Water leak into consumer unit

[ruaricoles]

Went into our en-suite this morning to hear the sound of trickling water down the back of the basin

I've stopped the leak, but underneath in a cupboard downstairs is the consumer unit which is dripping with water

Some of the breakers had tripped, I've turned the power supply off completely and we've dried up as much as possible (front panel removed but breakers still in place)

I have a dehumidifier but can't run it without putting the power back on

If I put the main power back on the unit makes a buzzing / fizzing sound; are we best off just leaving it to dry off for a few hours or are there electronics inside the switches which could be knackered? Or just turn it on and run the dehumidifier to dry it out as quickly as possible?

Thanks all

[ruaricoles]

Thanks guys

I pumped WD40 into the breakers to dispel the water then left it while we were out for a few hours

Now back home, powered it up again and the arcing noises have stopped and one half seems happy, the other half RCD won't stay on though

That's enough anyway with a ring main on to get a hair dryer and dehumidifier on it to make sure it's properly dry, and to let the freezer get cold and the heating get warm

That should keep us going today, we'll keep an eye on it and turn it off again overnight to be sure

Waiting to hear back from a sparky ref coming to check them properly tomorrow and change the breakers if needed

Thanks for the advice guys

[ruaricoles]

Thanks, we'll certainly not leave it unattended!! And it'll be going off at night. All seems much better now after a good long hair dryer session. Sparky coming round tomorrow hopefully. All new breakers will be around £80-90 plus a bit of fitting if needed so I'm not inclined to worry about any insurance route. Fortunately there doesn't look to be any further water damage and the paint has dried up fine.

[ruaricoles]

A whole new unit is actually cheaper than just getting the breakers (!) from Screwfix at least, it's an MK jobby and with almost all the breakers we need included is around 80 quid instead of 120 or so for buying the internals separately. Therefore we'll probably get the whole lot and can transfer the internals if that's sufficient

[ruaricoles]

I'm going to rest very nicely thank you.

With the bloomin' thing turned off!