Moisture: The Silent Drive Killer in Food & Beverage Factories



In food and beverage production, drives rarely fail because they “wore out.” They fail because moisture enters where it never should — slowly damaging electronics until the drive suddenly can’t start a line. The problem isn’t usually a dramatic flood or washdown accident. It’s repeated exposure: condensation, steam, cleaning chemicals, and pressure/vacuum cycling inside the enclosure. Moisture comes in small amounts, dries, comes back again, and each cycle leaves behind a little more corrosion.

This creates failures that look random but are actually progressive:

  • A drive resets only after washdowns.
  • A fault disappears after the cabinet “dries out.”
  • A minor cleaning change triggers months of intermittent issues.

To most plants, these look like “ghost faults.” In reality, they’re the first stage of moisture damage.

How Moisture Actually Damages a Drive

Moisture doesn’t destroy electronics instantly. It changes how circuits behave long before anything burns. When vapor condenses inside a cabinet after sanitation, it forms a thin film across PCB traces. That film bridges sensitive circuits and feeds small currents where none belong. Once it dries, it leaves behind salts and residues from chemicals and airborne particles. Over time, those residues become conductive pathways that distort sensing and control signals, causing stress to the IGBTs and power stage.

In practical terms, moisture damage first causes:

  • Intermittent resets and nuisance faults
  • Phantom feedback errors or overcurrent trips
  • Shortened component life and premature catastrophic failure

The drive didn’t “randomly break.” It failed exactly how moisture-damaged electronics fail — quietly at first, then all at once.

How Moisture Gets Inside (Even in Washdown-Rated Designs)

Food facilities often assume an IP66 or NEMA 4X rating is “sealed.” But sealed enclosures still breathe. Every washdown heats the cabinet surface, and every cool-down creates negative pressure that draws humid air inward. Over time, vapor is pulled through cable glands, aging gaskets, cracked conduit, and even around improperly tightened fasteners. Cleaning chemicals accelerate this by reacting with copper and solder, making corrosion more conductive than normal oxidation.

Most moisture intrusion comes from:

  • Pressure cycling during washdown temperature changes
  • Cable glands and conduit slowly wicking moisture inward
  • Gasket wear or mismatched spray angles
  • Chemical vapor and steam entering enclosures

Even if a panel is technically sealed, those conditions slowly pull moisture inside like a sponge being squeezed and released.

Diagnosing Moisture Damage (Without Guessing)

Moisture failures don’t always leave dramatic rust streaks. The earliest signs are electrical behavior changes tied to plant conditions. A drive that resets only after sanitation is rarely suffering from a random electronic glitch — it’s reacting to temporary conductive films across its sensor circuits. If these patterns repeat, corrosion has already begun.

Moisture is the likely culprit when:

  • Faults occur only after cleaning or humidity swings
  • The drive “works again” once the cabinet dries
  • Rust forms on fans, heat sinks, or terminals
  • White or green residue collects near board edges
  • Fans, capacitors, or I/O misread without a clear component failure

In one Munters case study, a poultry processor was issued a USDA warning because condensation repeatedly formed on ceilings and equipment in processing areas. Staff had to hang plastic and spend significant labor wiping surfaces after each sanitation cycle. After installing a dedicated dehumidification system, condensation disappeared within hours, the USDA warning letter was lifted after 90 days with no violations, and moisture-related manual cleanup work was greatly reduced. That’s the same moisture that, in many plants, ends up inside electrical enclosures and drive cabinets.

Repair or Replace? Moisture Changes the Decision

Without moisture, the decision is simple: compare the repair cost vs. replacement cost. But when corrosion is involved, reliability matters more than price. Even if a damaged board can be cleaned, repaired, and recapped, it may fail again if the environmental issue isn’t corrected. That means a “cheap repair” can become the most expensive option in the long run.

Repair makes sense when:

  • Corrosion is limited and cleanup can be done thoroughly
  • Trace integrity is still intact after inspection
  • Replacement availability would delay production longer
  • Environmental moisture risks can be fixed immediately

Replacement is smarter when:

  • Corrosion has spread under coatings or across multiple trace areas
  • Chemical exposure has etched pads or weakened solder joints
  • The drive is not suitable for the environment it’s in
  • Repair cost approaches ~50% of replacement and moisture exposure is likely to continue

If the environment causing the failure remains unchanged, replacement alone is just buying time — not stopping the problem.

Preventing Repeat Moisture Failures

Moisture prevention is not about upgrading drives. It’s about controlling the environment around them. In many plants, a few inexpensive fixes stop the cycle entirely. The goal is to stop moisture from entering and stop corrosion from building during repeated humidity cycles.

Reliable moisture prevention usually involves:

  • Inspecting and replacing cable glands, gaskets, and conduit seals
  • Adding enclosure heaters or small panel dehumidifiers
  • Redirecting washdown spray angles away from enclosures
  • Elevating low-mounted cabinets out of splash zones
  • Reapplying or upgrading conformal coating where needed
  • Matching enclosure ratings to the actual cleaning method and chemicals

A $40 panel heater or a $12 gasket often prevents a $3,000 drive from failing again next year. Prevention isn’t an upgrade project — it’s basic cost control.

Final Takeaway: Fix the Moisture, Not Just the Drive

When a drive fails in a food or beverage plant, it’s tempting to treat it as an isolated event. But if the root cause is moisture, any repair or replacement done in the same environment is just the first chapter of a repeat story.

The most effective approach is to:

  • Confirm whether moisture is involved
  • Decide on repair or replacement based on damage spread and cost
  • Correct the environmental conditions that allowed moisture in

If moisture is causing failures in your plant, the fastest way to protect uptime is to solve both the electronics and the exposure.

Request an evaluation:
https://deltaautomation.com/pages/contact-us

Back to blog