Scary. Sorry to hear about your loses.
Heater exploded
- Thread starter 96xjmatt
- Start date
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I have been keeping aquariums for more than 50 years now and think that the heater quality has been going down for quite some time. I had some old Ebo Jager heaters that worked perfectly for 20+ years. Now, I have had 3 Eheim Jager heaters fail on in the past few years, although they were replaced promptly under warranty. I have used about every brand out there at one time or another. The most common failure I have seen is "fail on" which can be tough on fish. One of my discus tanks got as high as 99F before I noticed this during feeding. Luckily, discus don't mind high temperatures. Fail off is usually not so bad because our home is rarely cool enough to bother any corals or fish (other than discus). I have had a few heaters short out when water leaked inside and one exploded when I dropped a rock on it. Like many of you, I have boxes of old heaters and other equipment in the garage, some of which even works.
Unless there is not enough space, you are better off with two heaters that together add up to the wattage you need (with perhaps a bit more to be on the safe side) and an external controller like an Inkbird, Ranco, Apex, etc. Set the heaters to the same temp, about 1 degree higher than your desired setpoint. Set the controller to the temp you want to hold. This way, the heaters are controlled by the external controller and can regulate themselves if the controller fails on. If the heater should fail on, the controller will take care of that.
I also second the idea of titanium heaters, but prefer those that have their own controllers so that this type of built-in backup is easy. I have never tried cycling a Ranco or Inkbird off an on with an Apex but perhaps someone else has experience with this? At the moment, my reefs each have 2 heaters in them controlled by Apex, my discus tanks have Ranco and Inkbird controllers (one on each tank, but I like the Inkbird much better so far) and my fw angelfish are living dangerously with a single (underpowered) Eheim Jager heater in the tank. My small quarantine and breeding tanks have only single heaters in them due to space limitations.
Bruce
Unless there is not enough space, you are better off with two heaters that together add up to the wattage you need (with perhaps a bit more to be on the safe side) and an external controller like an Inkbird, Ranco, Apex, etc. Set the heaters to the same temp, about 1 degree higher than your desired setpoint. Set the controller to the temp you want to hold. This way, the heaters are controlled by the external controller and can regulate themselves if the controller fails on. If the heater should fail on, the controller will take care of that.
I also second the idea of titanium heaters, but prefer those that have their own controllers so that this type of built-in backup is easy. I have never tried cycling a Ranco or Inkbird off an on with an Apex but perhaps someone else has experience with this? At the moment, my reefs each have 2 heaters in them controlled by Apex, my discus tanks have Ranco and Inkbird controllers (one on each tank, but I like the Inkbird much better so far) and my fw angelfish are living dangerously with a single (underpowered) Eheim Jager heater in the tank. My small quarantine and breeding tanks have only single heaters in them due to space limitations.
Bruce
MPS
Active Member
Last Weekend I had a 200 watt Neo-Therm explode on me. Apparently, they haven't fixed the problem. I'm very Leary of trying them again. BTW, the MFG date of 6/2017. I bought it in Nov of `18. I'd been using it mostly to heat water prior to a WC. I'd put it in the bottom of a 35Gal brute can. I suspected that my tank heater was going so I added this one to the main sump. One day later, it blew.
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