Are titanium heaters all hype?

attiland

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In almost 40 years I had only glass heaters. I have broke maybe 2 - always outside of the tank and I had one failed in the on position and this is the reason I ended up building a reef.
While I think heaters can be a risk I also think you can put an emergency stop mechanism or alert electronics on any of them for literally pennies.
 

Waynerock

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Couple Tru Temp’s and the WiFi inkbird is a great combo for me. I get instant alerts if anything it too hot or too cold and you can set the max time the heaters will run so they never get stuck on. Great way to spend 30.00.
 

MichaelReefer

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I'm at the point I need to replace my heaters and I instinctively started looking at titanium ones. After all BRS suggests them, there's a lot blogs about them, but then looking at it I'm struggling to see the real value. I understand that they're more durable, but I've never had a glass heater explode, especially ones that live in my sump full time. I've been using my Jagers for nearly 3 years now with a temp controller no problem.

In fact there are some clear disadvantages that I see with titanium heaters. Namely being you lose that internal temp backup. As it stands now I have my controller set at 78 and my Jagers set at 80. If for some reason my temp controller gets stuck on, my Jagers will turn themselves off when they hit 80. That's not an option with titanium. Additionally there's no status light on the titanium ones. Yes I know my temp controller will tell me that power is on to the heaters, but I like seeing that warm amber glow of the status light on the Jager to assure me all is well. With a titanium option if there was a short in the power cable or something died internally I'd never know the heater stopped working unless I physically touched it.

The gear junkie in me wants to order a new shiny set titanium heaters, but I just can't justify literally double the price. Any feedback is welcome. :D


My Titanium Finnex heater is going on two years, no problems and it has a max temp where it cuts power to the heater if my tank gets over 82. My apex also has a temp control that cuts power if the water gets over 82 as a fail safe.
 
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nim6us

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Just wanted to cap an end to this thread. I still don't believe heaters last forever, not even titanium ones. The cost vs the benefit I decided to stick with Eheims with a temp controller and replace every 3 years.

However Eheim has a new model, I don't know if I missed it or why no ones talking about it but it's called Thermocontrol E. They're pretty much the same length as the Truetemps, but there's two NICE bonuses. This model can sense when it's out of water and will turn off. Additionally it has a status light that's on constantly to let you know it's running, it changes color from red to green to indicate when it's heating or idle. And a small cosmetic change, instead of the standard blue and red end cap, it's now black and red. :cool:

We all have different styles of reefing so there's no "right choice". I wanted to follow up to include the changes in the new Thermocontrol E in case there were others who also missed the memo.
 
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