HOLY COW!!!! A HEATER MALFUNCTION

meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
OMG....right now I consider myself ....and my fish...and my corals...inverts etc in the 225G VERY LUCKY
My tank has been running cool...even though I have 2 250W stealth heaters set at 78....it has been running 76, and this morning it was 75
SOOOOOO...WHen I got home tonight (after playing with camera) I decided to turn them up a notch.....FIRST I went to the one in the sump
WELL....MUCH TO MY SURPRISE...I found what looked like chewed wiring
.....I immediately pulled out the plug..ONLY to find the plug prongs were black....as was the plug in it was plugged into

I have no idea how my tank did not get destroyed......all I can say is thank goodness I had that electrician put these plugs all on seperate circuits
AND....IN MY OPINION......had I not had a grounding probe......I would be in serious trouble....or the fish would be
SOOOOOOO now I have 1 250W stealth heater in the 225G.....off to online ordering
 
scott t

scott t

Active Member
WOW Meowzer.. I am so glad that you caught that, it could have been a total disaster if you would not have.. It is a good thing that you took all the precautions you could to insure that you would not have it turn out bad..
 
scott t

scott t

Active Member
That could very well be the thing that saved the tank. I can tell you that I am going to have Grounding probes in my tanks also, I dont want to take any chances of getting up one morning or coming home from work and see that I have fired fish in my tank.. Just am really glad that nothing serious happened to you tank...
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Is the grounding probe plugged directly into a GFCI outlet, and not via a power strip plugged into the outlet?
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Interesting. It is a GFCI outlet though? Is that what tripped or did the breaker trip? Just currious...
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///forum/thread/382474/holy-crap-a-heater-malfunction#post_3338094
Interesting. It is a GFCI outlet though? Is that what tripped or did the breaker trip? Just currious...
Nothing tripped.....the grounding probe is in a whole different outlet
The electrician added 5 seperate outlet boxes all on their own circuits....the heater was in its own outlet.....the odd thing is...the other half of the outlet had a powerhead plugged into it and it was still working
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Forgive me for this but from the way it sounds is that your grounding probe didn't actually do anything to save your tank. Technically I always thought they were designed to be used with GFCI outlets. And in the event of electricity making it's way to the tank then the outlet would sense it via the grounding probe and kick itself off thus cutting power to whatever happened to be plugged into the same outlet.
A grounding probe essentially creates a path to ground for the electricity to travel. So if you didn't have one in your tank then chances are your livestock won't get shocked. Odds are when you go to stick your hand or something in the tank is when you are going to create a path to ground with your own body and this is when we experience the shock. I guess what I'm saying is that I always thought grounding probes when used in congunction with GFCI's were more for our own personal protection and the protection of our home than they actually were for the livestock. But I could be wrong.
 
sparty059

sparty059

Active Member
Oh wow! Ironic this happened at almost the same time as mine. If you would like, I can send you your heater back. I might be able to get an extra from a friend. I don't want you spending any extra money that you don't need to spend. I can ship it tomorrow if you'd like. Let me know.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Corey....you are probably right,.....I'm a little annoyed right now cause I just found out all my aquarium plug ins are NOT GFCI......When we had the electrician come he put in all new outlet boxes and they all went to their own "circuits" well my husband JUST TOLD ME......he never did the GFCI

GUESS WHAT HUBBY IS GONNA BE DOING........He is going to buy GFCI's, and install them.....I am sorry to say it will not be this week....due to work, and I am having the family CHristmas this Saturday....BUT, I told him his job (as soon as he is off) is to go buy what is needed for this
SOOOO....If something happend to ONE plug in, it would blow the circuit I guess
I guess I am really lucky that in the last 2 1/2 years NOTHING has happened
....I don;t have time for this right now either
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparty059 http:///forum/thread/382474/holy-crap-a-heater-malfunction#post_3338107
Oh wow! Ironic this happened at almost the same time as mine. If you would like, I can send you your heater back. I might be able to get an extra from a friend. I don't want you spending any extra money that you don't need to spend. I can ship it tomorrow if you'd like. Let me know.
LOL...NO SPARTY it's yours......I have other heaters I can use if I have too......REMEMBER I was gonna buy new titanium heaters anyway, I just decided to wait until after the holidays...HAHA...oh well......
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Very Lucky and I'm very glad that your tank is ok. Sparty's near miss was enough excitment for one week. And appoligies but I was just currious how you had the probe hooked up and if I were in your shoes I would want to know what it was or wasn't doing.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///forum/thread/382474/holy-crap-a-heater-malfunction#post_3338113
Very Lucky and I'm very glad that your tank is ok. Sparty's near miss was enough excitment for one week. And appoligies but I was just currious how you had the probe hooked up and if I were in your shoes I would want to know what it was or wasn't doing.
Corey...the instructions said to hook it up to your outlet.....that is what we did. I have had it probably 2 years now
 
