Thinkpads Forum

People used to say that all ThinkPads are spill resistant with their keyboard
and drain holes but is it REALLY true for T400/T500 series?
Currently I'm thinking about getting T500 and I'm a bit confused in that
matter. A lot of online reviews/comments say that it is spill resistant.

Here is why I'm not so sure:
1. Lenovo.com doesn't even mention about this feature for T400/T500
series while X series proudly says about that. It was also listed on
older T series page.

2. Looking at online pictures of T400s and X300 bottom you can see
clearly marked drain holes:
http://www.thinkpads.com/wp-content/gal ... -drain.jpg
I couldn't find them on T400/T500 pictures. Could somebody take a look
and confirm?

3. Looking at online pictures of T400s or X300 you can see that central
part of the notebook (under the keyboard) is sealed and secured:
http://repair4laptop.org/contrib/lenovo ... _fully.jpg
I don't see any of that on T400/T500 pictures. Any ideas?

It's not a deal breaker for me but I would like to know what is the
truth. Has anybody seen official (by Lenovo) information in that matter?
At the moment I'm using X31 and absolutely love ThinkPads.

Thanks.

A snall amount of liquid will drain through the holes on the bottom. My R60 has them, but I wouldn't advise dumping a whole glass of water on it.

-thinkpaduser- wrote:Has anybody seen official (by Lenovo) information in that matter?

See tabook.

Look at the keyboard description lines.

That's what I was looking for, thank you.

I don't believe too much in it ('spill proof' thinkpads). Of course that type of construction can help a bit - but generally won't stop flooding . If you open your laptop, you'll see that it's capable to stop just a small amount of water.
I've got quite hairy hands and after opening my T61p I can find some single hair below the keyboard. If my hair can be found there - I don't ask about the water ...

WojtekJ wrote:I don't believe too much in it ('spill proof' thinkpads).

It's billed as spill-resistant, not spill-proof. There's a difference.

JaneL wrote:

WojtekJ wrote:I don't believe too much in it ('spill proof' thinkpads).

It's billed as spill-resistant, not spill-proof. There's a difference.

Thread's name is "T400/T500 spill proof - true or myth?" - that's why I used this expression - but you're right, it's not really spill proof, but spill resistant.

I spilled a full cup of water + coffee and tea and soda on my T61 and and the drains worked perfectly however i never had the same incident with my T500 or X301 and actually i don't like or trust the new keyboards meanwhile my T500 keyboard was replaced with a T61 keyboard so i think it should be spill resistant.

Is the T400/T500 spill-proof? No.

Is it designed to be more likely to survive liquid spills than the T4x and earlier? Yes.

I was in a conference room late winter with my boss and we each had our W520's with us. A consultant swung around a 24 inch monitor and hit the 24 ounce or so mug of coffee that was sitting next to my bosses laptop with the lid off (whoops!) and the cup emptied at least 1/2 the contents on his keyboard.

He pressed the power button and held it to shut it down, we picked it up and let the coffee wick out the weep holes and then striped it - removed the battery, the dvd, keyboard, hard drive, opened the memory bay, etc and dried everything we could with paper towels and q-tips.

Long story short - we did replace the keyboard as it was sticky, however, everything else has been fine with the machine for the last 4-5 months since the incident.