Serious Fault with Icon HD PSU PLEASE READ

[Griffo]

I bought two Icon HD's off Scubatoys. To date, I have only used the power supply out of one of the packs. Today, i decided to charge both units pior to going on holidays. As such I unwrapped the power brick and adaptor and plugged it in for the first time.

The power pack immediately exploded and managed to trip a 6KVA breaker feeding my house. 30 mins later my ears are still ringing.

I assume it had a direct short. I will be in contact with Scubatoys, however I reccomend that anyone with one of these units
HAVE THE VARIOUS OS ADAPTORS TESTED IMMEDIATELY.

From my inspection it appears as if there was a direct short within the Aussie adaptor, however happy to be proved wrong

 

[Griffo]

Just to add to that. It also blew an RCD (you call them GFI''s i'm told) which I'm guessing probably just saved my life.

OK further to my above post (and now that I have calmed down somewhat) it is quite obvious that there is in fact a large solder bridge between the active and neutral posts inside the adapator. You can kind of see it in the picture above.I originally thought it was melted plastic, but it is in fact solder.

Definate manufacturing defect!

The bar that you see is connected to the active post, and the wire connected to the neutral post. As you can see, there is a solder bridge between the bar and the solder point for the neutral post. (why does SB keep rotating my images? Grr)

 

[tracy_from_oz]

Mate a question if I may just to understand as ive not seen this unit and im not saying anything negative about you so please dont take it that way just trying to paint a picture in my head.

You bought this from a usa seller?

Now when you plugged it in to aussie wall, the current or something inside the box blew? (Thank god for clipsal switches)

Now does this unit come with the adapter on the cable from the unit to the wall that changes down/up the current depending on the country your in?
If it does than holy crap your lucky mate, really lucky.
If it doesnt I fear the difference in current was the problem as well.

Ive not seen the unit mate itself so dont know if it comes with the currency converter like you get on laptops etc

But what you've brought to our attention is certainly something thats important with the amount of damage thats happened and not good at all and very lucky no one hurt mate.

 

[Griffo]

It's a universal power supply 100-240v. It even comes with all the different plugs for various contries to click-in to the charger. Similar to the iPhone charger if you are familar with that.

The fault was inside the Aussie click-in adaptor. It was a manufacturing fault where the two pins were basically soldered together. There could be hundreds more out that sitting unused in peoples boxes, and just waiting for someone to travel and have the same problem i did.

If I had bought this unit in Australia, I would be reporting it to the PSA who would decide if it required a recall.

 

[tracy_from_oz]

Very lucky mate, very lucky that the swtiches kicked in to cut out the current in the house and everyone ok

 

[whaylonsmithers]

That's f.....g crazy griffo. Was the other adaptor the same and did you get warranty replacement?

 

[jacked_72]

Have you heard from the manufacturer? This happened in January and it is now April? Please tell me that Mares has contacted you.

 

[Hatul]

Just curious, but are Australian plugs the same as in Europe and Italy?

 

[zoranb]

No they are not.
Australia uses a 3-pin plug that is incompatible with the European standard:
http://www.adaptelec.com/images/plugs_outlets/croatia-socketfit.jpg

 

[Griffo]

Have you heard from the manufacturer? This happened in January and it is now April? Please tell me that Mares has contacted you.

Yes I did hear from Mares rather quickly. They are very hard to get in touch with, but a US distribitor sent on my email / images and they got back to me immediately. They seemed quite concerned at first, but then decided (somehow) that it was a one-off.
I got a new PSU and a mask for my troubles.

No they are not.
Australia uses a 3-pin plug that is incompatible with the European standard:
http://www.adaptelec.com/images/plugs_outlets/croatia-socketfit.jpg

The Aussie connector is used throughout Australia, NZ, China, and many pacific island countries. It's what you will see in Vanuatu, the Solomons, Fiji etc which is why I was concerned for travelling US divers.