Sicklid
Aquarium Advice Addict
I once was doing a water change when the hood light fixture fell in and gave me quite the tickle... I thought I was a goner, but it didnt hurt all that bad.
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mr funktastic
Aquarium Advice Addict
CaysE said:
no. unless she was reaching is as she unplugged it. there is nothing in the water to holf the charge so there will be no effect.
i grabbed the 2 contact points on a outlet while i was paintng. i went to lift it up since it had been removed from the wall to paint and i grabbed both the wires. it didnt hurt at all but my whole body tickled and felt odd for about an hour or so. i coudnt wear a watch for a week after i did it casue the batteries kept dieing. to muich electricity in my body apparently lol.
CaysE
Aquarium Advice Freak
LOL that's pretty cool. Did you crash any computers via keyboard and mouse? 
I've been zapped several times working on various electrical systems, and it appears to me that the danger of death by broken heater is overstated.
If your heater cracks, you would likely have at least both your phase and neutral wire in the tank. In a well designed heater, you would also have your ground wire in the tank, and they will all be close together. Most of the electrical energy will take the shortest path to ground, and will primarly complete the circuit by crossing the water and heading back down the ground or neutral wire.
When you place your hand in the water, you also may represent a path to ground, depending on factors such as what shoes you may be wearing, what your floor is, etc. Depending on how good of a ground your body has, you may experiance nothing, or you may experiance a small shock or tingle.
However, all of this aside- I cannot say their is zero risk of death, only that death is unlikely, and easiely avoided by simply unplugging the heater. And then throwing it away- Almost every electric shock I've experianced can be traced back to someone either not marking equipment as bad or reactivating deactivated circuits without checking why they were deactivated in the first place!
If your heater cracks, you would likely have at least both your phase and neutral wire in the tank. In a well designed heater, you would also have your ground wire in the tank, and they will all be close together. Most of the electrical energy will take the shortest path to ground, and will primarly complete the circuit by crossing the water and heading back down the ground or neutral wire.
When you place your hand in the water, you also may represent a path to ground, depending on factors such as what shoes you may be wearing, what your floor is, etc. Depending on how good of a ground your body has, you may experiance nothing, or you may experiance a small shock or tingle.
However, all of this aside- I cannot say their is zero risk of death, only that death is unlikely, and easiely avoided by simply unplugging the heater. And then throwing it away- Almost every electric shock I've experianced can be traced back to someone either not marking equipment as bad or reactivating deactivated circuits without checking why they were deactivated in the first place!
OP
OP
Guest
Guest
well, here is exactly what i did
I saw the heater had exploded
i unplugged it
i grabbed it by the top (which was not submerged) and took it out of the tank
i threw it away
i reached in and pulled out the broken glass
i threw that away too
i replaced it with a better quality heater =)
no fuss, no muss
I saw the heater had exploded
i unplugged it
i grabbed it by the top (which was not submerged) and took it out of the tank
i threw it away
i reached in and pulled out the broken glass
i threw that away too
i replaced it with a better quality heater =)
no fuss, no muss
7Enigma
Aquarium Advice Addict
Question for the electrical engineers:
If the heater blows but only one wire is present (as mentioned unlikely) so that you have a bad situation waiting to happen, will other objects in the water plugged into the wall (and thus completing their own circuit) be affected? Specifically if your heater blows, and your submerged powerhead or filter is present, does this change the tendency to cause harm?
If the heater blows but only one wire is present (as mentioned unlikely) so that you have a bad situation waiting to happen, will other objects in the water plugged into the wall (and thus completing their own circuit) be affected? Specifically if your heater blows, and your submerged powerhead or filter is present, does this change the tendency to cause harm?
I'm not an EE, but here goes.
The presence or absence of your powerhead wouldn't change the amount of potential damage to you. Now, the broken heater may damage the powerhead- Probably not likely, but could- But the powerhead won't add to what shocks you. It can't.... well, at least if it's plugged into the same circuit breaker or fuse or, ideally, Ground Fault Interrupt as your heater.
You can only draw so much current from your household powerpoints (At least, in a house built to modern code) without tripping something. And that single power cable from your heater is more then enough to pull enough power to trip it. And once you blow the fuse, or trip the breaker, you can't get shocked any more.
This is why a GFI is good for these applications- Of the 3 ways to "stop" the electricity, this would be the fastest.
Well, I guess technically there are 4 ways to stop the shock- If you don't have a circuit breaker, fuse box, or GFI (Or replaced your fuses with pennies or nails), the 4th way is when your wires get hot enough to burn through the insulation and set your house on fire. I don't recommend this method of circuit interruption.
The presence or absence of your powerhead wouldn't change the amount of potential damage to you. Now, the broken heater may damage the powerhead- Probably not likely, but could- But the powerhead won't add to what shocks you. It can't.... well, at least if it's plugged into the same circuit breaker or fuse or, ideally, Ground Fault Interrupt as your heater.
You can only draw so much current from your household powerpoints (At least, in a house built to modern code) without tripping something. And that single power cable from your heater is more then enough to pull enough power to trip it. And once you blow the fuse, or trip the breaker, you can't get shocked any more.
This is why a GFI is good for these applications- Of the 3 ways to "stop" the electricity, this would be the fastest.
Well, I guess technically there are 4 ways to stop the shock- If you don't have a circuit breaker, fuse box, or GFI (Or replaced your fuses with pennies or nails), the 4th way is when your wires get hot enough to burn through the insulation and set your house on fire. I don't recommend this method of circuit interruption.
7Enigma
Aquarium Advice Addict
That was the point I was getting at, that is if you have the other electronics in the water, even if the heater was to blow in the worst case scenario, the others in the tank would trip the powerstrip or breaker.
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