I accidentally left my FSD element running dry....
Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2020 10:34 pmA bit of a plug to FSD for the quality of their elements.
Well, I've been recently installing quite a few smart leds in my room and around the house. Also have some smart power boards and just recently purchased a single smart power plug. It is this plug which fuels my anger. Oh, and google. You see, google seems to be of the belief that my smart plug, even though I have not designated it as such, is a god damn light. It would turn on my heater whenever i told google to turn on all my lights in the room. So, I got the bright idea of setting up my still with it and putting it in its virtual room. (the brew room). I connected one of my FSD 2400w elements to it, named it element 1, and thought to myself how smart am i, im going to be able to turn off elements just by shouting out of my adjacent room to turn it off. (it is in an undercover area, and my main bedroom window i in that area.)
I thought, now its in a separate room, google's not going to touch it when I say to google in my bedroom "turn off the lights in my room", or
more fatefully, "turn all the lights on in my room."
and that is when, I believe,i turned my element on.
What would be about 2 hours later, I went outside to shut a freaking annoying shed door that was opening shutting in the wind and I see smoke and a red hot glow from the boiler. FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUU. I left it to cool down overnight. I didn't know whether to drown it in water, and whether cooling it suddenly would make things worse, so I just left it to cool. Next morning, I cleaned the element up, as much as I could, surveyed the damage (definitely some warping.) and plugged it in. Having read on the forums that its likely to be shorted and flip the circuitbreaker, I turned it on expecting complaints of internet not working to come from inside from my lovely tech addicted children, but no. I ran the element for an hour or so, to test it and also to boil up some water for a 200l tpw. So far so good. I was convinced it was time for a replacement element.
Shout out to FSD for sourcing a fine quality product :handgestures-thumbupleft:
TLDR; accidentally turned my element on using a smart plug with google. left the element to run dry for 2 hours but it still works.
edit: here's a pic
PS. I have heard about using a float valve. Has anyone had any experience doing this in a boiler?
Well, I've been recently installing quite a few smart leds in my room and around the house. Also have some smart power boards and just recently purchased a single smart power plug. It is this plug which fuels my anger. Oh, and google. You see, google seems to be of the belief that my smart plug, even though I have not designated it as such, is a god damn light. It would turn on my heater whenever i told google to turn on all my lights in the room. So, I got the bright idea of setting up my still with it and putting it in its virtual room. (the brew room). I connected one of my FSD 2400w elements to it, named it element 1, and thought to myself how smart am i, im going to be able to turn off elements just by shouting out of my adjacent room to turn it off. (it is in an undercover area, and my main bedroom window i in that area.)
I thought, now its in a separate room, google's not going to touch it when I say to google in my bedroom "turn off the lights in my room", or
more fatefully, "turn all the lights on in my room."
and that is when, I believe,i turned my element on.
What would be about 2 hours later, I went outside to shut a freaking annoying shed door that was opening shutting in the wind and I see smoke and a red hot glow from the boiler. FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUU. I left it to cool down overnight. I didn't know whether to drown it in water, and whether cooling it suddenly would make things worse, so I just left it to cool. Next morning, I cleaned the element up, as much as I could, surveyed the damage (definitely some warping.) and plugged it in. Having read on the forums that its likely to be shorted and flip the circuitbreaker, I turned it on expecting complaints of internet not working to come from inside from my lovely tech addicted children, but no. I ran the element for an hour or so, to test it and also to boil up some water for a 200l tpw. So far so good. I was convinced it was time for a replacement element.
Shout out to FSD for sourcing a fine quality product :handgestures-thumbupleft:
TLDR; accidentally turned my element on using a smart plug with google. left the element to run dry for 2 hours but it still works.
edit: here's a pic
PS. I have heard about using a float valve. Has anyone had any experience doing this in a boiler?