Water Damaged IM3003

Water damage is one of the worst things that can happen to your IM3003 Master Station.  Usually this happens when the home has a leak of some type, either from your roof or a plumbing problem.

It also happens a lot of the time when you have wallpaper removed and the room repainted.  Removing wallpaper is done with water-based solutions and while washing down the wall, the water gets inside the IM3003.

Because of how the circuit boards are mounted on the back of the IM3003 faceplate, the display board and the amplifier board sit horizontality (like shelves) on the back of the faceplate.  The water will puddle up on these boards, causing all sorts of damage.

Electronic circuit boards that have been damaged by water will have a green corrosion around the electronic components on the circuit board.  If the corrosion is left for a long period of time (weeks) it can ruin the circuit board.

Master Stations with water damage will exhibit very different types of problems than master stations that just have the typical, common failures.  This is because the green corrosion is conductive (it can make small electrical connections) which create short circuits on the board, between different components.   These short circuits will cause random problems and can also damage or ruin components.

When a water-damaged Master Station is delivered to us for repair, it is almost never a typical repair.  There is additional work to clean the boards and additional time to troubleshoot components that are water damaged.  These units are almost always more expensive to repair.

This display board is from a IM3003 that has water damage from wallpaper removal.  The shiny coating on the board is from the wallpaper removal solution.  The red arrows point to the corrosion caused by the water.  In this case, the board will require a new display IC chip ( the large chip in the center of the board) because the corrosion has shorted out the chip.  The replacement components cost $24.00

This area of the power supply / amplifier board controls the intercom functions.  The red arrows point to more of the green corrosion.  

Another view of the same board.  This board will be cleaned in an ultra sonic cleaner to remove the corrosion before it is repaired.

More corrosion around the amplifier IC and voltage regulator.

Water stains on the amplifier insulator card are a good indication of what happened to this IM3003.