Surge protectors are blowing up? Any ideas?

[tangyreefer05]

I am not running a large amount of electricity from this socket. My computer had more plugins and was fine using the surge protector for about 5 years. It is a nice APC black one with a red protect light. Well I had my tank on a basic white strip surge protector. It blew up last night and I thought it simply went bad. Now my APC just made some louad popping noises and sparks. It kept power and the protect light came on, I unplugged it as I could hear sizzling so something was melting. I am guessing it is something with the house wiring? bad socket? :mad2:

[Sk8r]

Boy, I'd get an electrician with a meter out there to take a look at that. And holidays to boot, of course. Better extra charges, however, than a fire. I'll rewire most things, but circuit overload, fuse going, or short circuit is when I call in the pros.

[Arik]

It probably isn't the house wiring, it's probably the power strip. I'd check the powerstrips to see what amperage they are rated for, and that should be at least 15 amps. Add up your amp draw of all the devices you have plugged in and make sure you aren't coming close to 80% of the powerstrips max amp rating.

Also, check your equipment for any signs of physical damage, to see if there is a malfunction that would be causing an increase in amp draw.

[Bri Guy]

I got my powerstrip to sizzle once, I set up my tank without a drip loop, it never got the powerstrip really wet but over time salt had built up around a couple of the plugins and whamo!!!

[tangyreefer05]

I wonder if it is my moon lights, It has worked for a couple years but recently I noticed it isnt fading or turning off with the switch, pretty mad about it. The lights plug into a box which is used to fade in and out automatically with the moon cycle over 30 days. I might email the guy and see if he can fix it. I know he made it himself. I am not sure of the amps on the white one that blew, but my APC is 15 amp, it was a $50 surge protector. I am not sure how to add up all my amps, I have two 20w maxi jets, a eheim 2217, my css skimmer, two 40w Flour bulbs. It's my best guess.

[Pyrojon]

Get one of these. A great device for determining your current draw and figuring out exactly what any one or several devices are costing you.

http://www.supermediastore.com/kilwateldet1.html?WT.mc_id=AdWordsKillaWattkillawatt&WT.srch=1&gclid=CPHJ-ITUnoUCFTUZFQodDhvkmw

[Arik]

With your power load I seriously doubt you are exceeding the max amperage. Something is drawing way too much power. Does anything feel extra hot?

[bklynmet]

Do what I did and put the tank on it's own dedicated circuit, install a GFI recep, and move the strips out from under the tank if they're there now. Always make sure you have drip loops also. As far as surge supressors (with as much joules supression your willing to spend on) - get one of those industrial grade types you can find at home depot or lowes rated for 15 amps and make sure you are not drawing that much...

[BeanAnimal]

You should not have your pumps plugged into that UPS unless it is a true sine wave output. In addition, depending on the heater size (if it is plugged in), you may be severly overloading the UPS. Purley resistive loads (heaters) are very hard on UPS power protection circuits. If you have voltage sags, the UPS will try to boost the voltage to compensate, which in turn creates a larger current draw through the UPS regulator.

Furthermore many "sine wave output" UPS systems (like those garbage APC units) use BUCK/BOOST topology to regulate voltage, so during a voltage event (sag or spike) the sine wave is severely disrupted by the buck/boost circuit. This can have devastating effects on electric motors and again cause severe ovarloading of the UPS even though the normal operating load is well within the UPSs rated output.

It sounds like the UPS is what the problem is....

However you need to plug each device into a breaker protected power bar and determine if any of them are bad. If everything checks out, then remove the UPS from the circuit and plug the NEW power bar and devices in.

A side note on power bars. You should be using commercial grade power bars, not that junk from wal-mart or home depot. The plug contacts are not well engineered and tend to loosen over time creating a severe fire hazard. Combine this with salt creep and oxidization due to moisture and your asking for disaster. You really should not have any non NEMA rated power distribution equipment inside of a stand or where it can get wet or damp.

Bean

[Arik]

Bean, I don't think he is using a UPS.

I just bought a "commercial" grade power strip from Lowes, and took it apart to see what made it better. Turns out it is the same crap inside as the cheapo strips, it just has a metal cover. It's amazing more fires don't start with these things....

[BeanAnimal]

Yeah I misread the post...

In any case I will try and cover a few more points...

Arik, you are correct with regards to tthe build quality. You can get real "commercial" grade stuff from Leviton or Hubbel (etc) at your local electric supply house.

With regards the power strip... Most "protection circuits" are nothing more than a MOV or two placed from HOT to NEUTRAL and HOT to GROUND and NEUTRAL to GROUND. MOVs have a rather limited life that depends on their age and number of surges they have absorbed/shunted. When they fail, they usually do so in a spectacular fashion (sparks and fire).

You still must check each device, do so by plugging each one into a GFCI protected outlet. Let us know if any of the individual pieces of equipment case the GFCI to trip. Once you get that far we can help you to either fix the problem or continue with a logicla troubleshooting path.

[DougSupreme]

I would put my money on the power strip going bad. I got called out on a service call last week where they hada strip eat itself. THey thought there was a problem with the wiring/generator. Turns out, it was just time to replace the strip. Got paid a full hour for that one!! :D

[BeanAnimal]

hrmm I charge 4 hours minimum on service calls :)