Reached into any electrified water recently?

[carlisimo1969]

I have! Let me tell you it was highly unpleasant. I've been shocked on occasion in the past by various things...but a week or so ago I got the full tilt blast. I just plumbed in a new frag growout tank above my basement refugium/sump and all seemed well.

Then I had to do the dreaded power failure simulation, pull the plug on the pump, wait, plug it in and run around til' I was sure the living room above wasn't going to flood...no problems. Then, I reached into the new frag tank to grab the thermometer and BLAMMO! I spasmed/jerked once and was on my butt wondering what hit me.

I finally found that my glass heater in the sump below had shattered and the elements were exposed to the water. Cause of the breakage, unknown. It may have happened during my power failure test, I don't know. But I do now have a nifty new titanium heater! Everytime I reach into that frag tank now I have a little twinge of fear. Please be careful...I'm still hoping to meet you all at a club meeting soon...it would really suck if it was a wake for an electrocution victim.

Cheers, Your pal Sparky:eek1:

 

[jmkarcz]

I once ducked under a cast iron stack pipe in my attic while sweaty, and became a path to ground for a wire I though was not live. On my neck.

I now have a twinge that looks like I'm adjusting my hair.

My wife though I was playing around as I lay in the insularion in convultions for 20 seconds.



That's my funny story.

Twitch.

Jason

I used to be able to spell befor that to.

Glad to hear you had a happy ending as well.

 

[RCS]

Had basically the same experience with a glass heater. Thankfull the GFCI kicked right away. Was still a jolt though, and not an altogether pleasant feeling. Not something I'd rush into again, that's for sure.

I sold them for a while (and still might in the future) and am a huge fan of the titanium heaters (I won't use anything else, and the one stainless one I tried junked after about 3 months) but be careful with them as well. There's two issues I've seen in the past:

1. the external controls can get hot and in extreme cases (poor ventilation, etc.) may catch fire. I've never had it happen personally, but I've seen it happen once or twice. That's just basic safety with electronics though.

2. the seal on the tube itself can be somewhat quetionable. You may not notice anything under normal circumstances, but if you have a cut on your finger or hand and place it in the tank, you can feel a bit of a buzz coming through. I've had this happen with about half of the Ti heaters I've used. Again, I don't think it's a major issues, but just be aware.