Nearly a fire!

[Rids]

I'm feeling quite lucky and don't want anyone else to make the same mistake....


On the I’m just back from a trip to the Alps and on the way home was having an early morning brew (1kW Kettle) at the same time as having a 12V fan heater on (only 150W) I suddenly had a rather unpleasant smell, but mercifully no more...




I’m pretty sure I know what has gone wrong, but would really appreciate your comments, and would NOT recommend anyone doing a similar install…


As you can see from the above (and below) I had modified the box to get its input through an extended bolt…



This worked fine on initial full load testing and I didn't detect any significant temperature rises...

However I think this was the mistake... as it ran warm enough, on all the many previous brews, to soften the plastic enough to allow the nut inside the case to pull back into the case.
This left the nut clamping the fuse then loose; the resulting bad connection became a bad connection and instant hot spot with about 90A flowing.



Maybe if I'd put a sold brass spacer right through it would be fine, but I'm planning on a more traditional cable entry on rebuild.


PS the cuppa inside the van at 6am whilst at -3C outside was just great; so no comments on using gas to boil water please

 

[Ayjay]

PS the cuppa inside the van at 6am whilst at -3C outside was just great; so no comments on using gas to boil water please

So what was the temperature inside the van when it was -3 outside?

 

[Dellmassive]

So effective loose connection causing massive heat build up and melting.

I'm glad you caught it before it got worse.

 

[Pete C]

Good reminder thanks. The currents flowing in some of these high power electric installations are potentially lethal.

Pete

 

[Rids]

So what was the temperature inside the van when it was -3 outside?

Cold enough to freeze the condensation inside the windows but the mattress & quilt are excellent and the fan heater takes the edge off whilst getting dressed…

 

[Rids]

Good reminder thanks. The currents flowing in some of these high power electric installations are potentially lethal.

Pete

Yeah and a 2kw induction hob would be almost twice that!

 

[Rids]

So effective loose connection causing massive heat build up and melting.

I'm glad you caught it before it got worse.

Me too…!

I’d had a slight whiff before but just thought the inverter was working hard… doh!

Lesson Learned…
if it smells even vaguely like burning; Then there IS a problem!
Stop using & check it out!

I was lucky that this was the morning before heading back through the tunnel.

 

[Rids]

This’ll be better… copper bar 60mm^2
Though it was a bit of a mission getting it bent just right and sliding the shrink sleeve rounds the bends…