Black Box Fan Fire

WWIII · Sep 26, 2018

Ok, so not a full blown fire because I happened to smell the plastic melting, but it potentially could have been. The light had only been on for an hour this morning and I went down to the basement (where the tank is) and smelled burning plastic electrical fire type smell. Went around feeling and smelling all my different power supplies, cables, etc... until I found it in my mars aqua light.

Long story short, the light is a little under 1 year old and one of the fans started melting. Has anyone else had this issue? I probably should have blown them out/off more often than I had been. I ordered another fan, same size, different brand. Just curious other's experiences.

Maritimer · Sep 26, 2018

I've not had that happen, and have two of 'em above my tank. Kinda scary!

Reminder to blow them out on the regular.

~Bruce

joseserrano · Sep 26, 2018

Brs did a review on them and noted this issue.

WWIII · Sep 26, 2018

Maritimer said:
I've not had that happen, and have two of 'em above my tank. Kinda scary!

Reminder to blow them out on the regular.

~Bruce

Yes Sir! Basically a PSA to blow them out often and maybe even take a look inside once every 6 months or so? I couldn't really find any posts online having this happen and there's a whole lot of them out there, so there's that. It did freak me out though this morning. The smell was instantaneous and strong as soon as I opened the basement door. Never a good thing when you smell that particular odor!

Crabs McJones · Sep 26, 2018

Glad you caught it in time!

WWIII · Sep 26, 2018

Crabs Mcjones said:
Glad you caught it in time!

Me too my friend! Pretty crazy the lights had only been on a very short time this morning. If anyone was wondering it's on my "quarantine tank" in the basement. No canopy, just wide open air space about 18" off the tank. Makes me think it was just a defect or bad wire insulation or something?

I have bad luck when I buy "cheap" equipment. The 3 jebao products I've bought have all frozen, or died in less than a year as well. Hopefully it's just my luck and since I caught it early no real harm came of it.

Tft12 · Sep 26, 2018

Good thing you caught that before there was any real trouble.

Would blowing the dust off had made a difference? Does anyone know what could make a fan melt in that way? I don’t have much knowledge about electronics, myself.

dz6t · Sep 26, 2018

joseserrano said:
Brs did a review on them and noted this issue.

Since when Bulkreefsupply did a review on MarsAqua? They did a review on a no name black box. Not all blackboxes are the same.

WWIII · Sep 26, 2018

Tft12 said:
Good thing you caught that before there was any real trouble.

Would blowing the dust off had made a difference? Does anyone know what could make a fan melt in that way? I don’t have much knowledge about electronics, myself.

Thanks! Me too!!!

As for blowing them off making a difference, I'm not sure? The fan was still running and all the lights were on as usual. Blowing them out is about all we can do I guess to maybe help, but I have a feeling it wouldn't have in this case. Based on the lights only being on a short amount of time this morning and everything still running as usual, I'm thinking it wasn't a heat related failure. The ballast (I guess it is) that is powering this single fan along with a portion of the leds was pretty darn hot though. I'm just not sure? It was the bottom fan in the following picture and the "C" "ballast" that was very warm. For anyone interested.

Brew12 · Sep 26, 2018

I'm thinking cleaning wouldn't have helped. The fan shouldn't need it's own flow to stay cool. We need to clean our lights fans to make sure air can flow freely over the electronics. This fan was going to fail, cleaned or not. I'm just glad your damage was minimal!

Flippers4pups · Sep 26, 2018

joseserrano said:
Brs did a review on them and noted this issue.

That was a different light and design of the current black boxes. The gentleman that was featured on the BRS review is a member here on Reef2reef.

Tft12 said:
Good thing you caught that before there was any real trouble.

Would blowing the dust off had made a difference? Does anyone know what could make a fan melt in that way? I don’t have much knowledge about electronics, myself.

Not really, these are 12v fans. Not a lot of power going to them. Very similar to a computer case fan and runs a very low amperage.
I’m not sure if the fan stopped turning if there would be enough resistance to even start a fire. Possible I guess.

Looks to be a short, but that’s a guess as well.
@Brew12, what’s your take on it?

wesman42 · Sep 26, 2018

That looks like a standard PC fan! Not sure on the diameter, but it's the same fans they use in desktop computers. You can get a new one easy peasy and hook it up.

Honestly, I'd pick up all 3 new fans...maybe CoolerMaster or Rosewill...

WWIII · Sep 26, 2018

wesman42 said:
That looks like a standard PC fan! Not sure on the diameter, but it's the same fans they use in desktop computers. You can get a new one easy peasy and hook it up.

Honestly, I'd pick up all 3 new fans...maybe CoolerMaster or Rosewill...

I believe they are 80mm x 80mm x 25mm thick. I went ahead and ordered one to get here by Friday while I can do a little research and get suggestions like you provided to order all 3. I think you're 100% right it's a good idea to go ahead and replace them all.

I just went back on amazon to look when I purchased it. It was August 8th of last year, so just a bit over 1 year. Purchased and fulfilled by amazon. Hopefully there's not a bad batch of fans or something, but just in case! If anyone else has the misfortune I hope it's caught early! There's no doubt tou will smell it if you're at home. I just hope it was an isolated issue and no one else has this, or worse happen! We do all enjoy a hobby where we throw a bunch of electrical equipment in a box of water, so I wouldn't let this fan incident scare anyone too bad! We can keep an eye out for it though!

Flippers4pups · Sep 26, 2018

WWIII said:
I believe they are 80mm x 80mm x 25mm thick. I went ahead and ordered one to get here by Friday while I can do a little research and get suggestions like you provided to order all 3. I think you're 100% right it's a good idea to go ahead and replace them all.

I just went back on amazon to look when I purchased it. It was August 8th of last year, so just a bit over 1 year. Purchased and fulfilled by amazon. Hopefully there's not a bad batch of fans or something, but just in case! If anyone else has the misfortune I hope it's caught early! There's no doubt tou will smell it if you're at home. I just hope it was an isolated issue and no one else has this, or worse happen! We do all enjoy a hobby where we throw a bunch of electrical equipment in a box of water, so I wouldn't let this fan incident scare anyone too bad! We can keep an eye out for it though!

I’m glad it wasn’t worse!