sparty059

sparty059

Active Member
Also, that whole GFCI thing has always had me confused. I understand the whole idea of it, but not everything clicks for me. So for example, as you all know, this same thing happened to me last night. My heater was plugged into a Tripp-Lite outlet, which was plugged into a wall outlet. Now let's say I have the tripp-lite plugged into a GFCI wall outlet... how is that going to prevent anything less from happening when my heater (plugged into the Tripp-Lite) malfunctions. It won't cause the GFCI to break because it's not directly hooked up to it. However, when I put my hand in the water, I never once was hit with a shock, not even a little tingle.
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Sparty your heater may not have even been leaking electricity into the tank if the element was never broken and exposed. Also your tank could be charged with electricity and you may not get shocked if you keep yourself insulated somehow by possibly wearing rubber soled shoes.
Meowzer: If your grounding probe isn't hooked up to a GFCI then all your doing is providing a path to ground for the electricity to travel. Therefore if there is electricity in your tank then your livestock is most surely gonna get zapped. The GFCI are designed to sense than and cut themselves off...thus cutting off whatever you have plugged into it, like a heater. It actually sounds like your heater may just have had a regular ol short...which isn't that uncommon in all kinds of heaters. If I had a nickel for everytime I've had to replace a heating element, shorted wire, fuse, high limit switch or transformer then I wouldn't quite be a rich man but I'd be well enough off to go out and have one heck of a good time one night.
 
sparty059

sparty059

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///forum/thread/382474/holy-crap-a-heater-malfunction#post_3338121
Sparty your heater may not have even been leaking electricity into the tank if the element was never broken and exposed. Also your tank could be charged with electricity and you may not get shocked if you keep yourself insulated somehow by possibly wearing rubber soled shoes.
Meowzer: If your grounding probe isn't hooked up to a GFCI then all your doing is providing a path to ground for the electricity to travel. Therefore if there is electricity in your tank then your livestock is most surely gonna get zapped. The GFCI are designed to sense than and cut themselves off...thus cutting off whatever you have plugged into it, like a heater. It actually sounds like your heater may just have had a regular ol short...which isn't that uncommon in all kinds of heaters. If I had a nickel for everytime I've had to replace a heating element, shorted wire, fuse, high limit switch or transformer then I wouldn't quite be a rich man but I'd be well enough off to go out and have one heck of a good time one night.
I was wearing rubber soled shoes! I had yet to remove my office shoes when I walked into my house (typically I do, but that was something that had to wait when I decided to look at the tank). I'll take a picture of the damage and see if you think the element was broken and exposed.
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
i never did like those tripp lite "surge protectors" as they never worked right for me or the company i worked for.
GFCI outlets are supposed to shut off power to the outlet before the circut can trip. They are also supposed to be much faster at tripping than a circut breaker. With my GFCI outlet, when I shut off the pumps for feedings and whatnot, if I turn the surge protector that has all the pumps plugged into it off too fast, it trips the GFCI. The GFCI is a 15A model and the circut its on is a 20A. But keep this in mind, that outlet, as well as the one in the living room, somewhere upstairs, and somewhere in the basement are all on the same circut.
I got my GFCI for $15 at lowes and had it installed in about 10 minutes. If your hubby can work a screwdriver, i am sure he can, he could have them done in about an hour to an hour and a half for all 5. Since each is on their own circut, it would probably take more time to turn off each circut than to replace the outlets.
Do you have your GFCI installed yet sparty?
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
LOL....he is making the list.....he knows how to do all that stuff......thank goodness, or I would be calling my contractor buddy HAHA $$$$$$$$ :( BUT GOOD WORK
 
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