Replacing and Upgrading Power Strips

[Reese11]

Hello everyone, so I had been doing some research on proper power strips for fish rooms, any rooms with water involved. What I found may be helpful to anyone who is worried about issues caused with improper power strips or old power strips. In short, there are no power strips to protect against water, the only effective protection against water is to install GFCI/AFCI outlets into any room that has the potential to get wet or water splashed OR install GFCI/AFCI breakers in your breaker box, for the rooms your tanks are in. There are “waterproof” power strips, whereas they may help prevent water entering the strip, they are not guaranteed to protect you. What you want for water protection is one of two options… You can either put GFCI/AFCI wall outlets in each specific outlet being used and also nearby your fish tanks, OR you can install GFCI/AFCI breakers in your breaker box, for the specific breakers you are using for your fish rooms. I do not condone to do electric work yourself, I’m just here to spread awareness of how to prevent fires due to water splashing. There have been threads about this topic before. Good power strips to use would be Surge Protectors, if a pump goes bad, it can short out a circuit so the surge protection helps against faulty equipment and heat. It protects against voltage spikes and short circuits but not water. So your power strip protects you from any faulty equipment, while the GFCI/AFCI protects against the water. Ideally you want a good quality surge protection power strip coupled with GFCI/AFCI outlets OR GFCI/AFCI breakers. You do not need both wall outlets and breaker being GFCI/AFCI they are redundant and one protects the whole electrical circuit, if you have it. Having those pretty much covers you all around from bad equipment/random voltage spikes/heat to water protection. Also, some things to consider. If you are using multiple power strips on the same breaker, the 15 amp rating on your power strip is meaningless when you only have 15 amps total supplied from your breaker. You’ll trip the breaker before you trip either power strip. What you need to do is calculate all your amps being used and if it exceeds 15 amps, you need two separate your power from two different breakers to run everything. I know it’s a bit of a read but I hope it can help anyone who may be concerned about all the power usage fish tanks can use. If I am incorrect on anything or if anyone wants to add any other good information on this topic, please feel free to do so in the comments so we all can spread knowledge to each other. I’ve attached a photo of my current power strip upgrade for visuals. Happy Fish Keeping and Best Regards everyone

 

[puffers4puffers]

Hello everyone, so I had been doing some research on proper power strips for fish rooms, any rooms with water involved. What I found may be helpful to anyone who is worried about issues caused with improper power strips or old power strips. In short, there are no power strips to protect against water, the only effective protection against water is to install GFCI/AFCI outlets into any room that has the potential to get wet or water splashed OR install GFCI/AFCI breakers in your breaker box, for the rooms your tanks are in. There are “waterproof” power strips, whereas they may help prevent water entering the strip, they are not guaranteed to protect you. What you want for water protection is one of two options… You can either put GFCI/AFCI wall outlets in each specific outlet being used and also nearby your fish tanks, OR you can install GFCI/AFCI breakers in your breaker box, for the specific breakers you are using for your fish rooms. I do not condone to do electric work yourself, I’m just here to spread awareness of how to prevent fires due to water splashing. There have been threads about this topic before. Good power strips to use would be Surge Protectors, if a pump goes bad, it can short out a circuit so the surge protection helps against faulty equipment and heat. It protects against voltage spikes and short circuits but not water. So your power strip protects you from any faulty equipment, while the GFCI/AFCI protects against the water. Ideally you want a good quality surge protection power strip coupled with GFCI/AFCI outlets OR GFCI/AFCI breakers. You do not need both wall outlets and breaker being GFCI/AFCI they are redundant and one protects the whole electrical circuit, if you have it. Having those pretty much covers you all around from bad equipment/random voltage spikes/heat to water protection. Also, some things to consider. If you are using multiple power strips on the same breaker, the 15 amp rating on your power strip is meaningless when you only have 15 amps total supplied from your breaker. You’ll trip the breaker before you trip either power strip. What you need to do is calculate all your amps being used and if it exceeds 15 amps, you need two separate your power from two different breakers to run everything. I know it’s a bit of a read but I hope it can help anyone who may be concerned about all the power usage fish tanks can use. If I am incorrect on anything or if anyone wants to add any other good information on this topic, please feel free to do so in the comments so we all can spread knowledge to each other. I’ve attached a photo of my current power strip upgrade for visuals. Happy Fish Keeping and Best Regards everyone

