The motor never fails in a power surge, the magnetic coupling can slip and fail to restart. This happens more often in some brands than others, and when the impeller is gunk up. All HOB motors are made water seal, and can operate as a submersible pump thereby eliminating the possibility of water triggered short inside the motor.It was a power strip problem, not the filters lol.
And you're exactly right. They're cheap, low wattage, high rpm/low torque motors. The kind that sometimes fail with a power surge
HOB Filter Caught My Office on Fire!
- Thread starter pwmin
- Start date
I'm a bit late to this party but I'll add to it. My first big tank I had one of these heaters plumbed into the drain, ran a bean animal on it and I honestly didn't think about WHICH drain I was adding it to like a dummy. Well I put it on the secondary drain which isn't full of water. Got it all hooked up and running, about an hour later I'm sitting on the couch and smell something hot, look over and it's so hot it was melting the PVC. Lesson learned that day. 
