WOW!!! My endcap just caught on fire

[Frick-n-Frags]

You know, the standard 4 VHO's on an IceCap 660 with the nice waterproof endcaps. The smoke alarm went off and when I looked, there was the end of the VHO ON FIRE!! with the plastic endcap plastic dripping flames onto the edge of my prop tub also catching it on fire and melting some of it. Dang does it smell. What a frickin' heart start. Whew!!!!!!

Man, you can't trust anything not to screw up ............

[blueleg]

Sorry to hear that!! Seems like you have been having all sorts of problems recently, if I remember correctly you said something about water in your basement last weekend? Hope everything is ok!!

[alde]

Wow, that's not good. I had a fan do that and it makes you think twice about leaving your tank alone.

[wiliiam]

crazy man! Can you tell what caused it. Those things are put together real good.

[Tomzpc]

Man's that's scary! Glad to hear that you caught it. It makes me want to run home from work and check my endcaps!

[Frick-n-Frags]

I'm clueless. I can only guess that maybe the contacts in there oxidized and arc-ed out starting the plastic on fire. It hasn't been disturbed in quite a while and for sure no water got into it. What a bummer.

Jeez, I better check to see if any like brass fell in the tank.........



......[edit] OK, no brass or burnt crap in tank and the ballast still works.

[TippyToeX]

Wow, glad you were there to catch it while it was happening. Very frighting. How old were the lights & endcaps?

I would snap a picture and ask the folks at IceCap what they think might of happened.

[Frick-n-Frags]

The endcaps are quite a few years old already and the bulbs are about 6 months old. I don't think the problem is at the IceCap end. I think it was the endcap that should be made of fireproof material so an oxidized contact can sizzle its little heart out until it finally opens up and the ballast cuts out WITHOUT burning down the house. These endcaps can be rotated into like 8 positions so I know there are contacts inside.

Just a couple more beers here and I should be back to normal
The last 2 went really really fast.

Is it a fluke, or are they all time bombs???????
I'm thinking about soldering jumpers onto the end pins of all my VHO's so I can hard wire them to the ballast cords. I've done it before when I was short of endcaps and put shrink tube and silicon sealer over the solder joints to insulate them. It just is a royal pain to prep the bulbs.

[reef150]

We are all well versed (or I hope we all are) on the need to have our Tanks on GFCI circuits.

However, many of the electrical problems I hear about seem to be related to corroded contacts that end up causing arcing and GFCI breakers won't do a think about this.

There is a new type of breaker required for residential living spaces called an arc-fault breaker. These have some electronics in them that can detect an arc caused by frayed wire, etc and will trip.. they are intended to prevent fires by frayed extension cords, space heaters, lamps, etc.... I would think this would also address the type of arcs by corroded plugs in our environments.

I am seriously thinking about upgrading the cirucit that my tank is on to one of these breakers... you can get them with both Arc-Fault and GFCI protection....

Note: I am not an licensed electrican, so take my word with a grain of salt, and don't sue me later

[Frick-n-Frags]

I don't think any of that would have helped. If the IceCap was operating within its normal voltage-current parameters, nothing will stop it until the contacts separate and open the circuit. There is a bunch of components in the IceCap between the AC line and the bulb itself which would buffer all the arcing effects.

I think you could get electrocuted by your IceCap and never kick out any GFI. Remember a Ground Fault by definition is an unintentional current path(circuit) to ground and if no power supply is leaking to ground, then no GFI kicks out.

[Pepito]

Crazy, I just had an end cap catch fire last week. I had just got home from work and it smelt like burnt plastic, so I started looking around. I couldn't find anything, so I kinda blew it off for 5 minutes. I went back to my room to start looking again and there was 2 foot high flame on my fish tank.

Pretty scary. I only go home from work for about 1 hour to play with my dogs before going to school. If that would have happened any other time through out the day, my whole house could have burned down. The flames were only 1/2 foot from the wall.

[surt]

My NO flourescents caught fire about 2 months back, looks like it had started on the ends too. One of the scarier moments in life to hear the fire alarm going off isnt it! Hope everythings alright with your tank inhabitants!!

[Brad Ward]

This happened to one of my maintinence accounts as well. Nothing like getting a call before they called the Fire Dept. lol. Icecap 660 driving 4 110w VHO. Started with a 3 piece end caps, burned through 3/8" acrylic holder and then started a plastic eggcrate on fire and sent fine soot particles all over the 5000+ sq foot house. People were home at the time. The glass euro braces around the top of the tank got so hot that they cracked and the wood canopy caught on fire. Took about 4 months for professional cleaners to rehab the house and clean everything cleanable. The Insurance provider took a huge hit. Believe it or not, they wanted another tank, the insurance paid for it, and it will go in on Monday. Good thing you caught it in time.

This is not as uncommon as you might think.

[jimsar]

Originally posted by Brad Ward
This is not as uncommon as you might think.

Can you recommend any preventive measures? This makes me nervous ... there's a curtain less than a foot from my canopy.

Jim

[jarhead]

Familiar story:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=209972

[reef150]

Originally posted by Frick-n-Frags
I don't think any of that would have helped. If the IceCap was operating within its normal voltage-current parameters, nothing will stop it until the contacts separate and open the circuit. There is a bunch of components in the IceCap between the AC line and the bulb itself which would buffer all the arcing effects.

