What happens when painters come to your house

Last week I had a call from a long time customer who reported that his IM4006 Intercom System was not working.  When I asked him to describe what was and was not working, he gave me a long list of problems that defiantly were not on the "10 most common problems" list.

The clock and display were dead, the radio power LED would light up but the radio would not play, the door chime did not work, the intercom did not work and the cassette player would turn the tape but no sound came out.

As I questioned him about what may have transpired at his home that were related to the sudden failure of this IM4006, he mentioned that he had just had the inside of the house repainted, including the kitchen.

I asked if the kitchen had wallpaper that was removed by the painters, he answered yes.  I knew exactly what had happened.

When the painters were stripping the wallpaper off the walls, they used a water based solution on the wallpaper to soften the glue.  This solution ran down the wall and got into the inside of the IM4006 Master Station.

My suspicion was confirmed a few days later at the house.

The Main Control Board and the AM/FM Tuner Board were caked with drywall dust and water mixed together.  This wet paste like substance covered almost one-half of the board.

When water gets into and puddles up on the circuit boards of any intercom it can create lots of damage.  This IM4006 had only been this way for about 3 weeks and the Main Control Board was ruined.

Sometimes to amount of cleaning will bring a board with so much damage back to life, and even if cleaning does solve the problem there is no guarantee that the corrosion hasn't taken hold and the problems will return in the future.

The two damaged boadrs were replaced with donor boards form another IM4006.

When you have people working around your Intercom Equipment, be sure to have it protected so this type of dame does not happen to your system.