Office fire from Kerr Steamer

[Jack Wilson DMD]

I am a dentist and bought a Kerr Touchsteam steamer several months ago, It was made in Italy, serial number in the 3,000's. 3 or 4 weeks ago one of the rocker switches on the front of the unit shorted out and almost burned my office down. We caught it just in time and I put the fire out with a fire extinguisher. When the assistant opened the door to the lab she thought the lights were out because it was so dark from smoke. Our building has smoke detectors in the HVAC system, and is sprinkled, but no smoke detectors in any of the living space (yet). I had the AC vent closed because it gets cold in the lab so the smoke did not get picked up by the return air until we opened the lab door. By that time the handle on the top of the unit had folded over 90 degrees and the black hose had a plastic drip running down the side of the unit. I put out a 12 inch high flame putting out black smoke which I think was the plastic site glass. The fire dept measured the temp of the cabinets and they were almost hot enough to catch fire, and I was dumb enough to have monomer in them.

Kerr recalled serial numbers 0-2000, and all of these were sold to the military. We have looked and can not find any other recalls, I saw John Wilson had a similar unit catch fire. I just wanted to warn anyone who has one of these it could be a problem. I am not sure of all the facts and if any fixes have been done to the units, but it seem funny that only units sold to the US government have been recalled, and none to any one in the private sector. Kerr and Travelers insurance are looking at my unit now, but my electrician friend said it was obvious the switch shorted out.

Lessons learned, buy a few extra fire extinguishers, maybe a smoke sensor(s) or heat sensor(s) tied to the alarm company, our sprinkler would have gone off soon, triggered a flow switch, and called the fire dept, but what a mess that would have been. No one was hurt and we were lucky. If this post helps one person it was worth my time, Thank you Jack Wilson. , I will try and post some photos, maybe some one can tell me how to do it

 

[zero_zero]

I got one for a number of years, beside that I have to periodically replace the solenoid valve and the filling cap, got no issues with it. Did some changes to the original wiring tho...hated the latch relay, so bypassed it... also replaced the incandescent bulb to an LED one (which is on all the time) and added a foot control pedal...

 

[2thm8kr]

Are you John Wilson's twin brother?

 

[XxJamesAxX]

Thanks for sharing your experience and thankfully it was no worse then it was. Sounds like you definitely got lucky.




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[awhurst011]

we had one catch fire about a year ago but the fire started because it was left on overnight and the water level was too low to make it through the night. No damage to anything other than the steamer. Kerr sent a new one with no problems. Make sure the water is full and dont let it run overnight lessons learned

 

[Car 54]

Are you John Wilson's twin brother?

I can't remember where I saw it, IDT? in the latest issue about Shaun of Nowak talking about one of his good customers in CA who had a fire, and how Nowak is relationship orientated and that they just sent him (John) the equipment and worried about the billing later.

It was pretty much quoted word for word as JW had posted before.

 

[lcmlabforum]

Is this the same Jack Wison in Arlington, Texas?
FWIW, the steam cleaner was one of the "MUST TURN OFF" equipment in grad prosth lab when we were in the residency, besides the gas.
LCM

 

[JohnWilson]

I can't remember where I saw it, IDT? in the latest issue about Shaun of Nowak talking about one of his good customers in CA who had a fire, and how Nowak is relationship orientated and that they just sent him (John) the equipment and worried about the billing later.

It was pretty much quoted word for word as JW had posted before.

True story bro But it was theft not fire for me

 

[Car 54]

Thanks for clarifying, John. I just feel bad as I was going to edit Shaun's (Shawn) name correctly. Sorry, Shawn.

 

[budgenator]

... one of the rocker switches on the front of the unit shorted out and almost burned my office down. ... the handle on the top of the unit had folded over 90 degrees and the black hose had a plastic drip running down the side of the unit. I put out a 12 inch high flame putting out black smoke which I think was the plastic site glass. The fire dept measured the temp of the cabinets and they were almost hot enough to catch fire, and I was dumb enough to have monomer in them.

Kerr and Travelers insurance are looking at my unit now, but my electrician friend said it was obvious the switch shorted out. ...

Obviously defective design for the fire to have been that bad, there should have been some fuseable links that should have opened before anything got that hot, even coffee pot and rice cookers have them.

OBTW we don't talk about the monomer thing, if the fire marshal puts two and two together, every lab, dental office and nail salon will have to spend $1500.00 of flammable storage cabinets and $3,000.00 on explosion-proof refrigerators.

 

[Nathan Ardelean]

Can anyone shed some insight here? Mine (just bought used) won't heat up the water. Everything seems fine. I've replaced the fuses (wrong ampage ) and one fuse holder.

I've drained the water and flushed deposits out.

Powers on fine but doesn't heat up water and build pressure.
I've tried it with "steam" light on or off. Nothing

Kerr code- 33405

 

[Nathan Ardelean]

Update

I actually got it fixed. Able to heat up and build pressure. There was a small reset button on the inside that I pressed and now it's functioning properly.

See pictures below.

 

[Nenad]

all of this steamer shuld be returned to Keer company back.To many things inside is not right.Underrated wireing,latch releys,fuse holder,and the most danger is very flamable insulation.