holy sh$t i almost burnt the house down

[reefwars]

wow wow wow holy close i came home early today and after i sat down i looked at my tank no flow humm as i went to inspect i noticed burn marks as i looked at the back the powerbar was black and had caught fire while i was at work the back of my stand caught fire and my floor was burned the power bar was a charred crisp ....the best part its a gfi powerbar.......was anyways :) o my some glad im going new everything the powerbar is a few years old

[reefwars]

i am so ****ed i want to toss it across the room, the culprit was my hob aquaclear started a leak through the back


some glad i listened to you guys and never ran my tank off one powerbar the second back up was prob the only thing keeping everything alive when i got home. the only thing in the burned powerbar was a powerhead and aquaclear the lights heater and other powerhead was on a seperate power bar:) thank god:):)

[naesco]

Sorry to hear this but you are lucky the fire did not spread.
How are your fish?

[The Grizz]

:surprise: It must be uncomfortable for you to sit down with that horseshoe ......you know where :lol:

[fishoholic]

Glad things are ok and you didn't burn the house down :surprise:

[ALang]

How terrible!
On the other hand, that horseshoe really worked, no matter WHERE it was lodged!:razz: I'd take it out and display it proudly if I were you.
Good luck. Call if you need anything.

[reefwars]

everything is fine in the tank as far as can tell im gonna do a small water change to be safe later once the stress is down, i had a bad feeling this morn and came home early today i didnt even smell it when i walked in lol the whole back of the tank is burnt to a crisp doubt it has any structure now the wall has burn marks the powerbar is a charred crisp all the plugs that were in it are burnt off , i am soooooo sooooo lucky ......the powerbar did shut off when water hit it just not in enough time to not catch fire i cant figure out why ,i plugged it in outside and it switches on as soon as i put a plug into it it shuts off again i was sketchy about that powerbar anyways where its so old:) should always go with your gut feeling not what the writing says :):):)

now if i can get the smoke out of my house id be really happy man what a day ever since i made the decision to sell everything went to hell.first my 110 started a cycle the day i posted my coral and fish i lost two fish and several coral and now a fire today someone doesnt want me to sell lol:):)

grizz there may be a horseshoe there lol :):)

[reefwars]

great now my filters arent working one doesnt even have a plug lol hope lr is enough to keep it stable untill i can get something together .....im replacing all my gfi's tonight with new ones no more chances no more waiting till last minute:)

[reefwars]

the only thing keeping the fire from spreading was the massive amount of water on my floor and walls lol the leak started the fire and put it out :):)

[Megalodon]

i am so ****ed i want to toss it across the room, the culprit was my hob aquaclear started a leak through the backDid the water drip on the GFI power bar? Shouldn't it have tripped? What brand was it?

[reefwars]

im not sure i can only assume it did drip on the bar when i got home water was all on the floor and wall.the powerbar is old and doesnt have any writing on it anymore it is a gfi but im thinking something isnt working on it???and it did trip it was tripped when i got home i had thought it burned so hot the bar shut off but it works fine when i plug it in now??? i wish i knew more im still piecing it together.

[Llamarama]

wow glad everything's sort of okay...glad you didn't burn the house down! hope the tank and fishies are ok

[Wayne]

Oh wow! That is certainly one of the great fears when having an aquarium. I always worry when I have power bar plugged into power bar plugged into timer which powers ANOTHER power bar :lol:.

Glad that you go lucky! Hope the water damage wasn't too bad.

[StirCrazy]

Did the water drip on the GFI power bar? Shouldn't it have tripped? What brand was it?

it would only trip if the drip created a short to ground. if it was between the hot and common then no trip.

Steve

[reefwars]

Yeah there was no drip it was about 2gallons I estimate my tank was full when I left this morn it's a 33g tank there was about an inch to two inches missing from tank when I got home my own dumb fault though every other bar in the house every one lol screwd on the wall this one on the floor.....murphys law my friends:)

[reefermadness]

it would only trip if the drip created a short to ground. if it was between the hot and common then no trip.

Steve

Certainly when a powerbar gets wet current will leak to ground. Any ground fault and the GFI trips in 5ms.

The problem could be that he used a GFCI power bar and not a GFCI recepticle. The power bar triped sure but the outlet feeding the powerbar is still going hence if the power bar is really wet and there is still power to the powerbar, this could cause a fire potentially.

[Edmonton newbie]

i have a fluval 404 not in use right now if you need a quick fix on the filter

[reefwars]

that is what the case is regular plug gfi powerbar im surprised it didnt trip the breaker in my house??

