable?
There's no fixed deadline, but earlier is always better. Sugary or salty liquids worsen the situation faster than plain water. Devices brought in within the first day or two have meaningfully better odds than ones that sit for weeks.
Do you offer mail-in repair for liquid-damaged devices?
Yes. Power the device off, do not charge it, let the exterior dry, and send a mail-in request right away. Once we approve it, we'll email a prepaid shipping label and packaging guidance.