Like the caring and somewhat paranoid and obsessive person I am (especially when it comes to my trains), I keep my dehumidifier set to keep the humidity nice and low in my basement. Well, If any of you know what New Jersey basements are like in the summer, they can get pretty damp. So, I have been emptying the catch basin on a daily basis.
This morning, after the usual nice and long proud stare I give to my layout, and the somewhat modist collection of postwar pieces I have collected, I bent done to empty the dehumidifier. As I got up, I bumped the bucket into my benchwork just hard enough to splash a good deal of water onto the layout and right into and underneath 2 of my MTH Z1000 tranformers. Panic sets in. What do I do. I quickly disposed of the water, quickly unhooked the transformers, and began to shake them out. No, the layout power was thankfully not turned on during this unfortunate accident.
I then had the brillant idea of grabbing the wife's blow drier, to dry the presummably damaged circuitry of my layout's heart and soul. As I stared to blow dry, (on full power, with full heat), the phone rang. Rather than shutting the blowdrier off, I kept it going, pointing at the transformer( at the time, what I thought to be a safe distance away from the plastic shell of the Z1000). I finished my phone call and eagerly went back to my work station to check on my drying Z1000. Can you guess what I found? Oh yes....A very hot and quite warped Z1000. I quickly killed the blowdrier, and inspected my Z1000. Did not look good. I then decided to let it cool and bit, and try to see if it would work. Plugged her in, set my postwar 2023 on the tracks, and without a cough, the postwar beauty from 1950 fired right up. WHEW!!!!
Thankfully, only the bottom got warped and the circuitry survived the extreme wet and heat of my accident. I certainly learned a lot form this event, most importantly, when something like this happens, stop for a second, gather your thoughts and don't rush into anything too quickly. I also learned that there are times that I am not too bright...
sean s. - First off--->.
We have all had those moments from time-to-time. I run an old piece of garden hose from my dehumidifier straight to my sump-pump, so no dumping water for me.
I would have used a wet/dry shop vac to pick up the water rather than use a hair drier, it is more important to get the water out of the unit than to dry it with heat. Also I unplug my transformer power and use surge protecters due to lightning and other power surges here in south Florida.
Glad to hear that nothing is permantly damaged!
Lee F.
"No childhood should be without a train!"
wow, sounds like you lucked out.
btw
Glad, you can still haul cows.
Wayray
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