Failed BRS titanium heaters

[nanoreefer23]

I’ve literally had 4! BRS titanium heaters fail weeks apart, I could feel a zap in the water. This happened in TWO
tanks weeks apart, they were both controlled by two separate IM Helio controllers. I’m lucky my fish and coral didn’t get fried. What the heck is happening? Has this happened to anyone? Why have all 4 failed and shorted in the water?

Does grounding your tank actually protects your fish and coral? I can’t believe it.

I thought the titanium heaters were the safest and I figured the IM Helios controllers would auto shut-off. Guess not.

 

[KQuillan]

I had one, almost brand new and the controller didn't work at all, even though it showed it was. I won't own another one. I have had more dependency and accuracy with others.

 

[Tamberav]

They are junk, BRS isn't making heaters, just rebranding junk imo! Hence the price.

Get a Helio or maybe a Finnex.

 

[C_AWOL]

Controllers will only shut it off if the temperature exceeds whatever threshold that it was set for.

Only a gfci would save you from a heater leaking current from being faulty by tripping and shutting the unit off.

I personally havent had an eheim leak any current and use them almost exclusively in all of my tanks. Them + a controller for redundancy is bulletproof aside from size constraints (they're huge)

 

[nanoreefer23]

They are junk, BRS isn't making heaters, just rebranding junk imo! Hence the price.

Get a Helio or maybe a Finnex.

I do have the helio controller but I’m just confused, I can’t see any damage to the heaters even, it’s not like the wire melted and it’s exposed. Guess I’ll buy the helio heaters. I just don’t get why it happened. They aren’t even a year old.

 

[nanoreefer23]

Controllers will only shut it off if the temperature exceeds whatever threshold that it was set for.

Only a gfci would save you from a heater leaking current from being faulty by tripping and shutting the unit off.

I personally havent had an eheim leak any current and use them almost exclusively in all of my tanks. Them + a controller for redundancy is bulletproof aside from size constraints (they're huge)

Yeah, I’m gonna try to reach out to BRS cause having 4 fail like that within less than a year is crazy.

 

[SPSDomination]

I run 2 BRS 300 watt titanium heaters and haven’t had any issues (knock on wood.) Maybe their are bad batches of these things going out who knows.

 

[nanoreefer23]

Controllers will only shut it off if the temperature exceeds whatever threshold that it was set for.

Only a gfci would save you from a heater leaking current from being faulty by tripping and shutting the unit off.

I personally havent had an eheim leak any current and use them almost exclusively in all of my tanks. Them + a controller for redundancy is bulletproof aside from size constraints (they're huge)

Yeah, I guess I just figured it would be fairly simple to have the monitor for stray voltage.

 

[nanoreefer23]

I run 2 BRS 300 watt titanium heaters and haven’t had any issues (knock on wood.) Maybe there are bad batches of these things going out who knows.

Yeah I thought they were good and made in Germany

 

[SPSDomination]

Yeah I thought they were good and made in Germany

Ya they deff put off some serious heat and have been reliable so far. My only complaint would be that when my apex shuts them down they take a while to cool off. I had to have them shut off at like 78.7 and they would still provide enough heat to get to my desired temp of 79. If you want to take one out for cleaning make sure it has plenty of time to cool down or put it right in a bucket of cold water first. The dang things are like nuclear fuel rods.

 

[rtparty]

I’ve used a bunch of them on different tanks. I had one out of the 12+ fail. It was a couple years old and they have a 3 year warranty. I had a new one in a couple days and zero issues.

They are SCHEGO brand heaters. Regarded as some of the best in the industry.

I find it best to never fully submerge heaters BTW. Keep the cap/wire area above the waterline. No matter the brand, the expansion and contraction from heating and cooling breaks the seal on them all

 

[nanoreefer23]

I’ve used a bunch of them on different tanks. I had one out of the 12+ fail. It was a couple years old and they have a 3 year warranty. I had a new one in a couple days and zero issues.

They are SCHEGO brand heaters. Regarded as some of the best in the industry.

I find it best to never fully submerge heaters BTW. Keep the cap/wire area above the waterline. No matter the brand, the expansion and contraction from heating and cooling breaks the seal on them all

That’s a good idea. I’m sure BRS will make it right

 

[nanoreefer23]

Any recommendations for good grounding wires… just in case

 

[HDK]

Sorry to bump this old thread, but I’ve had four 300 watt BRS elements fail in 8 months. And my 200 watt BRS elements have been fine for about 6 weeks. So I’m wondering if there’s an issue with some sizes. Or if it’s a design issue with some BRS elements not tolerating the tight IM control doinggoing on/off so many times a day.