Almost burnt down the house......

[chauwall]

I was doing a water change today and turned off the power strip to the powerheads, pumps, and heater as usual. I took the heater out of the sump to vaccuum the bottom of the sump which I usually don't do and laid the heater on a towel next to the power strip with other cords.

Finished up my water change, turned the strip back on. And was admiring the tank for a few minutes. Then, what's that burning smell....??? OMG looked under the tank and lo and behold the towel was black! Darn it! Another heater bites the dust again!

Anyway, I'm lucky I didn't decide to go shopping or take the dogs for a walk. :yes: which I did once when I forgot to turn off the water in the bathtub....but that's another story :roll:

 

[dmahoney82]

I made the mistake of taking my glass heater out and leaving it plugged in while I cleaned part of my sump. Needless to say it exploded everywhere when I put it back in the water. I now own a titanium heater.

 

[acroholic]

Many heaters have an auto shutoff function if they run dry. What brand was yours?

 

[dkelly]

I left a refugium light on the carpet one time and the AC3 turned it on later. Burnt a nice hole in the carpet.

 

[chauwall]

Acroholic;280369 wrote: Many heaters have an auto shutoff function if they run dry. What brand was yours?

Mine is a Visatherm. I really like those because they hold the temp pretty steady. I have tried the Titaniaum ones before but both malfunctioned for no reason and ended up nuking the tank to 95 degrees!

I've tried Jaegers too. Doesn't hold the temp for me.

 

[kirru]

Thankfully when my house burnt down 3 or 4 years ago, I didn't have anything like a fish tank in the house. I did have 2 parakeets which survived and are doing well after they started breeding which is awesome, my aunt has them now. I had 3 cats but on died of smoke inhalation. :`(

All good now and I'm more paranoid about it happening again but i am getting better.

 

[raisingtwo2006]

Wow- glad you were still there to catch that!! At least it was on the towel and not straight on the carpet

 

[acroholic]

chauwall;280506 wrote: Mine is a Visatherm. I really like those because they hold the temp pretty steady. I have tried the Titaniaum ones before but both malfunctioned for no reason and ended up nuking the tank to 95 degrees!

I've tried Jaegers too. Doesn't hold the temp for me.

I looked at the Vistherm and the Stealth heaters at the Marineland website. The Visitherm you own does not have overheat shut off, but the Stealth does. And prices are within a couple dollars for comparable wattages.

I have a Stealth and it has worked well for me in a freshwater setup.

 

[weaglereefer]

I have a stealth in my 55 freshwater and a little one for my 10 gallon QT tank. The only downside is there's no indicator light to know when it's on. Other than that, they're great!