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10-15-2005, 05:21 PM
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#1
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Got Crabs?
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Woodbury, MN
Posts: 5,526
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Close Call
Had a close one today. Not really reef related but could be with all the electricity running through the house. I just left the house to head bad to work and the wife called and screamed emergency! your tank is smoking and all the electronics in the basement are flipping on and off. Told her to run and shut down the the electrical to the house via the breaker. She did as I was belining home I am freaking out something fierce. Get home and have her go in the garage and flip the breaker as I am in the basement waiting to find out what the hell is shorting. Nothing happens and all seems good. Then the pumps start switching on and off, the dehumidifire, and a couple of my neon signs start flickering even though they are off. One neon sign starts to smoke from a transformer so I unplug it. I run over to the tank and don't see anything with any of the outlets which are all protected from by a GFCI however the GFCI's never tripped. Everything settles down so I sit and watch and now the it is happening again so I try unpluggin the dehumidifier. When doing so it goes completely dead, plug it back in and everything comes on and stays on like nothing happened. WIERD. You would think that turning it on would cause it to short what ever it is and turning it off would reduce the load on the circuit. After checking every electrical outlet in the basement and everything that was plugged into the outlets I think I finally found the culprit. An electrical outlet in the mechanical room was shorting. Just strange that it a didn't blow the breakers or the GFCI's on the tank. Removed the outlet and capped it off. Casualties include my wifes treadmill, My favortie neon sign and the Tunze stream is all messed up. The bright side of it all is my wife was there to catch it, cause if she wasn't I really don't think that the breaker was going to blow and the place would of eventually gone up. So tommrrow all the GFCI's are going to be replaced and the circuit breakers. 
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__________________
<a href="http://www.suburbanchrysler.com/home.html">St Paul Chrysler</a>
<a href="http://www.suburbanchrysler.com/home.html">Minneapolis Chrysler</a>
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10-15-2005, 05:32 PM
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#2
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The King Chip
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Lake Elmo Minnesota
Posts: 1,472
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wow, well I am glad nothing else burned up and your house is stil vertical... wow...
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Disclaimer: The above statment is meant for entertainment purpose only. If you have any questions about your rights, consult a lawyer.
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10-15-2005, 09:32 PM
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#3
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300 Pound Gorilla
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Hudson, WI / Hong Kong
Posts: 2,640
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Holy crap, that was a close call. Glad your wife was home!!!!
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JP
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Currently between tanks......And countries!!!!
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10-15-2005, 09:45 PM
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#4
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Shark
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 1,737
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Oh my! These kinds of situations are pretty scary. I've never had anything this bad happen, but I've had some scary close calls with electrical matters. I'm glad to hear that things seem to have more or less come out all right.
Do you have any idea why the electrical outlet was shorting? What was structurally wrong with it that caused this to happen?
If you want some additional nightmares, I have recently been reading about how surge protectors can go bad and start fires. Makes me think twice about using them. In this regard, one thing that I have read in several places is that you are a lot better off when a surge protector goes bad if it has a metal housing rather than a flammable plastic housing.
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10-15-2005, 10:03 PM
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#5
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I've got the REEF rash!
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 24,530
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Wow that's weird,Lucky she was home and you found the bad outlet!
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10-15-2005, 10:36 PM
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#6
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Turf Guy
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: woodbury, mn
Posts: 818
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Wow, Holy Crow. Glad the problem is solved. I can give you a hand if need be tomorrow for a bit.
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10-16-2005, 12:13 PM
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#7
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Got Crabs?
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Woodbury, MN
Posts: 5,526
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Well it ended up shorting out my cable modem to so I guess a call will have to made to the insurance company as It knocked out some expensive things. It appears that the connection was fine at the outlet but the outlet for some reason was shorting out. Just glad nobody got hurt as it could have been much worse.
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<a href="http://www.suburbanchrysler.com/home.html">St Paul Chrysler</a>
<a href="http://www.suburbanchrysler.com/home.html">Minneapolis Chrysler</a>
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10-16-2005, 12:32 PM
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#8
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Schmidt happens!
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 2,047
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just glad no one got hurt!
tg
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do not try this at home...
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10-16-2005, 01:50 PM
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#9
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Got Crabs?
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Woodbury, MN
Posts: 5,526
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Just talked to the insurance company and it seems like they will cover every thing just have to talk to an adjuster. That should be a treat can't stand dealing with them some times.
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<a href="http://www.suburbanchrysler.com/home.html">St Paul Chrysler</a>
<a href="http://www.suburbanchrysler.com/home.html">Minneapolis Chrysler</a>
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10-16-2005, 06:26 PM
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#10
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TCMAS Member
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: River Falls, WI
Posts: 3,017
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Wow... I'm glad your wife caught it. I could only imagine if no one was home... 
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Barry
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10-16-2005, 11:12 PM
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#11
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Wingnut Jr.
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Hudson, WI
Posts: 3,460
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by redwinger
Just talked to the insurance company and it seems like they will cover every thing just have to talk to an adjuster. That should be a treat can't stand dealing with them some times.
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Let him know how quickly you reacted and how much money your wife saved them.
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Frogbone: Comedian, humanitarian, world traveler, and the only Irishman born in Germany. How can he not be your hero too?
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10-17-2005, 10:03 AM
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#12
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Shark
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Waseca,MN
Posts: 1,443
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Exactly...you saved them, they could have been rebuilding, instead of a few ver minor replacements
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