Electrical hazards and safety precautions for enclosures.

Postby mikec29 » Tue Nov 06, 2007 4:37 pm

I dont know if any one can help, when i was setting up my 1200 tank for my columbian rainbows i got myself a heating pad by "akwa", it was a 25 watt 200 x 350 heat pad! when i set the thing up and connected it to the power, the thing shorted and triped my whole house!!!! i went back to the pet shop that sold it to me and told them what happened, only to be told that they couldn't do anything and would get in touch with akwa! So in the mean time i had to buy a new pad and wait for some sort of reply from akwa, which i never got! the next week when i returned the the pet shop, they said that they had spoken to a rep and given him my number and he was going to contact me! this was in june! i had forgotten about this until i saw this forum!!! if anyone can help, please do!!!!
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Postby mikec29 » Tue Nov 06, 2007 4:43 pm

Leos r gr8 wrote:Hi
I don't know if this has anything at all to do with this subject but last week I tried to do my own wiring on one of those silver AKWA heaterpads, I didn't wire the the plug properly and when I turned it on sparks flew and the plug glowed orange, on closer inspection the wires in the heaterpad had melted! So I had to throw it away.


dude, you probably did nothing wrong! i had the same problem and i didnt do anything different from my last tank!
"100% of the shots you don't take don't go in"

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Postby froot » Tue Nov 06, 2007 4:59 pm

This is what you get when shops sell products they know nothing about. Don't hold your breath for the rep to get back to you. They could've tested it there on the counter for you if they knew what to look for.
The fault itself sounds strange though, was it the circuit breaker that tripped or the earth leakage? The best way to spot check your heating pad is to use a multimeter and measure the resistance in Ohms across the terminals. For 25 watts you should get a reading of about 1930 ohms.

In future, you know where to come for advice ;)
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Postby mikec29 » Wed Nov 07, 2007 2:14 pm

thanks alot froot! trust me i wasnt holding my breath!so i take it that your the sparky when it comes to that stuff!!!!
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Postby Bushviper » Wed Nov 07, 2007 6:20 pm

Phone the Akwa head office and speak to the owner/manager. If I am not mistaken they are based in Boksburg. Explain your situation and mention that this is already on the forum but you do not get a response.

Ask him if he has some sort of guarantee on his products because if this is resolved you would like to put that on the forum too. Mention to him that someone else on the same forum had the same complaint.
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Postby Rob » Wed Nov 07, 2007 10:01 pm

I wouldnt be surprised if the petshop didnt forward your details on.
As a petshop owner its up to me to correspond between the supplier and the customer at least in the beginning.

AKWA are a pleasant company to deal with. I for some reason cannot recall the managers name but hes a helluva nice guy and im sure will be willing to help out.
Rob Deans

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Postby mikec29 » Thu Nov 08, 2007 5:22 pm

to be honest all i want to know is that the problem is a 1 in a million! i had to buy another heat pad as it was june and cold but was reluctant too seeing as they only stocked AKWA pads! touch wood when i connected it the same way as the other one it was fine! Now just imagine , you have just forked out a couple of grand on a nice setup for your animal (dosen't matter what it is, could be a corn could be a piedbald) and this S**t happens or even worse the tank catches fire a couple of hours after you think every thing is fine! WHAT WOULD YOU DO! I think im going to get hold of AKWA tomorrow and let them know! I know i wouldnt want any of my animals to get hurt let alone die from a faulty pice of equipment!!!! :!: [/b]
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Postby Tony Earl » Mon Mar 03, 2008 8:33 pm

Get Real !!!
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Postby froot » Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:22 pm

Wow Tony, that masterpiece was your first post on the site.
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Postby mikec29 » Tue Mar 04, 2008 1:11 pm

@ Tony: so whats your problem now!
"100% of the shots you don't take don't go in"

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Postby Nasicornis » Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:18 pm

I think that Tony is advertising Real Reptile products and not insulting any individual.
No dangerous reptiles, only dangerous keepers
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Postby Trayton » Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:40 pm

Yeah about that...
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Re: Electrical hazards and safety precautions for enclosures.

Postby Quinton Hoole » Sat Aug 02, 2008 2:06 pm

Quick newbie question about these AKWA heating pads. Do I connect it directly to 220V AC? Or did the shop perhaps forget to sell me a transformer? Phoned them back but they're closed for the weekend, and I'm impatient ;-)

http://www.akwa.co.za/index.php?page=sh ... &Itemid=36

(hoo-hoo! first post on this forum ;-)

Q
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Re: Electrical hazards and safety precautions for enclosures.

Postby Babybird » Sat Aug 02, 2008 2:19 pm

Should be no problem...
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Re: Electrical hazards and safety precautions for enclosures.

Postby Quinton Hoole » Sat Aug 02, 2008 2:56 pm

Cool, thaanks for the prompt reply. Here goes.....
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