A reef breeder and a smoke filled fish room...

[Mrramsey]

Well after a smoke filled fish room and scaring the bejuesus out of my wife here is what I found.

Fortunately I work from home and happened to be in my office. My wife was off of work and came down into the basement and said "what the hell is that smell? It smells electrical!" Well that statement gets you up out of your chair in a hurry. I smelled it and immediately shutdown my system. I scoured all of my equipment and all looks good til I got to my photon 48 light. I could smell the burnt components. The wires on the fan are burned together.

The driver board "appears" to be ok. The fan spins freely. So what caused this?

This could have been very bad.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[aznflyfisherman]

From the looks of the fan you have salt creep and corosion on the wire part? Maybe it also got moisture/water on it cause it to short out?

 

[Mrramsey]

From the looks of the fan you have salt creep and corosion on the wire part? Maybe it also got moisture/water on it cause it to short out?

If there was moisture it would be nothing out of the norm. If it were salt creep it would have to have gotten onto the electrical connection at the motor. Which would indicate to me anyway, a problem with the design or at a minimum the component used.

Kind of scary that nothing tripped such as an internal fuse or some other protection.

 

[tkeracer619]

Likely a short inside the fan. Assuming that fixture has at least two fans I would ohm them both and see what you get.

 

[Mrramsey]

Likely a short inside the fan. Assuming that fixture has at least two fans I would ohm them both and see what you get.

actually there are 4 fans and four drivers

 

[mcgyvr]

Kind of scary that nothing tripped such as an internal fuse or some other protection.

Nothing out of the norm there at all actually...
But yes scary as a homeowner when you figure out that what you thought was protecting you really isn't..
A circuit breaker (normal kind) WILL stop a direct short.. It does nothing against arcing..

Localize arcing causes MANY..MANY fires... These arcs are not enough to cause an overcurrent situation but more than sufficient to cause fires...
This is a very big reason many electrical codes now require "arc fault" breakers installed at the panel..

That is a failure/arcing at the fan.. Microscopic examination would be required to pinpoint the exact issue but it was clearly arcing from 2 points at a different potential..

Pick up a new fan if you want and you would be back in business..

 

[Mrramsey]

Nothing out of the norm there at all actually...
But yes scary as a homeowner when you figure out that what you thought was protecting you really isn't..
A circuit breaker (normal kind) WILL stop a direct short.. It does nothing against arcing..

Localize arcing causes MANY..MANY fires... These arcs are not enough to cause an overcurrent situation but more than sufficient to cause fires...
This is a very big reason many electrical codes now require "arc fault" breakers installed at the panel..

That is a failure/arcing at the fan.. Microscopic examination would be required to pinpoint the exact issue but it was clearly arcing from 2 points at a different potential..

Pick up a new fan if you want and you would be back in business..

Yeah I have a spare fan that should work. Now ask me if I trust the rest of the fixture at this point LOL.

 

[Mrramsey]

well reefbreeders is sending me a new set of 4 fans. I certainly hope that is the only issue. I did wire up a temp fan and that works however there is another one of the fans that is not working. I am thinking that they have had this issue before since they threw out 4 new fans right off the bat.