Quandary
Well-Known Member
Not strictly boaty as it happened at home, but perhaps worth mentioning in case you are leaving one on while you are not around. The dehumidifier is probably ten years old with limited use, it was a brand recommended here at the time. I think I paid about £150 for it, it has been used on the boat but since it is close to impossible to make it airtight and dehumidifying Scotland would take a long time, not often.
I was doing some repairs in the downstairs loo and put the dehumidifier in there prior to applying some epoxy as a primer to the wooden floor, about an hour later the room was full of smoke with that clinging acrid smell of burning plastic. Switched off and took it outside. Today I decided to investigate before taking it to the dump, Chinese like everything else, but well made with a decent looking heat exchanger and condenser, heavy copper plumbing, electrics looked neat in a large heavy, well put together, moulded plastic case. The fire had been in the bunched cables immediately above the circuit board, all the insulation melted off so not possible to say exactly where it started, the casing was blackened but had not started to burn and looked as if it might have resisted the fire. But who knows how far it might have got if it had been used unattended? The smell is still around the house after several days
I did use the epoxy, some left over West 105 with 205 fast hardener, about 250mls. in the bottom of the tin, use by date was 2011 and the hardener was the colour of black coffee, but it went off fine despite its age, just as well because cleaning it up if it did not would have been difficult, but then I have always been prone to over optimism.
I was doing some repairs in the downstairs loo and put the dehumidifier in there prior to applying some epoxy as a primer to the wooden floor, about an hour later the room was full of smoke with that clinging acrid smell of burning plastic. Switched off and took it outside. Today I decided to investigate before taking it to the dump, Chinese like everything else, but well made with a decent looking heat exchanger and condenser, heavy copper plumbing, electrics looked neat in a large heavy, well put together, moulded plastic case. The fire had been in the bunched cables immediately above the circuit board, all the insulation melted off so not possible to say exactly where it started, the casing was blackened but had not started to burn and looked as if it might have resisted the fire. But who knows how far it might have got if it had been used unattended? The smell is still around the house after several days
I did use the epoxy, some left over West 105 with 205 fast hardener, about 250mls. in the bottom of the tin, use by date was 2011 and the hardener was the colour of black coffee, but it went off fine despite its age, just as well because cleaning it up if it did not would have been difficult, but then I have always been prone to over optimism.
