Warning Fire Hazard - Vortech MP40w

Brent Thomann

New member
I wanted to share my experience since Ecotech didn't care to hear about it.

One of my MP40w's almost burnt my house down. My family and I woke in the middle of the night to the smell of electrical fire. I found smoke coming from under tank from one of my MP40w drivers. I quickly unplugged it and blew out the fire and unmounted it. As you could imagine this is very concerning and scary situation. If this happened hours later when kids were at school and we're work it could of burned our house down. I have both my MP40w drivers along with my ballasts for lights mounted underneath my 8ft tank on the back sides of 2x6's where it would be impossible for water to reach. So water wasn't a factor.

I thought for sure Ecotech would want to know about it so I emailed them along with photos of burnt driver. Alex (customer service manager) simply wrote back a generic email saying I can send in my Vortech for service/repair (on my dime that is) with instructions on how to get a RMA.

First of all its obvious from the photos that its not repairable. Even if he was able to some how repair it I would never trust it on my family's life to use it again or my other MP40w I bought at the same time years ago.

mp40w1.jpg
 
Glad you were able to catch it before it burned your house down, but how old is that unit? I have never seen a controller that looked like that?
 
Damn, scary stuff. That's pretty sad ecotech wasn't interested at all

To be fair, that unit is old and is no longer manufactured. It's at least 2-3 generations old. They offered to repair it, but outside that that, I'm not sure what more should be expected here. It was an unfortunate accident. I can't say I've come across another incident like this, so it's not as if it's a reoccurring problem.
 
To be fair, that unit is old and is no longer manufactured. It's at least 2-3 generations old. They offered to repair it, but outside that that, I'm not sure what more should be expected here. It was an unfortunate accident. I can't say I've come across another incident like this, so it's not as if it's a reoccurring problem.

Maybe the slightest concern their controller caught fire?
 
Maybe the slightest concern their controller caught fire?

Again, that controller may be 7-10 years old. They no longer manufacturer or supply those units. It's not a reoccurring issue, just a fluke accident. I'm sure they apologized, but beyond that, what are we expecting from them? To recall 1st and second generation units due to an outlying incident in a product well outside the warranty?

Their service and products have historically been superb.
 
Maybe the slightest concern their controller caught fire?
They offered to repair it, what else do you want? Sometimes crap happens. Glad you caught it. If you're really upset, pick up a phone and call them. A lot of intention is lost in email and you are reading into it too much ("they don't care"). If they didn't care, they would not have responded at all.

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Please explain to me anywhere in OP's post where he claims they should recall the 1st and 2nd gen units. I'm glad you're sure they apologized because OP didn't mention it and I think that was mostly his point.
 
Please explain to me anywhere in OP's post where he claims they should recall the 1st and 2nd gen units. I'm glad you're sure they apologized because OP didn't mention it and I think that was mostly his point.
If you want help, you email. If you want emotion, you call. Sounds like the OP really needs to vent his concerns to them and email and a forum post, without a phone call, just seems the wrong way to do it.

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Why are you guys even arguing about this. Do you work for ecotech? Do you own their stock?

Have some compassion, this guy could have lost everything including his family.

If some people had any compassion they would send their sympathy and that's it, not argue...
 
First off, I'm glad you, your family and home are ok.

Secondly, thank you for the post, I know your complete intent is not to bash ecotech, but to let the community know about your experience as there is always a probability of it happening to anyone. Electrical components can always burn, I had a sprinkler controller catch on fire and it was low voltage...

Thirdly, I would take advice of those posted above and give Ecotech a call. I honestly would have gone the same avenue you did and send them the email. From experience in supporting platforms, applications and clients, I know all to well that ultimately you would be asked to send an email with pictures to "prove" or "show" what happened, so it's not like you did anything wrong. Since you received what appears to be a generic response for service to the unit. I would contact them by phone now to ensure they understood the seriousness of the situation. It's highly possible that it was simply a quick mistake on the part of the service tech and just sent a preformated response to you.

Again, sorry to hear about your troubles but ultimately glad everyone including your tank kids are safe.
 
Glad everything is ok. You mentioned that the controller was inside your stand away from water damage? Could it be possible that the humidity (assuming your sump is in your stand) could have caused this?
 
Lucky escape, but you should avoid having any electrical components in the sump. All I have is a ip65 rated led.
 
Maybe the slightest concern their controller caught fire?

Exactly. They showed ZERO concern and said NOTHING about the incident. They only mentioned that I can send it in for repair along with instructions on how to do so. No sorry our equipment caught fire and could of burned your house down with your family in it. So yes I am upset specially after investing thousands over the years on their pumps and LEDs and have to somehow talk my wife into thinking my reef system is safe.

Yes the equipment is older but I'm sure there are still thousands of people that still have mp40w's in use so it shouldn't be ignored.

BTW I do have smoke detectors in my fish room in my basement where most my equipment is and sump but no detector in the direct area in my living room where the tanks are. Installing one tonight though.

Also I can tell you how AquaMedic handled a similar situation years ago. At the time I had one of their 6ft Turboflotor T5000 Twin (2 x OR3700 pumps) and one of the pumps started smoking setting off my smoke detector in my fish room. I told them about it and they were very concerned and helpful. They overnighted 2 new pumps for the skimmer along with a return label for the bad pump so they could try and diagnose what happened. The skimmer was also 7+ years out of warranty at the time.
 
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Because of this post, I am going to be buying a Nest smoke detector. That way if it goes off I will be able to be notified by my phone as well. I will be installing it to the ceiling of my sump.

thanks OP, this is a concept I never considered before. $100 to keep my family safe is worth it to me.
 
Thanks for the post Brent and letting others with this older gen MP know of your problem. Glad you and your family are OK. I will also install a new smoke detector in my fish room.
 
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