Inside an oven temperature sensor that could cause spontaneous combustion? Tonight, a friend of mine changed the thermostat on a wide range electrical industry. In the process of the process of removing and disposing of old tube sensor, it broke.
He threw the thing in the trash, and within minutes, he started to warm up and the garbage bag on fire! The tube was ambient temperature when it was filed.
I walked in about this and checked the damage. As we spoke, he shook some dust collected off the old thermostat (not the tube of the sensor, the thermostat itself), and has raised up spontaneously.
Both fires were very low, but I'm completely boggled as to what caused them. Ideas?
Uh, I'm not sure what chemicals may be used, clearly something that is oxygen, and / or water sensitive, but the mercury does NOT burn easily, and certainly not spontaneously as your first answerer said. Mercury can be dangerous for you, expecially in an oven, because it causes a very severe form of pneumonia if you breathe the fumes of information when it is heated. Your friend should avoid using the oven until you know exactly what was in the thermostat.
Very probably Mercury, many thermostats in use. must be disposed of properly.
Posted on June 7, 2010.
