I have a site that is heading for major problems. The equipment and MDF is in a room right next to the pool pumps and chemicals, in fact they have been storing chemicals in the phone room. Corrosion is now starting to show up on the MDF and I'm sure it is penetrating the equipment. Yea, it means big bucks for the company if I have to start replacing equipment, but I like to look out for my customers. I'm thinking of spraying everything with something like CRC or WD-40. Has anyone encountered this before and what would you recommend? I've warned the manager and will talk to the management company Monday,
I had a similar problem about 5 years ago - an IDF located in the pump room for the swimming pool at a country club. Corrosion caused by the chlorine fumes was disintegrating the wires and having them fall off the pins of the 66 blocks And the pins on the blocks themselves were becoming corroded, making it more and more difficult to reconnect and re-cross connect. I had encouraged the contact at the country club to pay for a change to this setup, warning that connections to alarms that pass through that IDF may fail at inopportune times. After an alarm failed to operate properly during a break-in at their pro shop (fortunately nothing major taken) and I traced it to the IDF they paid to move it.
Show the management company that the specifications for the system require a clean dry room. Explain to them that the equipment is not designed to operate in that environment; that they wouldn't operate a desktop computer in that environment; that leaving it there will lead to premature failure that won't be covered by any warranties; and that it will likely fail at the most inopportune time; and that even after failure replacing the equipment and putting it back in the same room is just going to have it fail again.
And remember, as frustrating as it may be, you can't fix stupid.
My equipment room housing a 5,500 line PBX squeaked by and didn't get wet in a 1996 flood here in Portland, Oregon. All the senior management were worried sick when they learned that all the telephones and all the data network facilities were in jeopardy. But their interest in the potential problem reduced right along with the receeding waters! (What else should I have expected?) We finally got a new equipment room along with a new PBX when we outgrew the 15 year old model we had. Now I'm safe on the second floor! (And if I'm not safe there I'm not coming back after the next flood!)
In addition to "talking to the management" I'd write them a letter. I'd write to the person responsible for the telecommunications services at the company and copy that letter to the president, CIO or some other higher and important person. That way they will be less likely to claim you didn't warn them when the disaster strikes!
If brains were gasoline, some wouldn't have enough to run a pissant's motorcycle one revolution around the inside of a Cheerio.
I've seen a couple "corporate office" telephone equipment rooms in some really WRONG places. After tropical storm Allison (June 2001) dropped 48 inches of rain on Houston in a span of just 72 hours, both were made into "believers" that it's probably not such a swell idea to put your PBX and standby electrical generators in the basement.
In the same storm SWBell (nee, SBC) also lost a couple central offices. The switching machines were sitting in 3 feet of water on the 1st floor.
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