Popped into a house in Springfield after a storm and noticed something weird with their panel

I was out in Springfield yesterday doing a tree removal estimate and the homeowner asked if I could look at their alarm panel while I was there. They said it kept beeping randomly at night. I popped the cover off and saw the main board had this green crusty corrosion along the bottom edge. The battery was swollen too, like it was about to pop. Turns out their basement flooded two years ago and the previous installer just mounted the panel two inches off the floor. I told them they need a new panel and to get it raised at least 8 inches up the wall. Has anyone else run into flood damage on panels from low mounting?

2 comments

2 Comments

hannah_williams9d ago

Honestly I'm not sure I'd call this a crisis level situation like some people are making it out to be. Sure the battery was swollen and that's not great, but the panel itself probably still works fine if you clean off the green stuff with some contact cleaner. I get that low mounting isn't ideal but two years of no issues until a random beep seems more like a nuisance than something that's about to burn the house down. @taylor_flores I think you're overthinking it a bit - a lot of stuff gets mounted low and nobody loses sleep over it. You'd think the real lesson here is to maybe check your batteries once a year instead of blaming the height.

taylor_flores10d ago

Honestly that "2 inches off the floor" detail made me realize how much I ignored low mounting risks before.