Spilled Something on Your Console?
Liquid damage is the one repair where you deserve straight talk more than a sales pitch. Some spilled-on boards clean up beautifully; some aren't worth your money to ship. Our review process exists precisely to sort one from the other before you pay or mail anything — if we can't help, you'll hear it up front and your deposit never leaves your pocket.
Start a Repair- 90-Day Warranty
- Free Diagnosis
- Photo Proof Before Payment
- Nationwide Mail-In
- Board-Level Specialist
Do this right now — the clock matters
Power off and unplug — immediately
Hold the power button until it shuts down, pull the power cable, and take handhelds off the dock or charger. Electricity flowing through wet circuitry is what does the fastest damage.
Do not charge it, and do not test it
Every "let me just see if it still works" power-up risks shorting something that was still saveable. The curiosity is expensive.
Skip the rice, the hair dryer, and the radiator
Rice does nothing for liquid already inside a sealed console, and heat drives moisture deeper while warping plastics. Let it sit powered off, and get a repair request in instead.
Note what the liquid was
Plain water, soda, energy drink, salt water — each corrodes differently and changes the outlook. Put it in your request; it directly shapes the evaluation.
What liquid actually does to a board
The spill itself rarely kills a console. What kills it is what follows: while power is present, liquid bridges circuits and drives electrolysis that eats metal within minutes. Then comes the slow phase — residue keeps corroding copper traces, component legs, and connector pins long after everything feels dry. Sugary and salty liquids are the worst offenders because their residue is conductive and aggressive.
That slow phase is why acting fast matters so much. A board treated within days is a fundamentally better candidate than the same board six weeks later.
What a proper cleanup involves
This is board-level work, not a wipe-down. The console comes fully apart, the board goes through an ultrasonic cleaning cycle in proper solution to lift residue out from under components, and then the microscope work starts: removing corrosion, replacing components the liquid destroyed, and rebuilding traces and pads that corrosion has eaten through. It's the same discipline as our othermicro-soldering work — applied to a messier enemy.
One thing we won't do is promise an outcome. No honest shop can guarantee a liquid-damaged board, and liquid exposure sits outside the standard 90-day warranty — the details are in theWarranty & Terms. What we can promise is the process: real diagnosis, photo evidence, a quote only for what we actually found, and a refusal to take jobs we don't believe in.
How the mail-in evaluation works
- Describe the spill in the request form — liquid type, how much, and when it happened.
- We review first. Unsalvageable or uneconomical jobs are declined here, before you ship or pay anything.
- If accepted: $40 deposit, packing slip, and you ship it in for free diagnosis.
- You get the findings with photos and a quote — or a full deposit refund if the board can't be saved.
Turnaround is typically 2–3 business days on the bench once your deposit and console arrive, plus shipping — heavy corrosion can add time, and your quote will say so. The whole journey is mapped on How It Works.
We evaluate liquid damage on every platform we service:PS5, Xbox Series X/S,Nintendo Switch, andSteam Deck.
Liquid damage questions
My console still works after the spill. Do I really need to do anything?
A small splash of plain water on the outside? Probably not. But if liquid made it inside, "still working" and "fine" are different things — corrosion keeps eating traces for weeks after the console dries out, and consoles that shrugged off a spill in March die quietly in May. An inspection and cleaning while the board is still healthy is far cheaper than a rescue later.
Is liquid damage work covered by the 90-day warranty?
Liquid exposure is excluded from our standard 90-day warranty, and we won't pretend otherwise — corrosion can restart from residue no cleaning process reaches with certainty. Read the Warranty & Terms before approving a quote so you go in clear-eyed. What you always keep: photo evidence of the work, and no repair balance due until you've approved the quote.
What are the odds you can actually save it?
It genuinely depends: what spilled, how much, how quickly it was powered off, and how long ago. Water caught fast has good odds; salt water or a months-old soda spill, much worse. This is why we quote only what the bench actually finds — and why we decline jobs that aren't worth your money instead of taking a fee to try.
What happens to my deposit if you decline the job?
It comes back to you in full. If we decline at the review stage you never pay or ship at all; if diagnosis shows the board is beyond economical repair, the deposit is refunded and the console is returned to you with an explanation of what we found.
Get an honest answer about your console
Describe the spill and we'll tell you whether it's worth pursuing — before you ship anything or spend a dollar.
Start a Repair