Water & Liquid Damage Repair in Rosebank, Johannesburg
Coffee on the keyboard, a phone in the pool, a glass of water over a MacBook. Liquid damage gets worse every hour it sits, so the fastest thing you can do is stop charging the device, leave it switched off and bring it to us the same day.
Assessment R345Why Liquid Damage Is a Race Against Time
Water on its own is not what kills a laptop or a phone. The damage comes from what the liquid carries. Tap water, coffee, cooldrink, beer and sea water all leave dissolved salts and sugars behind, and those deposits sit on the board conducting current between points that were never meant to be connected. That is why a device can seem fine for a day and then fail on the third day: the board is corroding under the shields while you keep using it.
Two things accelerate that corrosion, and both are in your control. The first is power. Every minute the battery is connected, current is running through wet circuitry, and that is when short circuits burn tracks and blow the power management chip. The second is time. Dried residue is still conductive and still corrosive, so a device that dried out on its own has not recovered, it has simply stopped showing you what is happening inside.
Our job is to open the device, get the board out, strip the shields and clean the corrosion off properly before we look at what still works. We do component-level work in the Rosebank workshop, so we can often save a board that another shop would write off as a full logic board replacement. We are an independent repair shop, not a manufacturer's authorised service centre, which is exactly why we are allowed to repair a board rather than swap it.
What to Do Before You Bring It In
- Do not switch it on, and if it is already on, hold the power button until it shuts down.
- Unplug the charger and do not plug it back in to check whether it still charges. This is the single biggest cause of a repairable board becoming an unrepairable one.
- On a laptop, leave the lid open and stand it in a tent shape, keyboard down, so liquid drains out instead of running deeper into the board.
- Get the SIM tray and any memory card out of a phone, and take the case off.
- Do not put it in rice. Rice does nothing for the corrosion, it draws dust and starch into the ports, and it wastes the hours that actually matter.
- Do not use a hairdryer or an oven. Heat drives liquid further under the shields and warps the plastics.
- Bring it in the same day if you can, or first thing the next morning. We are at Shop G15 on the ground floor of The Zone @ Rosebank, open Monday to Friday 08:30 to 17:30 and Saturday 09:00 to 16:00.
What We See After a Spill
Laptops and MacBooks. A spill through the keyboard usually reaches the keyboard membrane, the trackpad ribbon and the board underneath in that order. Common outcomes are a keyboard where a few keys repeat or do nothing, a trackpad that clicks by itself, a machine that runs but will not charge because the charging circuit is corroded, or a machine that shows no signs of life at all. On MacBooks the liquid tends to reach the keyboard backlight and display flex first, so a picture that flickers or a screen with a dark band down one side is a classic post spill symptom. See our laptop repair and MacBook repair pages for how we handle those devices generally.
Phones. A phone that went into water often survives the first day and then loses the earpiece, the microphone or one of the cameras as corrosion spreads. Screens develop pink or purple blotches and dead touch zones, and the charging port stops holding a cable. Sea water and pool water are the worst cases because the salt and chlorine keep working long after the phone is dry. Our phone repair page covers the rest of what we do with handsets.
Desktops. Spills on a desktop usually hit the keyboard and the top of the case rather than the board itself, so the damage is often limited. The exception is liquid that reaches the power supply, which we replace rather than repair. Read more on desktop repair.
When the board cannot be saved. Sometimes the corrosion has already destroyed the power circuitry or the CPU rails, and no amount of cleaning brings the device back. If that happens, the next question is your data, not the device. We move straight to a data recovery assessment, because on most laptops the storage survives a spill even when the board does not. We tell you this before you spend money on a repair that will not work.
Water Damage Pricing
| Service | Price | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|
| Assessment and strip down | R345, waived if you proceed with the repair | Same day in most cases |
| Board cleaning and corrosion repair | Quoted after assessment | 2 to 3 days |
| Screen replacement (non-touch) | R1,955 to R2,105 plus R150 to R200 install | Same day |
| Screen replacement (MacBook) | R4,999 to R18,000 plus R920 install | Same day to 2 days |
| Keyboard replacement | R1,150 to R1,950 installed | Same day |
| Keyboard replacement (MacBook) | R2,300 to R4,600 plus R920 install | Same day to 2 days |
| Battery, generic | From R1,380 plus R200 install | Same day |
| Battery, original | R2,380 to R2,800 plus R200 install | Same day |
| Battery (MacBook) | R1,610 to R3,450 plus R920 install | Same day |
| Charging port repair | R690 to R1,380 | Same day to 2 days |
| SSD 256GB replacement | R1,150 plus R920 for OS install | Same day |
| Operating system reinstall | R460 to R1,380 | Same day |
| Data recovery | R2,500 to R15,000 | Quoted after assessment |
| Prices are estimates and final pricing follows assessment in the workshop. We do not quote a fixed price for board-level liquid damage work before we have opened the device, because until the corrosion is off the board nobody can honestly tell you what is under it. |
How a Liquid Damage Repair Runs
Bring it in, powered off
Hand it in at Shop G15 and tell us what was spilled, how much, and when. Sea water, sugary drinks and alcohol change what we do first, so the detail matters. We log the device and get it onto the bench.
