Marineland timers almost burned my house down

[sonict72]

I was using these timers to control my UV sterilizer and T5 HO lights and look what happened. I am really fortunate that my house did not burned down due to this incident but I just don't understand how this could have occurred. There was soot everywhere and it took us hours to clean this up. And the burned plastic smell is still lingering around the house. And my poor wife, who did most of the cleaning, complained of sore throat for couple of days. When I contacted Marineland about this incident, they told me that they would gladly replace the timers. You have to be kidding me. Anyway, be careful if you are using these timers. Hopefully, this won't happen to you.

[RokleM]

Looks like they got wet.

Research GFCI and drip loops (which you should already have).

[mcgyvr]

Holla at Wauconda IL.. I used to live in Lake Zurich

Which piece of equipment was plugged into the top one? (well you had it mounted vertically in your setup)
Only one had a problem.. The drippings from the upper one caught the lower one on fire.
I'd agree that the upper one got wet causing a short..causing a fire.
A GFCI in that circuit probably would have prevented this..not necessarily though

[moondoggy4]

GFI are great until you have an electrical outage and it shuts everything off for too long and kills everything in the tank. So I put 99% on a GFI and a Tunze 6100 plugged into the wall so if the GFI tripps you still have at least circulation.

[oldimpala]

Moondoggy-

If the GFI trips you have other problems... I'd rather have it trip, and sorry to say this, but save my house/me than have it burn the place down killing me, my family, and my fish in the process...

If the tank has a controller, it can even send a text/e-mail in it's dying breath.

Just my thoughts; it sounds cold, but... I love my reef tank. I like my house, well-being, and family more...

-Andy

[solitude127]

Originally Posted by oldimpala

moondoggy-

if the gfi trips you have other problems... I'd rather have it trip, and sorry to say this, but save my house/me than have it burn the place down killing me, my family, and my fish in the process...

If the tank has a controller, it can even send a text/e-mail in it's dying breath.

just my thoughts; it sounds cold, but... I love my reef tank. I like my house, well-being, and family more...

-andy

+1

[mcgyvr]

Originally Posted by moondoggy4

GFI are great until you have an electrical outage and it shuts everything off for too long and kills everything in the tank. So I put 99% on a GFI and a Tunze 6100 plugged into the wall so if the GFI tripps you still have at least circulation.

A GFCI should NOT trip in the event of a power outage.

[jeff@zina.com]

Originally Posted by mcgyvr

A GFCI should NOT trip in the event of a power outage.

I think he's saying that the GFCI tripping creates the power outage to the equipment running off it...

Jeff

[nanotank]

Originally Posted by sonict72

I was using these timers to control my UV sterilizer and T5 HO lights and look what happened. I am really fortunate that my house did not burned down due to this incident but I just don't understand how this could have occurred. There was soot everywhere and it took us hours to clean this up. And the burned plastic smell is still lingering around the house. And my poor wife, who did most of the cleaning, complained of sore throat for couple of days. When I contacted Marineland about this incident, they told me that they would gladly replace the timers. You have to be kidding me. Anyway, be careful if you are using these timers. Hopefully, this won't happen to you.

Looks like my old won brothers heater controller. It was in full fire though and I had to use an fire extinguisher to put it out. If we were not home sleeping with good fire alarms we may have died and the house would have for sure burnt down if we were not home. Glad you were all safe..

[Porcupinepuffer]

Water, undersized wires, and bad connections are the 3 enemies here. Have drip loops; keep her dry. Make certain you're plugged in to a good quality power bar with proper sized wiring for your setup, and make certain your plugs prongs are good and clean and plug in nice and snug.

That picture is nuts. It actually looks exactly like my neighbors outside GFCI plug that melted in to a pile of stinky plastic charcoal.

[moondoggy4]

Sorry for the misunderstanding what I was saying is don't put everything on the GFI leave one pump off for circulation in event of a power shortage I believe that the Tunze is DC power, so unless that plug gets wet I should be OK.

[aleonn]

Scary how bad things could have gotten. Glad you're alright.

[Jeff]

Thank god everything turned out ok and you guys are ok. A GFCI might have worked but they don't always.

[sonict72]

Originally Posted by RokleM

Looks like they got wet.

Research GFCI and drip loops (which you should already have).

No it did not. Not at all. In fact, everything connected to the surge protector kept working even my timers burning.

