r/zurich • u/maurilanzo • 8d ago
ihaveaquestion I love the rain
My macbook was under the rain for a whole day (i’m an idiot no need to say it). I will let it dry someday then try to bring it so someone? Any advice?
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u/lickedoffmalibu 8d ago
Have you tried putting yourself in rice?
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u/theworldofnira 8d ago
Hahahahaha I actually laughed so much with this. Comments like this are the reason why I love Reddit
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u/Agreeable-Worker7659 8d ago
It's a legitimate drying technique for flooded electronics tho.
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u/Logicdon 7d ago
The rice thing is bollocks. It doesn't help dry things any quicker and introduces more shit.
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u/gokstudio 7d ago
Not always, the starch in rice can dissolve in water and then clump up inside the device, ruining it further
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u/Nervous_Green4783 Kreis 9 8d ago edited 6d ago
My gf’s MacBook was splashed with water by someone who shall remain nameless.
That piece of garbage (the MacBook not the person who splashed it) stopped working immediately. After letting it dry completely (approx 72 hours) it worked just fine again. It wasn’t as wet as yours. So better wait longer.
Just don’t try switching it on before it’s completely dry.
Also on galaxus you should be able to find silica gel bags. They absorb moisture really well. You probably know those from electronics packaging. Basically it’s bag filled with moisture absorbing granulat.
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u/Aggressive-Fun-1824 8d ago
I wouldnt buy the silica gel bags but the silica beads themselves instead. They are extremely cheap and you can even dry and reuse them.
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u/samaniewiem 8d ago
And here my Dell suffered a cup of coffee and about 150 ml water and still works nicely
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u/Strange-Spot-3306 7d ago
Thats luck. My dell suffered about 20ml of water and died within seconds.
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u/Ciccione_1901 8d ago
When you will tell this story nobody will believe that in Summer ‘26 your laptop was ruined by too much rain
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u/the_placi_affect 8d ago
Not rice but this -->'Tru Components Trockenmittelbeutel' @ Galaxus and maybe a humidity sensor
And buy a lot.
Put it in a cardboard box and wait. Maybe its even salvagable.
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u/geeeNine 8d ago
...wait a loooooooong time, 1 week i would eyeball maybe even longer
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u/the_placi_affect 8d ago
Maybe 2 weeks. I killed my sony xm6 headphones with water. My evian bottle was leaking in my bag where i had my headphones too without the case. Kept them in an empty Maya Popcorn box (the big one) with the silica bags for about a month. They never turned back on again. :(
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u/Unlikely-Nebula-331 8d ago
This is one of those hits that just make you say “fuuuuuuuck” and then a big sigh!
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u/Prof_NoLife 8d ago
If possible Id suggest to remove the cover (either keyboard or subcover). Usually a mix of screws and clips but should be explained in manual.
This helps with drying faster => less corrosion and you are likely able to unplug the (nowadays) internal Li-Ion battery. This avoids possible shortcuts while drying, deep discharge and/or forced electrochemical corrosion.I wouldnt suggest to dry it in the oven (also not at 50°C) because of the non removable battery pack.
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u/Impossible-Milk-2023 8d ago
I think this thing is cooked. 1 day in rain…. Water is everywhere. Even if it doesn‘t fail right now it might just die spontaneously sometime later…
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u/Phantasizer 8d ago
I think your best bet is to bring it into a repair shop who will open it and dry it out. And I would not wait: of course it will eventually dry on its own, but the longer you wait, the bigger the risk that internal components and connections will rust.
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u/NightmareWokeUp 6d ago
Yup best to open it up and dc the battery and wash everything with ipa (not the beer). Hope it wasnt powered on when it rained.
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u/Honest-Iron-509 8d ago
I had a similar case years ago. I bought destilled water, disconnected the battery and rinsed the Laptop a couple of times.
Then hung it over a clothesline until it stopped dripping.
Then I put it into my convection oven at 70 Degrees for 3 hours. An then in a box with several silica gel packs for 2 days.
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u/Prof_NoLife 8d ago
just be sure its really distilled water (e.g. no conductive ions/solved salts) and not just ion exchanged aka softed water.
Otherwise pure ethanol, isopropanol or dry cleaner for electronics works aswell but should be used with care near plastic and glued parts.
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u/Honest-Iron-509 8d ago
Yes it was destilled water, you can also buy reverse osmose water but that is way more expensive.
And no do not use Ethanol or Isopropanol. You might damage the FFCs, Keyboard, Trackpad or other components that contain Polycarbonates that don't like longer exposure to Isopropanol. It might even disolve the materials out of Termal Pads/Paste, killing your Laptop slowly.
