BRS titanium heater shocking me

[jadedog]

Hey everyone,

I’m running two BRS 300W titanium heaters on an Inkbird controller. Today I’ve noticed a strong stinging/shocking feeling whenever I reach into my sump. At first I thought maybe I just had a cut on my hand, but I tried my other hand and it was the same thing. I went through my equipment piece by piece and narrowed it down to the heaters. I’m not sure if it’s just one of them or both, but I didn’t want to keep shocking myself trying to figure it out. I’ve ordered a voltage meter to test tomorrow and confirm. Has anyone else had this happen with these heaters? Any advice on what to do in the meantime? Ive plugged in two spare heaters for the mean time kinda worried I dont trust these heaters but its all petco had and I was in a pinch.

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Very common in any type of heating element requiring resistance. Any penetration from something as small as bacteria can degrade seals and water will enter causing a ground fault (potentially not enough to trip a GFI or breaker), but can absolutely send stray voltage you can feel into the tank. Salt water just compounds that issue with the minerals/salt.

You should be fine in a pinch with those heaters, but I would absolutely replace both of the BRS heaters and replace in kind. Those are by far the best option as far as heating salt water reefs go.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Hey everyone,

I’m running two BRS 300W titanium heaters on an Inkbird controller. Today I’ve noticed a strong stinging/shocking feeling whenever I reach into my sump. At first I thought maybe I just had a cut on my hand, but I tried my other hand and it was the same thing. I went through my equipment piece by piece and narrowed it down to the heaters. I’m not sure if it’s just one of them or both, but I didn’t want to keep shocking myself trying to figure it out. I’ve ordered a voltage meter to test tomorrow and confirm. Has anyone else had this happen with these heaters? Any advice on what to do in the meantime? Ive plugged in two spare heaters for the mean time kinda worried I dont trust these heaters but its all petco had and I was in a pinch

Do you have a working protective earth?

 

[jadedog]

Very common in any type of heating element requiring resistance. Any penetration from something as small as bacteria can degrade seals and water will enter causing a ground fault (potentially not enough to trip a GFI or breaker), but can absolutely send stray voltage you can feel into the tank. Salt water just compounds that issue with the minerals/salt.

You should be fine in a pinch with those heaters, but I would absolutely replace both of the BRS heaters and replace in kind. Those are by far the best option as far as heating salt water reefs go.

Should I email brs about this these heaters are only 3 months old. Im shocked (no pun intended) my fish are still alive it was decently painful stinging sensation.

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

btw - the tank inhabitants won't feel that stray voltage because they aren't grounded like you are putting your hands in the tank, but it absolutely can cause damage over time to other things in the tank that can potentially be grounded.

 

[jadedog]

btw - the tank inhabitants won't feel that stray voltage because they aren't grounded like you are putting your hands in the tank, but it absolutely can cause damage over time to other things in the tank that can potentially be grounded.

This is good to know! Im happy I got them out regardless those heaters are 3 months old so im disappoint.

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Yes I would ask for guidance on replacing them. I have the same heaters and have not had that issue. Perhaps it's just 1 heater out of the 2? If you purchased a voltmeter, than ask something like Grok how to check the resistance of the coils of that heater and you can easily figure out if you have a ground fault on it. It's easy to do and there are a ton of resources online to walk you through in testing the elements without plugging them into a wall outlet.

 

[jadedog]

Yes I would ask for guidance on replacing them. I have the same heaters and have not had that issue. Perhaps it's just 1 heater out of the 2? If you purchased a voltmeter, than ask something like Grok how to check the resistance of the coils of that heater and you can easily figure out if you have a ground fault on it. It's easy to do and there are a ton of resources online to walk you through in testing the elements without plugging them into a wall outlet.

I ordered the volt meter and tomorrow I will throw 1 heater at a time in a 5gal bucket and figure it out. I was worried about my tank inhabitants to keep playing with the electric in the sump. I highly doubt both heaters are doing this.

 

[UncommonSense]

If there is electrical current leak in a saltwater aquarium, the electrical conductors themselves (copper or aluminum) being in direct contact with a conductive fluid are another significant concern (rapid metal corrosion)…

 

[gbroadbridge]

I ordered the volt meter and tomorrow I will throw 1 heater at a time in a 5gal bucket and figure it out. I was worried about my tank inhabitants to keep playing with the electric in the sump. I highly doubt both heaters are doing this.

I would not play around with this.

Those heaters (from the pictures on BRS website) are supposed to be connected to a grounded 3 pin outlet.
They are not double insulated.

If there is electrical leakage then it should be going to ground, and you should not feel anything touching the tank water.

The fact that you can indicates to me a dangerous electrical fault.

 

[painter1982]

I had an issue thinking I had a cut too. I put in titanium grounding probes from Amazon and my cuts went away. No more stinging…

 

[gbroadbridge]

I had an issue thinking I had a cut too. I put in titanium grounding probes from Amazon and my cuts went away. No more stinging…

The titanium heater IS A grounding device, which is why this is a concern.

 

[painter1982]

I had an issue thinking I had a cut too. I put in titanium grounding probes from Amazon and my cuts went away. No more stinging…

The titanium heater IS A grounding device, which is why this is a concern.

I had them too. Titanium brs heaters. It went away when I used grounding probes.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I had them too. Titanium brs heaters. It went away when I used grounding probes.

Was the heater plugged into a correctly grounded outlet? i.e. did the outlet pass a ground test?

 

[jadedog]

I would not play around with this.

Those heaters (from the pictures on BRS website) are supposed to be connected to a grounded 3 pin outlet.
They are not double insulated.

If there is electrical leakage then it should be going to ground, and you should not feel anything touching the tank water.

The fact that you can indicates to me a dangerous electrical fault.

They are going to a three pin outlet. I'll probably just email BRS but im not sure which one is causing these issues. I agree I dont wanna play around with electric

 

[painter1982]

I had them too. Titanium brs heaters. It went away when I used grounding probes.

Was the heater plugged into a correctly grounded outlet? i.e. did the outlet pass a ground test?

My gfi says it was correct. My surge protector ground light is on. plugged my grounding probes into the same surge protector.