After I about burned the house down when the cat knocked a timer running 2
400w metal halides (~ 8 amps) sorta loose from the power strip, which was
behind the couch (another BAD idea), and the stupid things (both timer and
strip) melted both the casing plastic and the wire.... and THEN failed (the
breaker never kicked!!!)
Yeah. You read that right. It only failed because it burned up its
connection to its power source before it caught anything on fire!
I'll not even bring up all the times I've been bit because of humidity or
water on a strip or whatever that was in place at the time I bought my fish
shop.
I've gotten into the habit of putting a recepticle _box_ where I need them
in the "fish room" and then using one of those 6 way plate splitters that go
directly into the recepticle (no face plate! take it off!). Or if it's in
the living room or whatever, I do the same on the outlet I'm using.
Powerstrips are a big no no with water. Sometimes I'll use them as a
temporary fix for a situation, but only as a temporary fix.
Learning how to wire and test isn't as hard as it may seem, and it could
save a load of trouble down the road.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joshua L Wiegert" <jlw_at_dune.net>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 10:01 AM
Subject: Re: NANFA-- fishroom fires etc
> Those little tap strips are kind of ... chancy.
>
> During the summer months, I've had them blow just from humidity -- nothing
> else wrong. I've had them blow when watr spills into them. Then, I had
> another one overload and shoot sparks thru the bottom of it, scorching the
> carpet underneath.... The breaker for the house blew (but not the tap
> strip.) I've had tehm scorch and catch fire, without blowing. (I
> actually had a powerfilter cord completely scorched fora bout 4" by flames
> shooting out of the tap strip.)
>
> The thing to remember is that tehy're not GFI's - they're surge
> protectors. IF you get a sudden change in voltage, they'll pop. They're
> meant to protect things like your computer from sudden jolts of
> electricity, not to protect your fish tank or fish room. Install a GFI.
> There are those oens that you just plug something into, or you can replace
> the outlet. It's not that hard -- but do remember to ground and test it
> properly.
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