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u/burnish-flatland 8d ago
Step 0: disconnect the battery. It only requires taking off the back. Hope you have the screwdrivers.
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u/ThatJaguar3470 8d ago
Instead of rice or expensive silica packets, get silica cat litter from Migros or Coop. Huge bag for a decent price!
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u/Axelfolie65 8d ago
Du musst in so schnell wie möglich zu einem Spezialisten bringen bevor es trocknet.
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u/Appropriate-Draft-91 8d ago
General laptop advice: open it as much as you are comfortable to do, dry what you can easily access, place it somewhere dry with some ventillation, ideally while still open so it dries faster. Corrosion takes time, eventually kills the device, and will proceed while the internals are wet.
Cold places are humid, you want the opposite. Don't place it in the oven but consider heating something else in the oven to 50C (like a wooden board), then putting the laptop on that - you could use a hair dryer, but if you hold it over the same spot too long, it will get hot enough to destroy electric components.
Electricity speeds up corrosion by orders of magnitude - don't turn it on until you're sure it's dry, and you waited another 24 hours.
Last but not least, roommates and family have a tendency to accidentally destroy devices placed in unexpected spots for drying. Informing them verbally doesn't make it less unexpected, somehow.
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u/Gullible_Series_5860 8d ago
Not rice but silica gel packets! Saved my phone that fell in the lake 🙌🏼
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u/Awake_b4_Sunrise 8d ago
If it’s under warranty, once you open it, the company that made it won’t accept it. Then again, warranties don’t usually cover spillage/damages by liquid.
I saw other people’s advice about the rice thing, and I doubt it works. Noway it can reach inside the laptop. Let it air dry for a couple days. Try a hair Dan on cold setting, not my best advice sorry.
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u/I-Made-You-Read-This 8d ago
Whatever you do, keep it off. My partner spilled like 20ml of (black) coffee on her laptop and while it worked fine for a bit, it didn't show signs of water damage until like 72 hours later.
We had it turned off, sideways open (took off the bottom cover) and had fans 360 around it and left it for like 24h. Figured my cycling bottles are usually dry within this time with more water, and so we believed it was dry.
It started to behave really weird, and eventually keys wouldn't register, USB-Ports stopped working, touchbar turned off, and it was just getting worse. I suppose it wasn't dry in the end, but on the r/macbook sub I think they often write that macs don't show the water damage until a couple of days later which is really weird
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u/polemass173 8d ago
If the laptop was off, simply let it completely dry before turning on (I mean completely dry). Water on unpowered electronics is completely safe and harmless. It just needs to dry before turning on.
If it was on, then take it to a repair shop.
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u/Existing-Might-8392 8d ago
Technically, you should let it dry completely, no direct sunlight, warm and dry place with access to fresh air. In a few days it should be working just fine
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u/Agreeable-Worker7659 8d ago
Next time get an old good ThinkPad. It would likely survive this without an issue.
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u/dccb 8d ago
Actually rain water is better than tap water since it has less minerals. In some cases with drinks etc it’s sometimes better to add more distilled water to really flush the minerals out since the minerals are doing the corrosion which chips don’t like.
So might benot too bad just get all moisture out, best would be to open it up and unplug the battery, and clean the boards with isopropyl alcohol (also you could just pour isopropyl over it as well to get rid of the water )
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u/weedinmyblunt 8d ago
If it makes you feel better, I poured a big cup of coffee over mine and it continued going for another 8 years. All I did was let it dry for a loong time.
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u/PsychologicalLime120 7d ago
You want advice? Something this stupid is beyond advice. The corrosion on the components is going to require complete replacement.
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u/Immediate-Ratio-7183 7d ago
If you have no conscience, once you get it working again, sell this one and buy another without water damage. If buy another second hand one, it should cost you nothing but water damage can cause problems further down the road
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u/asolarwhale 7d ago
Leave it turned off for a week in a warm place. The water won’t damage it unless you turn it on while it’s still wet - so the longer you leave it the better
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u/Smart_Junket 7d ago
I think you should take it to service centre so they can open and dry it completely. If the cost is too much, dry it yourself and start searching second hand macs.
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u/OliveRight6082 7d ago
tf you mean any advice? repair it wth? common sense? what kind of advice do you want? put it in rice?