View attachment 1558066

View attachment 1558067

Thank you for your research
I’ve got a 12x25 shed with its own fuse box, 6 dedicated circuits
Can you post the link to the above power strip/ surge protectors?
Thank you in advance

 

[tlindsey]

Hello everyone, so I had been doing some research on proper power strips for fish rooms, any rooms with water involved. What I found may be helpful to anyone who is worried about issues caused with improper power strips or old power strips. In short, there are no power strips to protect against water, the only effective protection against water is to install GFCI/AFCI outlets into any room that has the potential to get wet or water splashed OR install GFCI/AFCI breakers in your breaker box, for the rooms your tanks are in. There are “waterproof” power strips, whereas they may help prevent water entering the strip, they are not guaranteed to protect you. What you want for water protection is one of two options… You can either put GFCI/AFCI wall outlets in each specific outlet being used and also nearby your fish tanks, OR you can install GFCI/AFCI breakers in your breaker box, for the specific breakers you are using for your fish rooms. I do not condone to do electric work yourself, I’m just here to spread awareness of how to prevent fires due to water splashing. There have been threads about this topic before. Good power strips to use would be Surge Protectors, if a pump goes bad, it can short out a circuit so the surge protection helps against faulty equipment and heat. It protects against voltage spikes and short circuits but not water. So your power strip protects you from any faulty equipment, while the GFCI/AFCI protects against the water. Ideally you want a good quality surge protection power strip coupled with GFCI/AFCI outlets OR GFCI/AFCI breakers. You do not need both wall outlets and breaker being GFCI/AFCI they are redundant and one protects the whole electrical circuit, if you have it. Having those pretty much covers you all around from bad equipment/random voltage spikes/heat to water protection. Also, some things to consider. If you are using multiple power strips on the same breaker, the 15 amp rating on your power strip is meaningless when you only have 15 amps total supplied from your breaker. You’ll trip the breaker before you trip either power strip. What you need to do is calculate all your amps being used and if it exceeds 15 amps, you need two separate your power from two different breakers to run everything. I know it’s a bit of a read but I hope it can help anyone who may be concerned about all the power usage fish tanks can use. If I am incorrect on anything or if anyone wants to add any other good information on this topic, please feel free to do so in the comments so we all can spread knowledge to each other. I’ve attached a photo of my current power strip upgrade for visuals. Happy Fish Keeping and Best Regards everyone

View attachment 1558066

View attachment 1558067

Thank you for sharing this valuable information.

 

[tiger15]

Thanks for the information that is often overlooked, not just for fishroom, but also big tank set up. A leaky tank can cause not just flooding damage but potential water triggered electrical short and worst, fire. I had an incident of a leaky plumbing from my kitchen that dripped water downstairs through the dry wall into an electrical outlet box causing a short and burnt wire, fortunately the box contained the fire from spreading.

I have big tanks on my living room with a dozen equipment and light plugged into multiple power strips, so I worry about water leak short. The total amp drawn will be way below 15 amp or 1800 watts though, but the regular outlet need to be upgraded to GFP for safety. I wonder if I can use plug in GFP as used for outdoor power equipment.

 

[Reese11]

Thank you for your research
I’ve got a 12x25 shed with its own fuse box, 6 dedicated circuits
Can you post the link to the above power strip/ surge protectors?
Thank you in advance

No problem, I’m Happy to be able to share the info with everyone and Of course I can post the link. The strips I got on Amazon, this is the link, it’s long so just copy and paste it

Amazon.com

Here is just one example of the proper wall outlets to use for GFCI:

Leviton 15 Amp 125-Volt Duplex Self-Test Slim GFCI Outlet, White (4-Pack) GFNT1-4W M42-GFNT1-04W - The Home Depot

The Leviton Duplex SelfTest Slim GFCI Outlet White features a single circuit, removable turn knob design and a medium base, metal shell lamp holder. It is perfect for your lighting needs. It is an ul listed product.

www.homedepot.com

Here is an example of the proper circuit breakers to use if you chose to:

Square D Homeline 15 Amp Single-Pole GFCI Circuit Breaker HOM115GFICP - The Home Depot

Bring the best and essential addition to your electrical application with this Square D Homeline Single-Pole GFCI Circuit Breaker. Made of durable material.

www.homedepot.com

 

[Reese11]

Thank you for sharing this valuable information.

