Lost it all: An electrical warning

[Cleo642]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[REEFnMADNESS]

Sad to hear, sorry for your loss. Years back I read reviews about the dual timers catching fire so I bought a coralvue digital strip that does the same thing. Worked great for a few weeks and one day literally walked by it as the one outlet sparked and caught on fire. I was very lucky to be there to put the fire out.

 

[Greenstreet.1]

Sorry for your lost. God is good.

 

[gacolt]

sorry for your loss.:(

 

[Origami]

Sorry for the losses. Best of luck on the road ahead.

For some that have been in the hobby a decade or more, this power strip and its predecessor have been implicated in several fires that originate under tanks (in the tank stand with a sump, typically). I had one and pulled it off about 8 years ago when I'd read stories similar to yours. They're a relatively inexpensive solution to timing our lights and that's why I bought mine at first. But, for whatever reason, there seems to be a track record with this design that involves fires. In one case locally (here in DC) a few years back, a member of our club smelled smoke one day and found this power strip on fire under his tank. Luckily, the fire was discovered early and damage was limited.

 

[gooch]

So sorry to hear. I stopped using cheap power cords a long time ago. I also have a rule if they get any water on them they never get used again. I am sure the power strip itself was fine until it got wet a time or two. I had a failed gfi that had my metal halide lamps hooked to them. We smelled something burning real bad one night and couldn't find the source. I had about 30 firemen ready to tear down walls. My wife and her best friend were in heaven while I am trying to figure out where the fire was. They infrared searched for hot spots, nothing. Then we all started talking about my fish tanks. Being the forever reefer, I popped the lights on to show them and the outlet started on fire. Lets just say that tank was torn down and out of my house almost as fast as the firemen. From that point on I do not care what a powerstrip costs. It gets wet it gets tossed. Rather spend $30 on a new powerstrip than experience what you just did.

Again, sorry to hear it.

 

[Origami]

Here is the link from our forum in DC. I moved it so that it's accessible to the public as it was in a member area.

http://wamas.org/forums/topic/25933-up-in-flames

In years past, this strip was known as the Coralife Power Center. Just Google Coralife Power Center fire and you'll find stories up thru the years.

 

[lestat45559]

I want to tank you all, and express my love you all you reefers. Come good news my one cat will make it, took him home from the vet yesterday. one thousand later, but where was no way in my power I was going to let him pass.

 

[Origami]

I want to tank you all, and express my love you all you reefers. Come good news my one cat will make it, took him home from the vet yesterday. one thousand later, but where was no way in my power I was going to let him pass.

:) That's good news. Thanks for the update.

 

[reeferKen]

I saw a reefer on youtube put a nest smoke alarm under the cabinet. It will text you if it goes off. Another good idea I thought. Soo glad to hear about your cat.

Coral freak, breakthecycle, Tony you rock!
"Second of all please let me know when you are back up and running and can add corals back and I will be glad to give you a piece out of my display"

 

[DeniseAndy]

Some good news about the cat!

 

[shred5]

Good day my reef family I need to share some bad news and hope it may help some of you.

Yesterday while at work a fire started while we were are work in our basement. We lost everything down there. So everything reef is gone. We lost our two cats. The rest off the house us covered in soot and smoke. The fire inspector said it thinks it was a short in my power strip. The zoomed kind with the two build in timers. So please check them often. They were telling me all night they are shocked we didn't lost the whole house, that we were lucky the tanks exploded and put most of the fire out.

Here is a link to the power strip the fire inspector is currently saying caused the fire. http://www.wag.com/reptile/p/coralif...?cookies_set=1

The sad part is I have spent over 1k on corals from our sponsors in the last 2 months.

Yea I have heard of other fires with those coralife timers/plug strips several times before. I know someone who lost their house to one about 10 years ago. Some of these cheap Chinese plugstrips have caused fires too but the coralife are known to cause fires but yet they are still on the market. Just google Corlife plugstrip and fire. This is the reason I wont buy anything from them.

I just dont get how Coralife is not sued out to oblivion with how many people have lost their houses etc to this product.

I had issues with a piece of their equipment shocking me before and called them and they connected me to their engineering dept. I had a electrical engineer from work get on the phone with us and holy cow they know nothing.

I also had issues where their salt caused my sps to rtn. It was a bad batch of salt.

I will never ever use a coralife product again.

Sorry about the loss.. No one should use this product it is known to cause fires.

I hope it is ok to post these links because I think they are useful so people learn not to use this product.


This goes all the way back too 2005.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=584645

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1544625

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2163178

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/218784-disaster-strikes-coralife-power-center-catches-fire/page-2

http://www.chicagoreefs.com/forums/showthread.php/26196-Coralife-Digital-Power-Center-Fire!!!