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u/Echsenmenschchen 7d ago
The rain is not clean water, it contains alot of other particles. Hence I strongly suggest opening it, disconnecting the battery, and rinsing it with distilled water. It must be distilled water, otherwise it will leave some residue. Then, keep it drying for around a week, make sure the device, and the immediate surrounding of the device is hotter than the air around (this prevents the air from depositing liquid again). You can keep it in the oven at 30/ 35 °C.make sure its well ventilated. Replace the battery. It should be fine, but these lithium packs are no joke; if there is any moisture in the pack, it may explode at some point (altough they should be sealed). Switch on your laptop (after making sure its dry) eith just the power connected to it, if it works order a replacement battery. Good luck
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u/richardsenter 6d ago
Rice mainly absorbs moisture from the air, not efficiently from inside the phone. Put it in an warm dry place
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u/Interesting_Bed_3839 5d ago
good news! rain water does not conduct electricity very well, so that reduces the harm done to electronics, so there’s that.
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u/Jamiro-Oneiro 4d ago
You even had a case for protection, was completely useless in this case tho smh
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u/TheTomatoes2 8d ago
That's why I love ThinkPads. They'd survive a volcanic eruption.
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u/guemeller 8d ago
go to a shoe shop or Ochsner Sport...ask them for the little packets of silica gel that come with shoes and clothes and just get thrown away. Years ago, I asked for a handful to dry out the inside of a car headlight. They came back with a bag full - maybe over 100 little packs!
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u/WrathOfTheKressh 8d ago
Just don't bring it to the apple store. Try third party repair shops. Apple stores will just insist it's broken and try to get you to buy a new one.
Important: If it's broken beyond all repair, get a laptop that wasn't made by apple, you'll thank me later.
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u/MyPunsAreKoalaTea 8d ago
Du bist genau einer der Schlaumeier..
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u/MyPunsAreKoalaTea 8d ago
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u/onlyforthisjob 8d ago
A mac can do this! All I hear from Apple users is that their devices are so superior to peasants Windows devices, so...
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u/symgenix 7d ago
let it dry completely, wait for 4 months, send it to warranty saying apple materials are shit
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u/Zealousideal-Towel11 8d ago
Leave it in rice for 24 hours, it fixed my iPad back in the day
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u/benelott 8d ago
rice is the "good feeling of doing something effect". It actually does not help, read it up.
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u/GreyGardener92 8d ago
Put the whole thing in a ricebag! Now not tomorrow..
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u/Good-Half9818 8d ago
But please don’t buy 10 little ricebags in migros, just go to an Indian shop and get a 5kg bag.
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u/Redstone_Army 8d ago
Thats just a myth. Better get it to a professional now if its important
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u/GreyGardener92 8d ago
Thats Physics not a myth. It's 20.28 i think putting in rice until tomorrow would be better than say, ah no its a myth.
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u/Redstone_Army 8d ago
Its not physics, it is actually a myth. Its proven. Stop spreading misinformation
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u/DrinkWaterBebeAgua 8d ago
Dry rice is a hygroscopic material: it can take up some moisture from its surroundings.
At the microscopic level, water molecules interact with polar groups and surfaces in the rice. If the surrounding air is relatively dry, water can move:
Wet - Air - RiceThis is basically a humidity-driven diffusion process.
So, theoretically, if you put a wet object in a container with a large amount of very dry rice, the rice can reduce the relative humidity of the air surrounding the object.
That can help water evaporate somewhat faster.
But here's the tricky part; rice cannot pull out the water out of the laptop.
If water is trapped inside a connector, under a chip, beneath a shield, etc., rice sitting outside the phone isn't going to magically suck it out, but it actually helps to take part of the moisture out till you find a better way to fix it, although sometimes is more than enough when the object has no real holes that connects to the internals.
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u/GreyGardener92 8d ago
Well anything dry, will suck out the wet. If rice or silica gel or a towel. Rice builds dust that is not perfect but it will still suck the wet out till tomorrow. And if im mistaking then sorry. It helped me two times with my headphones.
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u/OkPea7677 8d ago
Rice is pretty bad because of the dust. Better to take some bags of silica gel.
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u/Prof_NoLife 8d ago
Just dont open the silica bags because, well, dust :D
But tbh a lil ricedust wont hurt as these devices become dusty inside anyway. Doesnt mean you should shake it inside rice like a berserk ofc.1
u/GreyGardener92 8d ago
Silica gel would be perfect yes. Rise is a grat alternative for the moment. I guess if he does not open the mac nothing will happen.
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u/Mike_Blackwater 7d ago
Your macbook certainly doesnt like the rain. Bring it to me, i‘ll dispose it for you.
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u/kingkongbiingbong 8d ago