No problem, I’m Happy to be able to share it

 

[Reese11]

Thanks for the information that is often overlooked, not just for fishroom, but also big tank set up. A leaky tank can cause not just flooding damage but potential water triggered electrical short and worst, fire. I had an incident of a leaky plumbing from my kitchen that dripped water downstairs through the dry wall into an electrical outlet box causing a short and burnt wire, fortunately the box contained the fire from spreading.

I have big tanks on my living room with a dozen equipment and light plugged into multiple power strips, so I worry about water leak short. The total amp drawn will be way below 15 amp or 1800 watts though, but the regular outlet need to be upgraded to GFP for safety. I wonder if I can use plug in GFP as used for outdoor power equipment.

I’m happy to share it. Exactly, with the water damage, insurance will help you there, the real concern is your home catching fire. I had a 400g blow a seam on me and had 400g of water on my floors. The water caused damages to the house that most anyone can fix/drywall, flooring, all readily able to be fixed yourself. But the electrical side is the biggest issue. A potential fire inside a wall that you cannot see or smell until it’s too late, that’s the scary part. I also had an improperly connected wall outlet from when they built the house, the hot lead disconnected and was arcing to the inside of the metal box, inside the wall. That was scary for me so I researched about it to prevent these types of things and shared it with everyone. My big tanks are in my living room too, we can’t let these things happen and not know how to fix it if they ever do happen. At least be informed on how to shut power to all your systems quickly (flip the circuit breaker for that room off) then you can dig in and access anything you need in the walls to put out a fire, if one does ever occur

You can most definitely use a GFCI/AFCI circuit breaker for outdoor power equipment, it’s recommended to do so! I also believe you can install GFCI wall outlets outside, if you have any outdoor outlets, it’s code to have them be GFCI, so yes you definitely could use GFCI circuit breaker or GFCI outdoor wall outlets for power tools. If you run extension cords to inside, run them to your kitchen where GFCI should already be installed. This covered you if you are using your power tools and somehow they get wet and short out while you’re using them

 

[tiger15]

No problem, I’m Happy to be able to share the info with everyone and Of course I can post the link. The strips I got on Amazon, this is the link, it’s long so just copy and paste it

Amazon.com

Here is just one example of the proper wall outlets to use for GFCI:

Leviton 15 Amp 125-Volt Duplex Self-Test Slim GFCI Outlet, White (4-Pack) GFNT1-4W M42-GFNT1-04W - The Home Depot

The Leviton Duplex SelfTest Slim GFCI Outlet White features a single circuit, removable turn knob design and a medium base, metal shell lamp holder. It is perfect for your lighting needs. It is an ul listed product.

www.homedepot.com

Here is an example of the proper circuit breakers to use if you chose to:

Square D Homeline 15 Amp Single-Pole GFCI Circuit Breaker HOM115GFICP - The Home Depot

Bring the best and essential addition to your electrical application with this Square D Homeline Single-Pole GFCI Circuit Breaker. Made of durable material.

www.homedepot.com

May be easier to use portable plug in GFP extensions that don’t require installation, such as these

 

[Reese11]

May be easier to use portable plug in GFP extensions that don’t require installation, such as these

View attachment 1558141

View attachment 1558142

Yes you can definitely use these. To be honest I forgot they were out there, when I made the post, so these are a great option to adding gfci protection to any standard outlets. Just make sure you cover any regular outlets that aren’t in use, near the tanks. Thanks for adding! This is why it’s great to have people comment!