Originally posted by Curtswearing
I had a power strip that was running several powerheads and my heaters catch fire. The lights in the house flickered and then I could smell burning plastic. Thank God I was home or this story wouldn't have a happy ending.
I'm going to buy a fire alarm to put by my tank and I'm going to put fire resistant drywall up on the back wall of my storage room today because I can't believe how quickly that a stud caught on fire. (My tank is built into my wall but the backside of it is in a storage room).
Curt I had the same surge protector (looks the same) do the same thing.
I came home from work and saw my lights were out on the tank, and the PVC pipe I hold the hood up with was at the bottom of the tank.
When I lifted the hood the tank was full of water right to the edge. Then I checedk the sump and it also was full check my refill buck and it was empty.
Looked at the back of the tank and the overflow box was overflowing and no power running anything at this point.
tried to reset my 5 surge protectors and nothing happened. checked the breaker box and saw 1 switch needing reset.
The darn thing would not reset. started checking the surge protectors 1 by 1 and noticed wet floor behind the tank and one of them was wet and water was inside it, Unplugged everything from that one and diverted it to another and lights cames on.
Checked and the main pumps and skimmer sit not running, so checked that surge protector. This surge protector I had wrapped up in a plastic bag because I did not want it to get wet when I filled my refill bucket. Come to find out there was 3 inches of water in that bag that had dripped down from the overflow and followed the cord right into the bag.
That protector was some what melted and that is what tripped the breaker.
After that happened I trashed the cheapo surge protectors and bought some very good ones. Put everything electrical up under a counter with a drip loop.
Oh why did this happen you may ask, well the sponge pre filter on the overflow has this center sponge where they cut the hole to fit over the drain pipe and it had gotten sucked into the pipe and clogged it.
I checked the timers to see when they were triggered off and it was 50 minutes before I got home. The main thing here is get some really good surge protectors and don't buy the cheap ones. Try to keep them away from the tank and have a drip loop.
I hope that your house is ok and everything is ok Curt.
