Photos of my house fire...aquarium put it out.

No problem---glad to offer my 2 cents---however it is ironic that I am talking about work-----I get on here to forget about work!!!! Good luck to you and yours through this ordeal---I tell most insureds that once your 2 to 3 months are over and all repairs made and you are back in the house, it wll be a lot better and your house will be better too-it will probably have new paint floor coverings (and in your case some new aquarium equipment) ---don't forget to have them to clean the ductwork, furnace, AC etc. On a side note--I just can't help myself--the manufacturer would also probably have to show you got saltwater in it. Even if you got saltwater in it---perhaps the design of the item---especially since it was to be used with aquariums---should have been better. If it does go to court, this is a civil case and burden of proof is different than in a criminal case. In a civil case, one just has to slightly tip the scales in their favor. In other words, regardless if a judge or jury would hear this case, they would just have to decide who is 50.0000000001 percent right in the court case. That being said and more often than not, a manufacturer will review its case before trial and if they believe the Plantiff has a chance of winning, they will offer an amount that is lower than the actual damages in order to avoid the crap-shoot of a trial.
 
Last year a friend of mind had problem with his corelife timer and he lost his tank too. ESU took 6 weeks to looking at the pictures and fire examiner's report and paid a $4200 to replace the tank and 30% of the damage. I think what made the difference was the timer wasn't on the floor but taped to the wall. It wasn't clear what went wrong with the timer but they did pay. Any timer will fall if it gets salt water on it even one designed for saltwater so not likely that a design error cause this problem. And did I read you smelt something buring before the fire? Yikes, I hope that wasn't mentioned in the fire report as it will likely cause problems.

Steve
 
:eek1: Yikes! I just spent a good while reading this thread (ok I read slow :rolleyes: ). And to think I had one of these on my Christmas list! Guess Its a good thing I didn't get it... And like many people my electrical is a nightmare, I will probably spend today cleaning it up. Though I do have one power strip above the tank, the other one is on the floor (only real place for it) so I will try to do something with it.

Just to end this on a good note, you get to start all over with a better, cleaner, and hopefully safer tank.
 
Just throwing in my two cents...

I purchased one of these units approximately 2 years ago... and hooked it up to 4 maxijet power heads with the intention of using the product as a wavemaker timer like it was designed for. In less than 15 minutes it quit working as a timer and was either on or off...no switching in between outlets. I removed it and tucked it into a box and forgot all about it.
After reading this thread, its obvious to me that this is not only a shoddily made product, but the company is aware of this fact and still continues to market it in order to make money.
I agree with Lumberjack about pursuing this from a civil standpoint. In a criminal case, the burden of prooof is on the plaintiff, (accuser) and the defendant must be shown to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In a civil case, all you need to show is that there is a reasonable belief that the defendant is liable. IMO, you've just about got that on the grounds of the fire inspectors report alone. Sned ESU a copy of the report, and let them know they X amount of days to reply to you or they'll be speaking with your attorney next. I'd be interested to hear what happens next after that.

Nick
 
Any word yet? Have you spoken with an attorney yet? I wouldn't accept any settlement until you've spoken with an attorney. There is money in this. They owe you big time. Where are you located? I know a couple of good attorneys in NJ if you're here.
 
Gfci!

Gfci!

This is why gfi's are a must. It WILL trip the gfi if water gets on any of the appliances that are plugged in to it. They are very sensitive to sudden current draw or drop. I have had issues with salt water getting to power strips and the gfi will kick out every time. I have siliconed the plug ends to the power strips and it has helped. Sorry about your fire, I know all about them our house burned to the ground 2 years ago with my 125. Had nothing to do with the tank but all the same. Our insurance (allstate) took good care of us and hopefully yours will too. good luck.
 
I might not be the brightest bulb in the box, but I have GFI circuits in my barn. I decided to test them one day and took a plug with bare wire ends, plugged it in, and touched the bare hot wire to the grounded metal box. It lit up like a Christmas tree and actually welded itself to the outside of the box before the circuit breaker, not the GFI, tripped. However, when I push the little red test button, or test it with a GFI tester from HD, the GFI trips every time. OK so given that I have kids, I think I've proven that natural evolution doesnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t necessarily promote the selection of the best and brightest, but it seems to me that in some cases a GFI will not prevent a fire. Perhaps if water completes a circuit between the hot side and the ground it would, but if there is a short between the hot and neutral maybe not? Plus, whoââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s to say any water was involved in this until it was too late? I still think that in any event, given that this product was specifically designed for use with an aquarium, it is well within the bounds of reason to think that it might be exposed to whatever environment it was exposed to, and should have been engineered accordingly.
 
