Burn It Down

[benzjamin13]

My wife screamed as she noticed a big cloud of smoke coming from the tank and started to smell melting plastic. This has been the worst one of them all. This is probably the 3rd or 4th time this has happened, but yeah...not sure if I’m learning my lesson yet since it’s the 3rd or 4th time.

Remember to unplug your heaters during a water change, kids!

And that’s not a piece of hair in the second picture...it’s melted plastic from the heater guard.

 

[kno4te]

Wow. Lucky u caught it with the water change. Could’ve been worse.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I have not done exactly what you describe but have removed a heater unplugged and laid it on some plastic while still hot. I do usually unplug my heaters during a WC in case I drain too much water and expose the heating element but I do not remove them. May I ask why you remove them?

 

[Hendre]

Melted a holder the same way, know how you feel man.

 

[benzjamin13]

Hello; I have not done exactly what you describe but have removed a heater unplugged and laid it on some plastic while still hot. I do usually unplug my heaters during a WC in case I drain too much water and expose the heating element but I do not remove them. May I ask why you remove them?

This melted in the tank while the water was draining.

 

[skjl47]

This melted in the tank while the water was draining.

Hello; My bad I did not understand.

 

[monkeybike]

Another reason why continuous drip is great!

 

[RD.]

Ouch, glad that's all that happened.

 

[BIG-G]

My LFS had a heater in a sump set up. Maintenance got over looked and no one was topping off the water so slowly over time the sump got lower and lower till the heater was exsposed, it melted caught fire burned the acrylic sump.
The only thing that saved the store was the tank about cracked from the heat and put the fire out.

 

[esoxlucius]

It's a brilliant hobby we're all participating in here but it is so unforgiving if you make the slightest of errors. There's constant risk of fire, flood and electrocution. Beats collecting stamps though!!