GFCI, do you recommend one? Discuss...

So as to not hijack another thread, I will start a new one as I feel this information is pertinent to everyone. I would like to know what the fire risk is without a GFCI? I have cats that sometimes make their way behind the tank and I would hate for them to mess up a drip loop which could lead to water in an outlet and a fire.

 

i think im going to let the "pros" handle this one

 

By all means, please answer. I am a firefighter of 10 years and have never seen an electrical fire caused by a fish tank. Usually they are started by some electrical appliance that has failed internally or by the DIY'r who shoots a nail straight through a wire.

 

For the record, I do not have a GFCI for my tank, but had planned on installing one in the near future.

 

i am probably wrong on this one, but i think to GFI is more to protect you from electric shock when sticking your hands in the tank. but i would assume it has some carry over fire protection

i use one, not an outlet but kinda like a surge protector with GFI for all my tank stuff

 

I use a gfi cause everyone else does ;D
But I do get tired of it tripping once a week when a chiller or auto top off kicks in.

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/general-reef-topics/please-use-gfci-82339.html

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/general...-dead-double-check-your-electrical-68158.html

Just searching electrical fire on here came up with this. I was looking for a thread not too long ago about a member who had a small burned out powerstrip due to dripping water.

I am still looking for a technical answer to my question.

I should add as a fire investigator, I hate it when fires are listed as electrical in nature like the one in the article. A very small percentage of fires are ACTUALLY electrical in nature.

 

When conductive saltwater drips into your power strip and causes an arcing ground fault that is insufficient in magnitude to trip the instantaneous or time-delay mechanisms in your overcurrent device...

...in other words arcing sparking that won't trip your household breaker can start a fire...

 

I tried using the GFCI powerstrip and that was a bad idea. If there was a lightning storm, no power outage, it could still set it off. Also if there was a brief power outage, it wouldn't not turn back on. Enough said about those junkers.

A wall one could be helpful, but I always figured a power-strip would suffice if a piece of equipment went haywire. I suppose it may not trigger the fuse tho. Also curious what others say.