Battery Tender / Fire Safety

[Boog]

One of the local groups I belong to posted this just now in our area; 2 rescued but cat dies in Herndon fire traced to motorcycle charger | WTOP

They couple lost everything but their lives due to a malfunctioning battery tender on one of their motorcycles in the garage.

 

[pica]

I always use the Deltran brand for my trickle chargers, but I can see how they could fail easily. Those little grates to allow the heat from the capacitors to exit, can be blocked easily in a garage or allow dust from the garage to accumulate inside, who knows, maybe even sawdust, a bug, add humidity, most likely you don't have an a/c running there... and you get a short circuit or an overheating -unattended- part. GFCI outlets is part of the protection.
The other thing is that you cannot have an smoke detector in the garage... you need a heat detector... basically something that will tell you, I am on fire! maybe a bit too late.