Strip down and inspect
We open the device, disconnect the battery, remove the board and take the shields off. Under magnification we can see exactly how far the liquid travelled and which circuits are affected. This is the R345 assessment.
Ultrasonic clean
The board goes through an ultrasonic clean to lift residue and corrosion out of the places a brush cannot reach, including under chips and connectors. This is the step that decides most outcomes.
Test and quote
We power the cleaned board on a bench supply and check what works. Only then do we phone you with a real quote covering board-level work and any parts, such as a keyboard, screen, battery or charging port. If the board is not economically repairable we tell you straight and talk about data recovery instead.
Repair and reassemble
With your go ahead we replace what needs replacing, repair what can be repaired, reassemble and run the device under load to make sure nothing fails once it warms up. The R345 falls away at this point because you proceeded with the repair.
Collection
Most liquid damage jobs are ready in 2 to 3 days because the cleaning and testing cannot be rushed. Straightforward cases where only a keyboard or a screen was affected are often same day.
What We Can and Cannot Promise
We do not promise that every liquid-damaged device comes back. Nobody honest can. What we can promise is that you will know where you stand after the assessment, and that you will get a real answer rather than a hopeful one.
What we repair carries a warranty: 6 months on replacement parts and refurbished devices, and 3 months on repair work. That covers the part we fitted and the work we did. It cannot cover corrosion that was already spreading elsewhere on the board before the device reached us, which is another reason same day is better than next week.
If the device is beyond repair and you replace it, we will recycle the old one free of charge through our e-waste recycling service. Note that Asetos does not buy used equipment, so there is no trade-in or purchase offer on a damaged device, but disposing of it responsibly costs you nothing.
Areas We Serve
Our workshop is Shop G15 on the ground floor of The Zone @ Rosebank, 177 Oxford Road, below the Museum of Illusions at the end of the passage between Clicks and Hamleys. We are a short walk from Rosebank Gautrain station, which makes us easy to reach from Rosebank, Parktown, Killarney, Melrose, Houghton, Illovo, Hyde Park, Sandton, Bryanston, Randburg and Fourways.
If you are outside Johannesburg we run a nationwide courier repair service, with devices reaching us from Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town, Gqeberha and Bloemfontein. Call +27 11 057 5709 or message us on WhatsApp to arrange collection. We are open Monday to Friday 08:30 to 17:30 and Saturday 09:00 to 16:00, closed Sunday and public holidays.
Frequently Asked Questions
My laptop still works after the spill. Do I really need to bring it in?
Yes, and sooner rather than later. A device that still works is the best possible starting point, because it means the corrosion has not yet reached the circuits that matter. Cleaning a board at that stage is far cheaper and far more likely to succeed than cleaning one that has already died. Most people who wait a week end up paying for a bigger repair, or for data recovery.
How much will the repair cost?
The assessment is R345, and it falls away if you go ahead with the repair. We cannot quote the repair itself until we have stripped the device and cleaned the board, because liquid damage is not one fault, it is however many faults the liquid happened to cause. Once the board is clean and tested we phone you with a firm quote, and nothing gets done until you say yes.
Does rice work?
No. Rice removes a little ambient moisture from the air around a device, which is not the problem. The problem is the conductive, corrosive residue sitting directly on the board, and rice does nothing to that. Meanwhile the starch dust gets into the ports and the clock keeps running. Switch the device off, leave the charger out and bring it in.
Can you get my photos and files off a water damaged phone or laptop?
Often, yes. On most laptops the SSD or hard drive is a separate component and survives a spill even when the board does not, so we can read it directly. Phones are harder, because storage is soldered to the board and the board usually has to be revived first, at least briefly. Either way it starts with the same R345 assessment, and if it becomes a recovery job we quote from our data recovery range of R2,500 to R15,000 depending on what is involved.
How long does a water damage repair take?
Plan on 2 to 3 days for anything that needs board-level cleaning, because the strip down, the ultrasonic clean, the drying and the testing each take time and rushing them costs you the repair. Cases where the liquid only reached the keyboard or the screen are usually same day. We will give you a realistic timeline when we phone with the quote, not before.
My MacBook was covered by insurance. Can you help with that?
We can give you a written assessment describing the damage, the affected components and the cost to repair or replace, which is normally what an insurer asks for. The R345 assessment fee applies. We are an independent repair shop rather than an Apple authorised service provider, so check with your insurer whether they require an authorised centre before you claim.