driveway heater
 

hi,
this is pretty vague --
it is a 30 y/o driveway heater (to melt snow) that turned on
spontaneously for the summer.
the power switch (for the user) was in the off position however
apparently it is (was) controlled by an inhibitor of some sort which
broke.
question: could a power surge (for example after a power failure) damage
the an inhibitory item and cause it to malfunction (or not function)?
apologies again for being vague
thanks

Tanya writes:

hi,
this is pretty vague --
it is a 30 y/o driveway heater (to melt snow) that turned on
spontaneously for the summer.
the power switch (for the user) was in the off position however
apparently it is (was) controlled by an inhibitor of some sort which
broke.
question: could a power surge (for example after a power failure) damage
the an inhibitory item and cause it to malfunction (or not function)?
apologies again for being vague
thanks

Right, a bit vague but certainly a power surge could damage a switch,
or could have been something else. Next time, make sure the breaker
or actual physical switch for the device is off in the summer! :)

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Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/REPAIR/
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Sam Goldwasser wrote:

Tanya writes:

hi,
this is pretty vague --
it is a 30 y/o driveway heater (to melt snow) that turned on
spontaneously for the summer.
the power switch (for the user) was in the off position however
apparently it is (was) controlled by an inhibitor of some sort which
broke.
question: could a power surge (for example after a power failure) damage
the an inhibitory item and cause it to malfunction (or not function)?
apologies again for being vague
thanks

Right, a bit vague but certainly a power surge could damage a switch,
or could have been something else. Next time, make sure the breaker
or actual physical switch for the device is off in the summer! :)

thank you very much for the reply!
it is a power-hungry monster.
the switch (the user's switch) and the control-box switch were off however the
breaker (in the fuse box) was not activated
sincerely
Tanya




--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Mirror: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Note: These links are hopefully temporary until we can sort out the excessive
traffic on Repairfaq.org.

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header is ignored.
To contact me, please use the feedback form on the S.E.R FAQ Web sites.