Frick:
You're probably right on the IceCap..... I guess I've been thinking about it for heaters, pumps, etc that are more directly connected, or where the plugs to the outlet may be corroded....

I guess the best "insurance" is a set of non-flammable end-caps and a good smoke alarm.....

[shoman89]

I had the same type of thing happen last week. New workhorse7 and new icecap 2 piece endcaps. Put 2 new URI 50/50 36" vhos in my hood. After about a week, I came home from work and the lights were off. THe endcaps was melted and brown on the inside. The bulb doesn't work anymore, but the ballast is ok. I think it was a lose connection that caused an arc. You can see a clear spot about 4" from the end on the dead bulb where it had shorted through the bulb. Lucky for me it didn't catch fire, but almost. Not I only run the lights when I am home until I build some trust again. Could have lost the house while I was at work.

scary!!!!

[G-money]

Don't you think there had to be a gap in there somewhere between the pins and the contacts? I had an endcap start to smoke when I was setting up my new system. It was probably because the 'caps weren't close enough together and the pins were a slight bit rusty.

The above link states that there should be inward pressure on the endcaps to prevent arcing. As long as there is no gap between the red rubber ring and the bulb, it should be completely water proof. I am going to mod my canopy so there is end pressure on both sides of the bulb. Right now there is only support on one side of endcaps.

Frick-n-Frags, when was the last time you changed that particular bulb? If for no other reason than replacing a bulb with decreased output, this is a harsh reminder that even the things we don't think need maintenance need maintenence. I mean, how many folks check their pins for corrosion? I am going to be sure I adhere to the 6 month replacement plan religiously.

Glad you were home to catch it! The rest of you guys, too...

After all the hassle getting icecaps to fire a newly setup rig, I find it terribly ironic that the ballast won't shut down in a case like this.

[Frick-n-Frags]

You aren't kidding:
Plug in ballast, "flicker", adjust bulbs,
Plug in ballast, "flicker", adjust bulbs,
Plug in ballast, "flicker", adjust bulbs,................

I am kind of surprised that this isn't as rare as I thought. My bulbs are replaced once per year around xmas. They are no where near a spray zone even. This has sat there undisturbed for 6 months on my prop tank, which I can work in without moving the flours.

This sucks. I thought RIO's were the only time bomb.

I have some serious thinking to do because this really could burn the house down at any time. If one went, why can't one of the other 5 pairs I have go?

[outprowllin]

my buddies pc end cap just caught fire a week ago. he was lucky to be home. he had just come home about 5 mins before the smoke alarm went off. he had to order a new cap and bulb . he just recieved it yesterday. i am sure he was up late last nite assembling it all into his ballest......i will see later today.

[richw]

Out of everything I have read on the board over the past couple of years, this could be the most important thread.

Most of us have florescent tubes and full time jobs. If there is a potential that they can catch on fire (one that appears greater than any of us believe), I think the reefers who know something about the subject should put their heads together and come up with a solution that us novices can implement. I for one have far more invested in my house and family than I do in my tank. If there is anyway to mitigate this risk, I think any responsible hobbyist shoud do it.

Can we agree on the most prudent course of action here?

[yarsrevenge]

Wow! Bummer, dude.

After reading this, I'm not completely convinced a true GFI wouldn't have tripped in this event, but *also* not convinced it would have either -(that is a whole conversation in its own right).

Degressing a little, I think Graham, said it best for prevention "maintenence". Maybe not with just changing your bulb at six month intervals, BUT also going the extra mile to once a month or two removing the bulbs from ballasts and cleaning the endcaps thoroughly. This is cost free and adds both a piece of mind as well as assurance of your lighting operating in tip-top shape.
good luck!
>L

[AcroSteve]

Were they the three piece end caps with the rubber seals?

[Frick-n-Frags]

I completely agree with richw, this could happen at any time. I am very concerned after dodging the Howitzer shell there. What if I was at work???????????????????????????? WHEW!!!!

Yes they were the nice 3pc German endcaps and I put them on so tight, they are hard to take apart.

NO the GFI WOULD NOT have kicked out. The IceCap was operating normally and no electricity was bleeding to ground.
Y'all better get straight on what a GFI can and can't do or you could blissfully burn your house down too. It isn't the magic prevent-all safety device that some of you think it is. It has a specific function to catch one specific problem.

If a RIO melts down,a GFI and ground probe would catch that, but I don't see anythig stopping a contact arc fire with that crap plastic.
BTW, look in the endcap real good. How the heck are you supposed to clean in there, especially the 8-position rotating contact surfaces behind the inner surface that you can't even see.

I have decided to remove all the endcaps. I am going to screw around with some kind of little screw terminal deals that maybe can be slipped on a bulb pin and tightened down without soldering or like those slip on spade lugs that go on car stereo speakers etc. Once the bulbs are hardwired, they can be insulated permanently with silicon or shrink tube etc.

I really don't want to burn my house down........................

In the meantime, I have a soldering iron and I'm not afraid to use it.

Thanks all for responding on this thread that this does happen and it wasn't just a fluke of my dumb luck. I don't want it to happen again, so the endcaps have to go.

[AcroSteve]

I have some dielectric grease that I will be putting in and around my endcaps.

This is a nonconductive silicone grease that chould help to minimize corrosion.