Went to check my thermostat I use for my oil heater in the reptile room, only to find… this lovely mess. Thankfully they’re cheap and I can order a new one; but this definitely scared me a bit.
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Oh yikes! Definitely something to check up on.
I bought a rack from someone with a bit of damage on the bottom from the heat tape. Only one tub had an issue and thankfully all the animals were fine. But it’s a reminder for me to check on things every now and then.
Not saying that this was your case, but I’ve seen a few people before say you can plug multiple similar sources into a power strip and then put that through your thermostat.
Measure your wattage
You can easily overwhelm your thermostat and increase fire risk. Some thermostats are not very strong wattage wise so too big of a rack is a danger too.
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Yeah, I use a radiant oil heater, and I’ve got a kill-a-watt meter that I use to test wattage. It’s got 3 modes, 600, 1100, and 1500. Part of me wonders if someone bumped it up to 1500 setting.
The manual for the ink bird says 1100/1500 max wattage, so it should be able to handle it. I’m not sure which wattage it actually is though, so that’s confusing the way they word it.
Regardless, it’s still working, but I’m getting a new one because I don’t like fires, especially on the second floor of my home in my reptile room!
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The back of that particular ink ird says 1500 but who knows. Even something like a simple quick power surge can be enough sometimes. I learned that the hard way with a faulty power strip. Burned out my computer’s power supply during some rolling blackouts one year
I definitely agree replacing is the best option regardless! Unfortunately, sometimes issues can happen in the manufacturing process and it’s out of our control. But changing out this thermostat instead is totally in our control.
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Right, and that’s partially why I bought it. It’s supposed to support higher wattage so you don’t burn up a thermostat. But, as we can see, it definitely still happens lol.
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Wow, that’s scary. Glad you caught it before it started a fire!
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Daaaaannnnggggg, I’ve never seen one like that that didn’t catch fire. That’s crazy!
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Yeah, I honestly have no clue when it happened. Which is even scarier. Definitely gave me some anxiety when I found it.
And @jawramik me too. That would be an absolute disaster
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Eeeeekk!!! That’s frightening! Go ahead and call me paranoid, call me pyrophobic, say I’m a big ole chicken about electricity, but that picture gave me goosebumps. Glad everybody and everything is safe.
I was unaware for a long time that power strips go bad over time, but this is the case. They are manufactured to absorb a certain amount of excess current, and once they do, they’re just an outlet. Every time they’re zapped, they lose a bit of use. Unfortunately, there’s no way to look at one and know if it’s still functioning as protection, or simply supplying connection. It’s a good idea to replace them periodically, too.
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