Brs160 eheim heaters

[Cyricdark]

I only caught the last half of the livestream yesterday got out of work late so I watch the first half of it today and was watching what you guys were discussing about the two heaters that failed after three and a half years that have a 5 degree drift in the accuracy. And I remember Ryan saying throw them away but what I was wondering if you calibrate them and just throw them in a tub of water for a few weeks will they now be as accurate as new ones or is the change in accuracy over time something that's going to affect them even after you calibrate them again. I know you guys have a lot of projects but this would be very interesting to know.

 

[Bulk Reef Supply]

Other than the calibration adjustment on the tops of the Eheims, you wouldn't have any other options to calibrate as the internal components aren't serviceable. I think it's safe to assume that the bi-metal contacts bend very slightly over time causing the calibration to drift. You can make some adjustments with that red calibration ring on top, but that can only go so far. The good news is that heaters like the Eheim Jagers are only about $30 for even the largest sizes. We got over 3 years out of them, which I would consider a win. In reality, we probably put too much trust into one of the cheapest, yet most important pieces of equipment on the tank.

All of that said, I think the bigger discussion is going to be how we set up our energy bars for heaters on the Apex. The heaters didn't 100% fail, it was really the energy bar relay that did. Our mistake was setting up the hysteresis too small. Having the heaters turn on and off with every 0.1 degree fluctuation provides amazing temperature stability, but also causes it to click on and off quite a few times in a single day. This means that the relay could be clicking on/off hundreds of thousands of times a year. If we would have set it to a fluctuation of 0.3 degrees or even 0.5 degrees, we probably could have gotten significantly more life from the energy bar.

 

[Cyricdark]

Yes I understand that all the calibration comes from the dial on top I have several of those heaters those and the neotherm are about the only two heaters I trust 4 my nice tanks. What I'm curious about though is if you turn the dial on the top where it was calibrated again assuming it's not so far out of range that you can't, will it still hold a reasonably accurate temperature for a period of time 2 weeks or so. in other words when I replace the heaters from my main display could I calibrate them and then consider them safe to use for fish quarantine tanks or something like that where a four or five degree temperature swing wouldn't be too big of a deal

 

[LMDAVE]

I have two Eheim heaters in my tank, I couldn't get them both to operate together. I did my best to calibrate them. But they seem to have different on/off deadband, one's a little more tight with about 1 degree, the second one need to see a bigger drop before coming on, and staying on longer than the other one to go off (deadband of maybe 2+ degrees). So, for me having an Inkbird controller turning them both on and off together was the solution, and setting each heater about 2 degrees about my controller setpoint.