Water-damaged equipment: Replace or recondition?
Has any of your electrical equipment recently been exposed to water?
“Water and electricity do not mix,” the Electrical Safety Foundation warns. “Any water-damaged equipment, even if thoroughly dried, will pose serious long-term safety and fire risk if not properly reconditioned.”
ESFI recommends you have your water-damaged electrical equipment evaluated by a qualified electrician. It also offers this list of equipment that must be replaced if damaged by water, and what equipment you may be able to recondition.
Replace:
- Arc-fault and ground-fault circuit interrupters
- Batteries
- Lighting, ballasts and LED drivers
- Low- and medium-voltage fuses
- Molded-case circuit breakers
- Outlet and junction boxes
- Receptacles
- Signaling, protection and communication systems
- Surge protective devices
- Switches and dimmers
- Transformers (All dry type, control circuit, liquid-filled, cast-resin)
- Uninterrupted power supply
- Wire or cable (for dry areas)
Recondition:
- High-voltage AC circuit breakers
- Low- and medium-voltage switchgear
- Low-voltage power circuit breakers
- Motors
- Panelboards
- Switchboards
- Wire or cable (for wet areas that haven’t been damaged/ends not exposed)
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