I was fiddling around with the starter switch for the fluorescent light and it fell into water.
Will it still work after it dries? What kind of damage can there be?
Lighting – Starter for fluorescent light fell in water
lighting
Related Solutions
Assuming you're talking about motion sensors like this:
Switches like that need power. They can work by trickling current through incandescents if hooked up like a normal single-throw switch (in series with feed going to lights). If the switch has 4 wires (hot, return, switched, and ground) then you can hook them all up and it will power itself using it's own hot + return. In that case, it shouldn't have to trickle power through the light's circuit, and fluorescents should be able to turn off.
It's most likely just a defective ballast in the new fixture. Failure rate of course varies brand by brand, but none of them are immune to having a wonky ballast fly through the QA process.
I keep replacement ballasts around just like replacement lamps. Since they are rather cheap in most cases, I'd buy one (to test), then keep a small stock for the various types of fixtures that you have.
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Best Answer
As long as the water is clean it will work. The main risk is that some amount of water will remain.
One solution is to fill a bucket with alcohol then dunk it in the bucket. The evaporation of the alcohol will take all the water with it and make it nice and dry. You can also sit it in the bright sun for a few days.