[reefwars]

i got one working again the other is toast lol burned to nothing and half the cord to say the least im changing the socket to gfi tomorrow and upgrading in a powerbar:)

[coreyskylar]

I also have a aquaclear 110 HOB that you can borrow.

[BlueWorldAquatic]

Consider the Gfgi recepticles, they would be a lot more reliable. Rona has them for like $25

Ken

[zum14]

Wow. Thats a big fear for me too. Wierd though. We had a fire at our LFS just recently too. Powerbar lit up. Cant remember if it was a bad powerhead or water though. Has made me rethink a few things. Just good to hear nothing went down because of it.

[BlueWorldAquatic]

I know when I took over Blue World, it was a fire waiting to happen. Spent lotsa $$$ for gfgi breakers and such to protect everything/everyone.

Ken

[Flash]

this has me wanting to run out after work tomorrow to canadian tire and buy new powerbars... I have slight paranoia... I'm going to be a mess worrying about my house tomorrow while at work... Thank goodness it wasn't your whole house!!!

[mark]

Need to do more than just rely on a GFI as SW and electricity don't mix. Need to use drip loops and position powerbars, controllers etc, where if you have a leak, the equipment won't get wet.

[reefermadness]

Also never leave powerbars or power cords on the floor and leave a drip loop.

[Flash]

oh good! I have the bar on the lower shelf of my stand.... I should be okay I think... now I have to get out of bed and go check! lol!

[StirCrazy]

Certainly when a powerbar gets wet current will leak to ground. Any ground fault and the GFI trips in 5ms.



nope, only if the hot gets shorted to ground. if the hot gets shorted to common, it is not a ground fault as the power in is the same as the power out. A GFI monitors power in and power out and if they are not jiving it trips. so you have to have a short to ground. If the power bar gets wet, depending on the surface the easiest path may still be the nutral bus which means you have a heat generating short because it would have to be a full 15 amps worth befor the pannel breaker will trip.

as for powerbar/outlet/breaker. there all good, but all need to be tested once a month. cheepest is probably the outlet as you can get them at home depot for about 17 bucks. a breaker.. well your looking at 80ish bucks for that, and they still need to be tested and replaced when they go bad. the advantage of the breaker is if you have a kitchen aplication where you have to have 4 or more outlets protected it may be cheeper to use the breaker.

powerbar.. well there just as good as the other two as they still have to meet the same standard, and a test of them a few months ago in one of my wood working mags showed them to be very reliable and function as designed. I just don't know how much they are.

Steve

[reefermadness]

I know how a GFCI works. If power from the hot or neutral side ground faults it will trip. 120v is very good at finding a path to ground. To have a situation where hot and neutral are shorted without any current leaking to ground is possible but unlikely. Especially unlikely when water is doing the shorting.

[StirCrazy]

I know how a GFCI works. If power from the hot or neutral side ground faults it will trip. 120v is very good at finding a path to ground. To have a situation where hot and neutral are shorted without any current leaking to ground is possible but unlikely. Especially unlikely when water is doing the shorting.

in the last 8 years I have seen about 6 cases just like this one, so I would say the chance of it happening is small but possible and not that uncommon.

I do agree that it is not a normal, but alot of people think a GFI will trip no mater what, so I was just showing how a GFI which is working properly may not trip.

Steve

[reefermadness]

Not to stir up trouble (pun intended) but we don't know if this case is one of those cases (where hot and neutral are shorted).

IMO it is more likely that a)the gfci did not work properly; or b)gfci triped but water soaked the still energized power bar

Personally I find it unlikely that no electricy would leak to ground when a significant amount of saltwater is spilled onto a powerbar. To be perfectly isolated is not an easy task. 120VAC can pass through carpet, concrete and sometimes even wood. Also remember that the powerbar itself still has points of ground with in it just cm away from hot and neutral leads.

[reefwars]

Either way there's a lesson to be learned update your equipment because salt dies funny things, mount nothing on the floor ,use proper gfi outlets for your bar.......the result I can guarantee.......fire!!! I can tell you one thing this gas me re thinking my power for my new tank build, I'm gonna be making a housing for my powerbar that water can't get into :)

[DiverDude]

im not sure i can only assume it did drip on the bar ...

Not to rub salt in the wound but it shouldn't be possible for water to drip on your electricals. Always mount powerbars on a vertical surface (or even upside down) and make a drip loop with the cord !

[reefwars]

Diverdude out of several powerbars running four tanks this was the only one on the floor directly in back and under filter complete stupidity on my behalf :)


Murphys law