Gledhill Thermal Store catching fire

[cmyers_uk]

Hi,

Does anybody have any knowledge of fires in the Gledhill storage units located in the airing cupboard. The house a few along from mine has just had his on fire and I am trying to get some background info on whether this is a known problem or not. Rumour has it that it was a battery in there but things are quite confused at the moment.

Regards

Chris

 

[cmyers_uk]

Just looked inside the unit and it appears (laymans view) that the seat of the fire was around what I think is the immersion heater.

 

[simond]

Sounds like scaremongering to me. Battery in a Gledhill???

Most Gledhills are leaking somewhere, how one could ever catch fire is beyond me. Usually damp in most places.

 

[Doctor Drivel]

Sounds like scaremongering to me. Battery in a Gledhill???

Most Gledhills are leaking somewhere, how one could ever catch fire is beyond me. Usually damp in most places.

Leaking? Now that is scaremongering. Amazing how your experiences are 180 degrees to mine.

 

[nickso]

the pump boards can catch fire. happened to mine.

 

[scatmanjohn]

i have seen one that set on fire...pcb boilermate 2000

 

[cmyers_uk]

Thank you for the advice. This is not scaremongering the firebrigade put the fire out the unit and the airing cupboard are destroyed it could have quite easily had nobody been in destroyed the house. Its two houses along and we have the same unit. As I said in the orig post things were very confused at the time .

What I was trying to achieve was to find out if this is a common known problem with a fix. i.e like the recent news item where there had been a death a few years previously, with a know fix, but nobody informed people.

What I had trouble with understanding was there does not appear to be much that could catch fire in the unit.

Nickso. What happened with yours? Did they change the part to new version? I will be speaking to Gledhill on Monday.

Regards

Chris

 

[doitall]

What happens is the sludge buckets sludge up, especially the pumps which then overheat because they not long have much water to keep them cool, the laundry which is completely covering all the hot bits then adds fuel to the fire.

In the meantime the builder has put the unit on the landing and anyone in the bedrooms has to do a Red Adair to get out.

Dr Drivell is an Gledhill sludge bucket lover, The name says it all

 

[corgiman]

Like Scat I have had a few PCBs burn up too, never so bad as having to have the fire brigade in but nasty ones none the less.

And like simond I have yet to come to a Boilermate 2000 that isnt leaking on at least the gawd awful pump valves they fit.

That said if the original installer sets it up with enough inhibitor I like these old Daleks

 

[cmyers_uk]

Thank you for the info , Im not worried about leaks more if I had a fire hazard waiting to go off. All combustables moved from area so no source for secondary ignition, fitted smoke alarm in airing cupboard as well.

Any idea of the percentage risk of pcb catching fire etc. i.e is it worth changing the system for something different?

Assuming no secondary ignition does it just burn iteself out within the metal case? Is the insulation round the tank fire retardant?

Many thanks

Chris

 

[doitall]

I wouldn't worry about it tooooooo much, other than the normal safety measures like removing fuel from the area, and fitting a fire detector.

I had an 12v transformer burst into flames not long ago, you know the sort, that are used on phones, computers, scanners, printers, and a 1001 other household items

 

[nickso]

i wouldnt worry about it either. when the boards catch fire they generally die out pretty quickly. the fire will start because the pcb is arcing for whatever reason. if the fuse blows its ok, if it doesnt it may catch fire if there is enough stuff around it to fuel it.

out of the hundreds of bm2/3/2000's around here ive only seen this twice including mine.

 

[cmyers_uk]

doitall / nickso,

Thank you very much that was the reassurance / sensible advice I was looking for. We have taken all the sensible precautions now and as you say I agree with no additional fuel it should burn out.

Thanks

Chris

 

[cmyers_uk]

Update,

Gledhill have come round all the units and replaced (according to my mum) a relay 1inch by 3inch black box. They are not stating this was the cause of the fire but its strange that they have replaced this component in every house on the row.

 

[snb]

went to a boilermate 2000 on weds to replace a pump that was knackered because of water leak from the gate valve. New pump and valves all working ok.

Got a call saturday morning to say heating not working. Went round at dinnertime and could smell burning before i got the airing cupboard door open. took the case off and the pcb was smoking quite nicely. hadn't blown the the 3amp fuse though!!