I just spent a few minutes installing a GFCI on my aquarium circuits. It is amazing that I never thought of that before. They are required by code in CA whenever water and electricity come together. I am very sorry to hear about your loss it is very scary. At least your family is safe. If there is a design problem in the device you would think that there would be hundreds or thousands of these fires as there would have to be tens of thousands of these Coralife units in peoples homes. I haven't heard of any other incidents involving this unit besides yours. In most product design flaw cases there are many incidents of malfunction that can be illustrated. For example the many multiple failures of Firestone tires on Ford Explorers. Has anyone else on this thread enountered a problem with this specific brand of timer? I ask because I have been using one for 6 months or so. It does not feel hot and I have it mounted on the wall with drip loops for each device that is plugged into it. I would be interested to hear if anyone else has experienced a fire or overheating with one of these.
 
Besides the multiple timer failures...


Chewie wrote this on the first page.
Hey Aqcons,

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Just for your info and anyone else that uses these powerstrips, this is not a one time thing. I have 3 of those that I immediately pulled off my system when one day I noticed the case at the last 2 plugs on the opposite end of the timer had changed form and started to shrivel up. Upon further inspection, I realized that those to outlets had almost fused together which gave me a reality check as to how close I had come to having my house burn down. You might want to check into it beause you may have a case against the manufacturer. Good luck and don't give up on the tank.
 
I had a CoraLife Turbo-Twist fry on me when I was out of town a couple of years ago.

Thankfully I was using a grounding probe, or everything would have been cooked... As is, I lost nearly all of my corals and inverts! :(
 
I had a similar situation with a one of my first reeftanks nearly 20 years ago. I had set up a 20 gallon system while reading the series of articles on building a "mini-reef" aquarium using wet/dry filtration. The small amount of salt spray eventually built up enough to cause a short in an extension cord located behind the sump. This can happen with any powerstrip, extension cord, or electrical outlet.
Fortunately, my wife was still home when she saw smoke and flames coming up from behind the tank! She was just getting ready to go shopping, and no one would have been home had it started a half hour later. The fire was put out with a hose and there was no real loss or damage except a melted homemade trickle filter.

Since than, I have used Ground Fault Circuit Interupters (GFCI) on my tanks. I use good quality power strips, and keep them away from any possible saltwater spray or flooding. I usually have the Powerstrips mounted on the wall and away from the tank. It's not a bad idea to occassionally do a close inspection of your tank's electrical connections.

One important thing that hobbyists need to realize is that electricity and saltwater are a potentially dangerous combination to both the aquarist and the tank occupants. I know of at least one tank of corals and fish that was totally wiped out when a hot electrical wire fell into the water when the owner left the room for few minutes. A GFCI may have prevented this. There have been many cases of fires and deaths attributed to aquarium electrical accidents. Many may have been prevented with using a GFCI (about $10 at Home Depot).

Here are some related articles:

Electrical Safety and Aquariums
http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Owen_Electrical_Safety.htm

Aquarium Safety and Power Budgeting
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/fwelectart.htm

Electricity Use and Aquariums
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/fwelectart.htm
 
I am thinking of adding a GFI and placing the power strip in a non combustable box. Hopefully the two together would stop any fire from spreading.
 
Perhaps, with enough complaints/suits, the thing could be recalled. The photos are pretty shocking...Wow. Remember Fight Club? It was something along the lines of the cost of recalling the product vs. the cost of paying all the suits/etc..... I'm glad I never bought into this shoddy timer ($30 for a plastic power strip with an old manual timer? Pff!), and just did everything with a power strip (drip loop, of course) and a lighting effects box as a wavemaker.
 
Aqcons, what a scary thing to go through. I am sorry about your home but glad to hear that nobody was hurt. Have you heard anything back from ESU yet? Also, I saw in another thread that you were from Missouri. Where abouts in Missouri are you from. I live in the Truman Lake area which is southeast of Kansas City.
 
Yeah, I'd like to add that I really feel for everyone that went through that... Jeez, what a scary thing to go through. I'm just glad nobody lost their entire houses (those people probably aren't into reefing anymore, though :( ) or their loved ones.
 
Question: What is a Water Detector??

Question: What is a Water Detector??

Tammy, what a horror! You've enlightened a lot of us..though I already have had nightmares of freak fires and such since putting up our tank. I hope the house is near completion, and sometime soon you'll have a beauty of a tank back up (and hopefully won't worry too much about such a thing happening again.

Question for Reefer, what is a water detector?

thx,
Amy.
 
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