A reader asks: “Will my water-spilled laptop be OK?

Reader Emily Long sent in this urgent note — from her smartphone, I presume!

• “A couple of hours ago I spilled water on my laptop, I’ve turned it off, dried the keyboard and it is currently sitting keyboard down while I wait for any possible water to drain out. Will it be fine when it dries?”

You did the right things, and there’s an excellent chance your laptop will be fine — if the spill was indeed just plain water, and if you were quick in turning the laptop off and flipping it over. (Psst! If you haven’t done so already, pop out the battery.)

A pure-water spill may do no harm at all, because pure water — pH nearly neutral, with very low mineral content and no additives; like the best tap water and spring water — is actually a poor conductor of electricity. Pure water also isn’t especially penetrative, so if you flipped the laptop over quickly, odds are that not much water got inside.

It’s impurities — dissolved salts and other minerals, chemicals, etc. — that can make water so conductive, corrosive, and highly damaging to electronics. So, the more salts, sugars, pulp, color additives, and other stuff that was in your drink, the more likely you’ll have follow-on problems.

Sugars, for example, can leave behind a sticky residue when the water evaporates, messing up the keyboard’s action.

And the longer the water sat on the keys, or if the quantity of water was enough to effectively submerge the laptop, the more likely a dangerous/damaging amount of liquid got inside.

But you’re on the right track, with the laptop off, and draining. I suggest you pick up the laptop and, keeping it inverted the whole time, slowly tilt it this way and that, to ensure that any trapped water can escape from under the keys and from any laptop openings.

Now comes the hard part: Keep the laptop off and inverted and in a warm, dry place for longer than you want. 🙂

How long depends on your honest assessment of how much liquid you think got inside. If you’re talking a few drops, the laptop will likely be fully dry overnight or in a day or so. If you’re talking enough water so that you had to pour it out of the keyboard, you’ll probably want to wait a bit longer.

In any case: If you fully drain the laptop and then let it sit in a warm, dry place (put it in a plastic bag with a generous helping of desiccant, if necessary), three or four days should be enough to remove residual moisture after even a heavy-spill.

And, if it really was pure water, I’ll bet your laptop will be fine!

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