Safety Tips Electrical safety

Water-damaged equipment: Replace or recondition?

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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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