Heater Fire

[Drewb628]

Curious if anyone has had this happen. I have my tank heater plugged into a hygger temp controller and earlier tonight heard very clearly some electrical noises coming from my office with the tank. Ran in there to the room full of smoke and finally found the culprit. No idea what caused it. At first thought water ran down but no signs of that. Everything is mounted up but it fell during the failure and burned a large mark into my carpet. Luckily didnt do any other damage.

I thought it was the temp controller at first but appears to be the plug for the heater itself that melted.

 

[Tangdora]

How long has it been running normal. Were you cranking more amps through it then rated.

 

[NanoSteam]

Terrifying... is the heating element also a Hygger? Do you have a GFCI, if not I recommend getting one installed, I just installed one for my next build and used one of those extension cord GFCI's for my nano.

 

[Ocellaris123]

Yikes what kind of heater was it?

 

[Drewb628]

How long has it been running normal. Were you cranking more amps through it then rated.

Probably about a year old. Worked just fine didnt see any issues with it until now. Nope nothing out of the ordinary amps wise.

 

[Drewb628]

Terrifying... is the heating element also a Hygger? Do you have a GFCI, if not I recommend getting one installed, I just installed one for my next build and used one of those extension cord GFCI's for my nano.

Heating element is also a hygger. Do not have GFCI but definitely bumped up to top of my list.

 

[NanoSteam]

Heating element is also a hygger. Do not have GFCI but definitely bumped up to top of my list.

Now I'm worried, I also have a Hygger with the controller on my nano but thankfully it's on a GFCI. Gonna give it a visual inspection once a month.

 

[Malcontent]

GFCI alone might not help in a case like this. You'd need an AFCI/GFCI combo outlet.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

GFCI is a must-have when you are dealing with water and electronics. My GFCI saved my lights' power supply from catching on fire.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/aquarium-and-electrical-safety.1134417/unread

 

[Jamie814]

Curious if anyone has had this happen. I have my tank heater plugged into a hygger temp controller and earlier tonight heard very clearly some electrical noises coming from my office with the tank. Ran in there to the room full of smoke and finally found the culprit. No idea what caused it. At first thought water ran down but no signs of that. Everything is mounted up but it fell during the failure and burned a large mark into my carpet. Luckily didnt do any other damage.

I thought it was the temp controller at first but appears to be the plug for the heater itself that melted.

What part of the heater is that that melted? Is it plug that connects together? Did it possibly get saltwater on it?

 

[Drewb628]

What part of the heater is that that melted? Is it plug that connects together? Did it possibly get saltwater on it?

Yeah, where the heater plugs into the controller. I thought it may have been salt water at first but can't find where it would have come from and it was mounted underneath.

 

[Nano_Man]

Keep safe

 

[cruzersmith]

Such a result is most often caused by loose contact inside the two plugs. Usually the female side is not making tight connection with the male prongs. A small bit of arcing starts and heats up the connection making it even more loose causing it to melt the plastic that holds the metal parts in place causing it to get hot enough to cause the result you see. Any cord connection either cord to outlet or cord to cord needs to be quite snug requiring some force to connect or disconnect. If it feels at all loose or warm to the touch replace it.