ELECTRONICS AFTER FIRE

My experience with this is fires in the house and in a Nagra tape recorder. Usually the problem with large items is the smell never goes away. Like in the insulation of the refrigerator. Depending on the amount of smoke peneteration to clean the interior of your electronics could be a major undertaking and probably not cost effective. If there was burning PVC in your fire that can form HCL which will corrode electronics. That was the case with the Nagra tape recorder. It was in a car fire, these guys parked on some straw in a field and the catalytic converter caught the straw on fire. In attempting repair of the tape recorder I found every metal part had been etched by the acid. (re: fires in aircraft} so the Nagra was a total loss. Richard

This is a tricky issue. Insurance company is going to pay only if these items do not currently work or noticeably impaired due to fire damage. They could care less if they stop working next year. I'm sure the restoration company gave your electronics a clean bill of health to the insurance company which will further hinder you.

Your best course of action is to seek out any existing smoke odors or signs of hidden damage that you can find. Do research via Google and Yahoo regarding smoke / soot damage to electronics over the long term and present all of this info to your agent. There's tons of info out there on this subject. I'd do all of this quick since it's already been well over a month. If it were me, I'd try to get all of the major electronic items replaced. It's not everyday you file a homeowners insurance claim.

Hello, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com! You wrote on 8 Dec 2005 09:05:44 -0800:

m> Hello, m> I had a kitchen/dining room fire on Oct. 20, 2005 and wondering what m> effects the smoke and soot would have on my electronics. I guess you m> would say the fire caused "medium" smoke and soot damage. The fire m> started on my stove and involved, plastics, countertop, etc. My m> homeowners insurance had a fire/restoration company come in to clean, m> but they only wiped down the outside of my electronics. Since it's m> been well over a month since the fire, should I ask them to get the m> electronics cleaned or should I have them replaced? The items, I'm m> concerned about are my refrigerator, microwave, Computer, TV, DVD, m> Stereo, etc. How do I know if they should be cleaned or replaced?

m> Thanks for your help! m> MCR

Might be a bit late now but insured items should be either restored to as good as new condition or replaced. The items will always smell of smoke afterwards unless they are dismantled and cleaned internally by professionals. Even after a month I would ask the Insurance company to replace everything. That's what you pay insurance for.

With best regards, 3T39. E-mail: snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com

Hello, 3T39! You wrote to snipped-for-privacy@aol.com on Thu, 8 Dec 2005 23:19:42 -0000:

m>> Hello, m>> I had a kitchen/dining room fire on Oct. 20, 2005 and wondering what m>> effects the smoke and soot would have on my electronics. I guess you m>> would say the fire caused "medium" smoke and soot damage. The fire m>> started on my stove and involved, plastics, countertop, etc. My m>> homeowners insurance had a fire/restoration company come in to clean, m>> but they only wiped down the outside of my electronics. Since it's m>> been well over a month since the fire, should I ask them to get the m>> electronics cleaned or should I have them replaced? The items, I'm m>> concerned about are my refrigerator, microwave, Computer, TV, DVD, m>> Stereo, etc. How do I know if they should be cleaned or replaced?

m>> Thanks for your help! m>> MCR

T> Might be a bit late now but insured items should be either restored to T> as good as new condition or replaced. The items will always smell of T> smoke afterwards unless they are dismantled and cleaned internally by T> professionals. Even after a month I would ask the Insurance company to T> replace everything. That's what you pay insurance for.

And another thing, a cleaning company isn't in any way able to certify a peice of electronics as safe. So get it all replaced. This stuff is fire damaged, Don't take no for an answer!

With best regards, 3T39. E-mail: snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com

I have totally cleaned VCR's, T.V.'s, stereos, DVD players, computer towers, & monitors, as well as the cables, inside, & out. We use a special "soup mix" of aftershave, windex, armourall, & one other chemical...not sure, & it works very good...no call backs. Sky.

No, you pay insurance to be "made whole" after a catastrophic event. Demanding new stuff when the old stuff looks and works ok could be construed as superfluous.

Maybe I misunderstood what kind of cleaning company he used -- we have "cleaning companies" around here that specialize in disaster recovery and have lots of experience recovering electronics.

I wish you were my insurance adjuster but I'll bet you wouldn't last long in the job.

A cleaning company can farm out the assessment to a repair shop, though.

Tom