In ,
Uncle Monster typed:
On Tuesday, January 26, 2016 at 9:19:32 AM UTC-6, TomR wrote:

Water was getting in through the top of the meter box, filling up in
the bottom of the meter box, and then running INSIDE the service
cable that comes out of the bottom of the meter box. I wasn't able
to open the meter box because it requires a special key, and the
utility company was unwilling to come out and open it for me. So, I
was never able to see if there are any drip loops inside the meter
box, but I doubt that there could be since the service line comes
out of the bottom of the meter box. I just did a Google Images
search of "electric service meters" and I saw lots of images of the
inside of the meter boxes with no drip loop inside.

To solve my problem, I used clear 100% silicone caulk and I caulked
all around the meter box, especially at the top, and around the
front cover and anywhere else that water could possibly get in.
That fixed the water problem. I have photos somewhere of the meter
box, but I can't seem to find them right now.

Standard practice around here is to use gray duct seal which is like
modeling clay in texture to build a cone around the SE cable where it
enters the connector at the top of the meter box. This keeps any
water from seeping between the SE cable and the rubber grommet in the
compression connector. Inside the meter box, there are small drain
holes in the back corners of the bottom of the meter box usually from
the factory that should be kept open. If there were no holes, I'd
drill a 1/8" hole in those locations. Those weep holes can become
plugged if calk is run across the bottom of the meter box. I always
ran a bead of calk across the top and sides of the meter box but not
across the bottom so that no water could get trapped between the box
and the wall. ^_^

Thanks. I did do the gray duct seal routine back then and, in addition, I
did the clear 100% silicone caulk routine.

Yesterday, I was able to find the old thread that I started here regarding
that problem back in 2013. The topic of the thread was "Unlocking electric
meter box -- water problem", and it was started by me (TomR) on 6/8/2013 at
3:16 PM Eastern Time.

Looking back, I now remember that the water that was getting into the box
was not getting into the wire coming out of the bottom due to the box
filling with water at the bottom (as I wrote above). I know that because in
re-reading the thread I realize that I did put a drain hole in the bottom of
the box and that didn't correct the problem of water gett into the electric
panel.

The problem that I had at the time was that I could not open the meter box
to look inside and see what was going on. The box cover had a special
locking mechanism on it that I couldn't unlock. Either the utility company
or an electrician with a special tool could have unlocked the front box
cover. The utility company refused to do that for me, and I didn't want to
hire an electrican just to open the box and look inside.

So, the solution that I was left with was to first just try sealing and
caulking the box completely from the outside, and that worked.

I assume that the water that was previously getting into the box was somehow
running down the wires and into the INSIDE of the cable that comes out of
the bottom of the box. But, since I couldn't open the box, I could not
verify exactly what was going on inside the box. I just know that my
sealing and caulking routine on th eoutside of the box solved the problem.