Opening the power brick?

I spilled coffee in my bag and some got into the power brick. How do I open it to let it dry?

I don’t think the power brick is meant to be opened. I think if you really want to open it though, it’ll be a destructive opening…

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I don’t have a Framework Laptop so take my guesses with a grain of salt.

As shown on their blog post, the power adapter seems to be ultrasonically welded:

Therefor it’s really hard and dangerous to open it. (trust me I tried with other ones)

But I would assume that due to only the USB-C port being open, there shouldn’t be much moisture inside of the power brick.

So I would put it into a bag with some dry rice, seal it, and wait 24h. Then it should be fine. (but test it first without your laptop :wink:)

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@Mitsche I would recommend staying away from the rice trick, it does not help. Here Is a post on iFixit that may help.

https://www.ifixit.com/Wiki/Don't_Put_Your_Device_in_Rice._Here's_Why

As for opening it. It may end up being destructive, and not worth it. There’s a good chance it will work fine and no liquid got inside. Blow into the edges of the ports to blow out the liquid, and then try giving it some good ol love taps to be sure it all out.

In other news, I recall watching a video some time ago about a person? couple? driving from the US to the southern tip of South America and that their laptop power adapter died and would cost an arm and a leg to get a new one, but there were local electricians that could fix it for almost nothing. I can’t find the video but I did find one of a person checking power adapters and opening them up.

Plug it in and if you have something you don’t care about that is USB C try charging that first with the power adapter before you plug your sweet Framework into it.

Well, rice helps to remove the liquid. And in this case I think the coffee hasn’t even touched the PCB. Therefore removing it before corrosion happens is your best bet IF you don’t have isopropyl alcohol at hand for replacing.

Opening the power brick and cleaning it with a toothbrush (as it is suggested by ifxit for phones) isn’t a good idea for your situation as it can be later on a fire hazard with legal consequences for you.

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Oh yeah… I brain-deaded right there, forgot we were talking about a power adapter. Got sidetracked at work and came back and finished up the post after trying to find that bloody link from Iifixit.

Yes, rice can absorb moisture. But so can air. And air is more effective. The starch in rice gets everywhere, and it actually speeds up the corrosion process. Using rice to dry out electronics is a fools errand. If you do it, and your device happens to work after, congratulations, you’ve experienced survivorship bias. Your device would have survived with or without the rice, but because you put it in rice, you attribute it to the rice.

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Turns it works just fine but thanks for your input.