My Heaters Cracked?

[OldMan47]

The metal spring looking things are a part of the active heating element. It became stretched when the bottom fell off of the heater. It actually seems that the heater element is still intact and only the glass cover on the heater has failed. As long as the heater has been unplugged from the power source, it should be plenty safe to handle. A new heater or a very old heater are the ones most likely to fail. A minor flaw in the glass cover could well have caused the failure you are seeing. Until it is powered on for the first time, any flaw that is made apparent by the heat itself will not show itself. The fact that the heating element is still intact tends to show that it was a flaw in the cover that caused the failure. A flaw of some sort in the heating element would have shown up as a broken heating element inside an intact cover instead.

 

[PDSimon]

The metal spring looking things are a part of the active heating element. It became stretched when the bottom fell off of the heater. It actually seems that the heater element is still intact and only the glass cover on the heater has failed. As long as the heater has been unplugged from the power source, it should be plenty safe to handle. A new heater or a very old heater are the ones most likely to fail. A minor flaw in the glass cover could well have caused the failure you are seeing. Until it is powered on for the first time, any flaw that is made apparent by the heat itself will not show itself. The fact that the heating element is still intact tends to show that it was a flaw in the cover that caused the failure. A flaw of some sort in the heating element would have shown up as a broken heating element inside an intact cover instead.

Yeah it was still heating away when I found it.

I was wondering though, if i put my hand in the water could it not have sent 230 volts into me? It's all changed now, but i lifted the cover up at the time and took a hair of the lid. If there was a hair in the water I would have taken it out!

Cheers

 

[OldMan47]

I would definitely not put my hand into a tank with a broken heater cover. I would not want to become the ground path for the electricity.

 

[ian]

have you emailed Fluval about this? If there is a dodgy batch about i'm sure they'd love to know, before they start getting lawsuits on there hands. Send them the photos as well.

 

[PDSimon]

Thats a bit worrying, I'm never touching the water even with everything working


Thats a good point ianho, I probably should.

 

[Macro]

Yeah it was still heating away when I found it.

I was wondering though, if i put my hand in the water could it not have sent 230 volts into me? It's all changed now, but i lifted the cover up at the time and took a hair of the lid. If there was a hair in the water I would have taken it out!

Cheers

I'm not an electrical guy so I'm not sure but wouldn't an electrical short (or whatever you would call this) trip the breaker or GFI? Anyone know?

 

[Ryefish]

You mean whilst hes being electrocuted?! LOL

 

[Macro]

You mean whilst hes being electrocuted?! LOL

That's not exactly what I meant

 

[stuuk1]

Surely you had to flick the power back on at your fuseboard?! If not then everyone should learn from this that you should all have any electrical equipment in your tank covered by an RCD!

If you dont have an RCD covering your circuits then you should make it your main priority to research this!

 

[Ryefish]

There is no proof that there was an electrical fault with the appliance though? and from what i've read, it was just the glass casing and the heater was still working

 

[PDSimon]

Surely you had to flick the power back on at your fuseboard?! If not then everyone should learn from this that you should all have any electrical equipment in your tank covered by an RCD!

If you dont have an RCD covering your circuits then you should make it your main priority to research this!

All UK households have fuseboards, it didn't trip. I don't even know what an RCD is... Never heard of them.

The heater was still working when I opened the tank, just the glass cover was broken...

 

[ian]

if the heater was stil working it wouldn't trip the switch until it burned out. (which it would have eventually done). Also RCD's don't guarentee protect from electrocution.

 

[PDSimon]

Screw 'if it had fish in there'

If my hand was in it I could be dead

 

[ian]

thats why Fluval should really be told, in case it is a faulty batch. If your electrics are post 70's, then all houses should have fused trips.

 

[stuuk1]

From your picture, the elements are exposed which should have caused a trip either between your live and neutral or live and earth. Im pretty sure your fish tank would have been live if the heater was turned on in your picture.


An RCD measures the current in both your live and neutral conductors. If a fault on your circuit occurs then the currents in each conductor with change. The RCD will detect this and trip which in turn will protect whatever equipment the RCD is protecting. It is well worth reading up on.

I have fitted many (im an electrician) and RCD disconnects very quickly, when testing an RCD the test results are recorded in milliseconds rather than seconds. It could save your fish at the end of the day!

http/www.greenbrook.co.uk/pdf/pbcatpg21-22.pdf

The only problem with RCD's is something called 'nuisance tripping'. It can happen but you may want to risk it.