HOB Filter Caught My Office on Fire!
- Thread starter pwmin
- Start date
It is not clear to me what exactly has gone wrong. The first pic showed that the Penguen box has melted apparently from a burnt motor, not sure what the second and third pics demonstrate. All HOBs are run by air cooling motors that can never reach high temperature. The pump inside the box is a magnetic impeller that will simply stop and decouple from the motor if it runs dry thereby eliminating the possibility of frictional heating. The motor draws tiny current and wattage, and only touch warm. So I have no clue how your motor could get burnt. Is there a short of the cable before the motor due to kinkling. Can the source of burnt from something else, like your heater or light.
I ran a dozen Penguen HOBs and other brands as well, and have never experienced or heard of burnt motor. Most fire accidents in aquariums came from defective heaters that draw hundreds to thousand watts, never heard of burnt HOB motors that draws under 10 watt.
I ran a dozen Penguen HOBs and other brands as well, and have never experienced or heard of burnt motor. Most fire accidents in aquariums came from defective heaters that draw hundreds to thousand watts, never heard of burnt HOB motors that draws under 10 watt.
I've had an Inkbird mounted on a wall where one of the outlets wires was turned to the side just enough that over a few years the outer rubber tore and the inner wires became exposed. I don't remember copper being visible but it still was scary to notice.
I'm guessing that's similar to what happened here. The power cord wasn't being stretched tight, but was in a position where gravity did its thing and over time stript the wires and caused a short.
It's great that everyone was ok in the end and the building didn't go down. If the firefighters couldn't navigate the office and easily find the fire, it sounds like that workplace is not up to code.
I'm guessing that's similar to what happened here. The power cord wasn't being stretched tight, but was in a position where gravity did its thing and over time stript the wires and caused a short.
It's great that everyone was ok in the end and the building didn't go down. If the firefighters couldn't navigate the office and easily find the fire, it sounds like that workplace is not up to code.
Well done in averting a potential disaster. That couldve been really messy.
Did you have it plugged into a gfci outlet or surge protector of some type? Only thing I can think of would be a power surge. One of the reasons I got away from HOBs was sporadic, unexplained circuit problems. I actually once burned up an old power strip when I had 4x ac110s plugged into it.
Thanks for reminding me, I'm actually gonna go order another gfci strip for my last unprotected tank right now...
Did you have it plugged into a gfci outlet or surge protector of some type? Only thing I can think of would be a power surge. One of the reasons I got away from HOBs was sporadic, unexplained circuit problems. I actually once burned up an old power strip when I had 4x ac110s plugged into it.
Thanks for reminding me, I'm actually gonna go order another gfci strip for my last unprotected tank right now...
4x AC110 draw less than 40 W electricity, less than a mini heater for a 10 gal tank, not enough to cause burned out of a power strip in a power surge. The biggest concern of power surge for HOBs is failure to restart. The OP did not explain how an 8w Penguin motor could have caught fire. All HOB motors are low wattage plastic enclosed device made for low temperature operation.
I'm still guessing it was the wire becoming damaged. There should be other evidence in the office if there was a power surge and the wires shorting at the base of the motor should cause what we see here.
It was a power strip problem, not the filters lol.
And you're exactly right. They're cheap, low wattage, high rpm/low torque motors. The kind that sometimes fail with a power surge
I don't know how it happened, but I'm sure there was salt creep on it, I don't know. The motor and wiring was burnt up and the wood holding the light was smoldering. I'm not on trial here
No one's putting you on trial here but you should expect some kind of investigation when you post this. As fishkeepers we would all be interested in figuring out what caused a potentially catastrophic equipment failure.
In fact I avoided mentioning the #1 most common, obvious theory to what nearly always causes these types of fires with hang on filters just so no one got offended. But since feathers seem to be ruffled already, I'm coming out with it:
Any chance the outflow was clogged and water was running down the side of the filter?
