holy sh$t i almost burnt the house down

[reefermadness]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

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

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by reefermadness

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

[naesco]

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

[The Grizz]

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

[fishoholic]

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

[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

[ALang]

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