lucky escape

Bathroom fan . Luckily the lady was home and smelt burning. As she went upstairs she saw flames  shooting out

They then asked me to check the same fan in their other bathroom

Thanks for sharing. You would have expected the heat to come from a loose connection or the motor itself not the PCB.

I wonder how many others may be effected around the country.

that timer PCB looks identical to those used in manrose fans too. never seen them do that though, when they fail they usually just stop working

I have seen that big resistor a little darkened by heat, but never enough to catch fire like that. I too would have expected a stalled, overheating motor to be the issue.

Don't let trumpton see this thread or metal fans will be in the next set of regs.

 

id expect 18th to say no electric allowed anywhere, only candle power for lighting

ProDave said:

I have seen that big resistor a little darkened by heat, but never enough to catch fire like that. I too would have expected a stalled, overheating motor to be the issue.

Click to expand...

I thought the product standard called for a thermal fuse to be buried in the windings. I have certainly replaced fans which have failed because this has operated.

A colleage told me about a chap he knew (all the usual cavats about chinesse wispers, and it may just be a story, etc, apply....) who did a PIR/EICR on a reasonably newish, but at that time unoccupid office building. He has been issued a set of keys and was just about to lock up after finishing (and was going to issue a satisfactory verdict), but he decided he needed a pee, as he was finishing up in the bogs he thought he smelt smoke, lifted a ceiling tile and found an inline fan on fire, he'd put some fan isolators on that had previously been off and this fan obviously had some kind of fault. Luckily for him, a) he had stopped for that pee and b) the extinguishers had been left in the building and not taken by the tenannt. Otherwise he may have posted off the satisfactory and the building being a smoking mess!...

That type of PCB is common to lots of fans....

and that resistor regularly gets hot, discoloured or eventually burnt out ...

Spose that's a useful reason for having a local isolator to remove power if your fan starts smoking.

Guinness

The way the resistor is mounted shows by design it is expected to get hot, the down side, the small enclosure.

Looking at it I’m surprised there aren’t more spontaneously combusting fans.

Disclaimer if the LFB reads this, I didn’t write that