This is nice here is how they get out of being sued. It is marked on the back not for aquarium use but yet it is marketed to aquarist.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/9-equipment/26075-coralife-power-center-warning.html

 

[Harold Green]

When I was growing up every Christmas ads would run on tv telling people to beware of plugging all their christmas lights into one extension cord. The point is most home breakers(standard 20 amp) will carry at least 16 amps without tripping. The current flow heats a strip in the breaker causing it to trip if it get too hot. Small extension cords are often rated at less than 20 amps(often around 13amps). This means it's easily possible to overheat the cord to the point of ignition without tripping the breaker. I try to buy all cords and plug strips to handle 20 amps. That means #12 wire if available. For cords with #14 wire try to keep the cords as short as possible. All plug strips and timers should also be rated at 20amps. There are cheap plug in current monitors you can purchase or simply add up the running current of every device you intend to plug into an outlet and try to keep the total below that 16amp number. The lower the better. As others have mentioned if salt water gets splashed on any electrical plugstrip or other non submersible device best to trash it. It's also a good idea to unplug every cord monthly to check for corrosion on the plug. If any shows then you have a poor connection that will heat up, overheating the plug eventually. There are anti corrosion compounds you can purchase to prevent the poor contact. Smoke or water alarms under the stands can also give us some measure of additional safety. Gfci's offer no protection against fire beyond what a standard breaker does. I know not every tank device has a grounded cord buy many do. I always buy plug strips and timers rated for 20amps that have grounded plugs on them. That way if a grounded device shorts(like a light fixture) it will trip the breaker more readily than an ungrounded one. Gfci plugs and breakers are a great safety feature for damp areas where you have to operate a tool with a high probability of getting shocked. In real life they are more likely to trip when there isn't a problem than when there is. I wouldn't plug any tank accessories into one if the device is critical to the survival of tank unless you're up to coming home and finding a tank without power for no apparent reason other than a cord getting damp from the humidity in the air. For most large tanks it's easy to have enough devices to use more power than a breaker can provide. Anytime you start to add up device loads to around 14amps it's time to consider another breaker. When using home wall outlets that aren't dedicated to be the only load on a breaker it can be a good idea to have someone come in an measure the amps flowing into that breaker from other sources(lights, microwave, fans, etc. to let you know how much power an outlet can safely provide. For the larger tank systems many of us have today it can require two or more dedicated breakers to provide enough power ( one of the reasons I like led lighting). When in doubt find an electrician or at least someone familiar with breakers, wire size and loads.

 

[KStatefan]

That sucks

Thank You for posting this.

 

[shred5]

So sorry to hear. I stopped using cheap power cords a long time ago. I also have a rule if they get any water on them they never get used again. I am sure the power strip itself was fine until it got wet a time or two. I had a failed gfi that had my metal halide lamps hooked to them. We smelled something burning real bad one night and couldn't find the source. I had about 30 firemen ready to tear down walls. My wife and her best friend were in heaven while I am trying to figure out where the fire was. They infrared searched for hot spots, nothing. Then we all started talking about my fish tanks. Being the forever reefer, I popped the lights on to show them and the outlet started on fire. Lets just say that tank was torn down and out of my house almost as fast as the firemen. From that point on I do not care what a powerstrip costs. It gets wet it gets tossed. Rather spend $30 on a new powerstrip than experience what you just did.

Again, sorry to hear it.

It is not a cheap power strip and it is rather expensive, it is a faulty power strip.
I did research and found this unit has been faulty all the way back to 2005 and there could be ones older.
They market these to the aquarium hobby but on the back it says not for aquarium use. That is how they have not had to take care of the problem.
It is like buying tires for your car and there is a disclaimer on the tire not for auto use. The tires is faulty and shreds and you roll your car. They are not responsible because hey it said not for car use, even though they are tires made for cars..

The Coralife Power Center Day Night Timer allows for control and programming of the day/night cycle for your aquarium

Right there advertised for aquariums.. But on the back it says not for aquarium use.


But defiantly hear what you are saying. I always use surge suppressors from a name brand with a breaker in them...

 

[reefaboo]

i ditched that timer/power strip.

thanks

 

[clee36]

your story was painful to read. really sorry to hear about everything.
when you get set back up make another thread so we can get you some frags.

 

[ATB USA]

Sorry for your loss. Glad the Family is ok. I do not understand why these have not been recalled.

 

[FDAWG]

This is one of the reason why I put a WIFI Smart Smoke Detector inside my stand. If smoke is detected it will send me an alert to my phone.
https://store.google.com/product/ne...rotect?gl=us&gclid=CKvlxrz12MgCFY-VfgodTIwLlw

 

[ATB USA]

This is one of the reason why I put a WIFI Smart Smoke Detector inside my stand. If smoke is detected it will send me an alert to my phone.
https://store.google.com/product/ne...rotect?gl=us&gclid=CKvlxrz12MgCFY-VfgodTIwLlw

Good Idea, We have the smoke detectors tied into the house alarm. They will call the fire dept and email me