[sonict72]

So all of you think that my top timer got wet and caused the bottom one to catch fire? I really do not thinks so. For one, there was not a drop of water on the floor. Two, there was nobody home for hours when that occurred and my tank does not leak. Three, that area never gets wet even when I do water changes. And there was no water change that day. I do not think water is at play here. If there was enough water to burn a timer, it should have found its way to other plugs and shorted out other equipment. I had plenty of other things plugged in to that surge protector (lights, powerhead, protein skimmer etc). Like I said, everything kept working. And one more thing, the plug that was connected to the timer is missing prongs. They melted clean inside the timer receptacle. This is what's making me think it must have started inside the timer.

[sonict72]

Originally Posted by aleonn

Scary how bad things could have gotten. Glad you're alright.

Thank you. Yes, it could have been very bad.

[Flippers4pups]

Originally Posted by moondoggy4

GFI are great until you have an electrical outage and it shuts everything off for too long and kills everything in the tank. So I put 99% on a GFI and a Tunze 6100 plugged into the wall so if the GFI tripps you still have at least circulation.

Getting one of those Auto on battery powered air pumps wouldn't be bad if that would happen. At least you would have oxygenation in the water column.

[Porcupinepuffer]

Originally Posted by sonict72

So all of you think that my top timer got wet and caused the bottom one to catch fire? I really do not thinks so. For one, there was not a drop of water on the floor. Two, there was nobody home for hours when that occurred and my tank does not leak. Three, that area never gets wet even when I do water changes.

I really don't know how it happened, nor was I assuming. But it doesn't take a leaky tank or reckless water changing to mean it got wet. water evap with salt creep can work its way down a power cord and slowly sneak in to the plug. which is why drip loops are required since water can't travel upward. Of course, if your cords look perfectly clean with no signs of salt creep/water on them, then they probably didn't get wet. It could also have been the switching mechanism itself in the timer started getting worn out/defective and had a bad connection that heated up and melted it.

[sonict72]

Originally Posted by Porcupinepuffer

why drip loops are required since water can't travel upward.

It could also have been the switching mechanism itself in the timer started getting worn out/defective and had a bad connection that heated up and melted it.

The surge protector was installed vertically for drip loops. But there was no water to speak of. It had to be the timer itself. As for the bad connection, I am not sure as the plug was completely disconnected from the receptacle since the prongs melted clean. It sure seems like it was plugged in all the way at least. Also, that sterilizer was only about two weeks old. The plug itself was clean so it's hard to imagine that the connection was bad.

[NyReefNoob]

surge protector doesnt equal a gfi. the surge protectors are only good is there is a electrical surge,

[jayelblock]

Originally Posted by NyReefNoob

surge protector doesnt equal a gfi. the surge protectors are only good is there is a electrical surge,

+1 !!

A surge protector is designed to protect your equipment from voltage spikes. It will attempt to even out the power supply, but not cut it off.

A GFCI assesses the flow between the hot and neutral prongs on your plugs, and if there is an imbalance, it cuts off the power supply.

Please get CFCI adapters immediately.

This surge protector....



was plugged into this GFCI adapter and prevented a fire in my house...

[Midnightsun]

the plug was completely disconnected from the receptacle since the prongs melted clean.

I would have somebody electrically inclined come by and check thing out before something really bad happens. You got lucky this time. If the prongs melted away, that indicates a direct short and very high current. Ask yourself this, why did the breaker not pop? It should have under those conditions. Both timers at the same time with different loads on each? chances of that are like winning the lottery. Anyhow, have things checked out by a professional. My feeling is there was a direct short in the system,your breaker is faulty and the weakest link took a hike.

[Porcupinepuffer]

About the one that's blacker then toby's rear end (closest to the belkin writing) looks like the one that caught fire and melted its way over to the friend further down; what was plugged in on this one? the UV sterilizer or the T5's?

[sonict72]

Originally Posted by Midnightsun

I would have somebody electrically inclined come by and check thing out before something really bad happens. You got lucky this time. If the prongs melted away, that indicates a direct short and very high current. Ask yourself this, why did the breaker not pop? It should have under those conditions. Both timers at the same time with different loads on each? chances of that are like winning the lottery. Anyhow, have things checked out by a professional. My feeling is there was a direct short in the system,your breaker is faulty and the weakest link took a hike.

Both timers did not burn at the same time. One timer caught fire and melted the other one. It was the UV sterilizer that caught fire. It is most likely defective resister/capacitor in the timer that was unable to deal with change in current. I am not positive if GFCI would have helped, but I guess it wouldn't have hurt. If you think GFCI can prevent fires such as this, you should have GFCI installed in every part of your house as this had nothing to do with water and can happen anywhere. And as I have said, everything else plugged in to the surge protector kept working. There was no event that should have triggered the house breaker to pop. This was contained between the timer and UV sterilizer.

[sonict72]

And I hate to admit this in an open forum, but I am an electrical engineer by training.