V2 Nano Skimmer Melted?

[jaffacake]

Yes the title is true!

I came home yesterday, went to feed the fish and noticed a horrible smell coming from the tank - realising this was NOT as tank smell I noticed that it was coming from the plug sockets itself. The smell was really horrible, enough to give someone a headache. I immediately turned everything off and noticed the top of the plug for skimmer had partly melted and all of the underside of it had melted too, leaving a horrible black mess all over my 4-plug extension. What could have caused this? Should I write to the manurfactures and ask for a replacement? It's been running fine for 5 months and this has just happened today. It makes me wonder what could have happened if I had been away for a few days.

 

[TigerIssey]

Is there any possibility that salt water could have got into the plug socket??

Do you have a drip loop on the cord??

 

[jaffacake]

Is there any possibility that salt water could have got into the plug socket??

Do you have a drip loop on the cord??

I can't say for sure that water hasn't got into the plug but it is very unlikely and there is a drip loop, there's no way the water can run down the wires to the plugs but I guess there's the possibility of a splash of water landing on it maybe when moving the lid for feeding etc. How unfortunate I was planning to use this skimmer on my next tank, looks like i'm going to have to find a replacement soon =[

 

[SkiFletch]

More likely the terminals inside the pump shorted directly through seawater and drew LOTS of current. You're really really lucky it only melted the plastic and didn't start a fire from all that heat.