I want a Bluetooth aquarium heater!!!

[Fredinva]

As the title says, I want a Bluetooth heater. I'm trying to understand why that is so difficult. I certainly tried a Sicce Scuba contactless heater. Had to take it back to the LFS because i couldn't get it to pair up. I verified my phone has NFC capabilities, and it does. (I now use it sometimes when paying at the register). But NFC is not exactly Bluetooth. I believe nfc is the European "I wanna be a Bluetooth". NFC has a very limited connection distance, hence having to tap the pay screen with your phone. As info, a friend also bought a Sicce with NFC. He told me he had to pull the heater out of the water to get a reading??
I've got an Inkbird for my 125 gal., and it can sometimes give me fits too. Back to square one: a Bluetooth heater, I can go to my APP, read the output and adjust my heater accordingly!

 

[exnisstech]

Curious why Bluetooth vs WiFi?

 

[Fredinva]

Well, do we have a wifi heater??

 

[RoanokeReef]

Well, do we have a wifi heater??

Yup - https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/thermocontrol-e-300-watt-aquarium-heater-w-wifi-eheim/

 

[Fredinva]

OK StrainedSky!!
that may be exactly what I'm looking for. And I like the Eheim brand. Maybe I should have googled wifi instead of bluetooth heater! I will check it out.
Thank you Sir!

 

[RoanokeReef]

I believe they just came out

 

[cdnco2004]

There are also wifi controllers for thermostat less heaters. Which I think is a much better idea than a over expensive heater more so considering heaters are one of the top tank equipment failures. Then if the heater fails you just replace the cheaper heater. They make very nice inexpensive titanium heaters designed to work with controllers.

 

[DaJMasta]

First off: water is conductive and blocks most high frequency communication, so you would need to run the antenna (or the controller) out of the water just to be able to communicate with it while installed. Secondly, you just need to set a heater and let it do its thing, and a dedicated always-on radio is a lot of extra complexity for something you'll use once. Third, developing and maintaining an app is time consuming and expensive, and the aquarium industry has a long history of difficult to use or intermittently functional apps, so you're also costing yourself customer service time and bad reviews because people had trouble on their device.

If you want a "smart" heater, use a controller.

 

[Fredinva]

i have an expensive titanium heater and an inkbird controller. i would rather have a protected glass wifi heater and an app on my phone!!

 

[cdnco2004]

You can get WiFi controllers even Inkbird wifi controllers with an App, on your phone. Glass heaters a real big risk and even bigger risk if you use the heater thermostat as the controller. Heaters are one of the pieces of equipment that fails more than just about any other equipment. And "protected" glass heater, are you talking about the plastic guard? Thats not to protect it from breakage and it will not prevent breakage. Its to prevent burns to your fish. But you know best I am sure. *smh*

 

[Fredinva]

You can get WiFi controllers even Inkbird wifi controllers with an App, on your phone. Glass heaters a real big risk and even bigger risk if you use the heater thermostat as the controller. Heaters are one of the pieces of equipment that fails more than just about any other equipment. And "protected" glass heater, are you talking about the plastic guard? Thats not to protect it from breakage and it will not prevent breakage. Its to prevent burns to your fish. But you know best I am sure. *smh*

I've got an inkbird, hate it. dont want it. glass heaters are a big risk, thank you sir. ive had glass heaters since the mid sixties. Only ever broke one! and at one time i had 28 fresh and 2 marine tanks. any plastic guard on a heater will help to a degree. no pun intended! right now on my Fiji 32 AIO i have a 100 watt Supreme heater, vintage 1975!! i ordered a Eheim e150 with wifi today.

 

[anthonymckay]

NFC and Bluetooth are entirely different technologies with entirely different goals in mind. It's definitely not European "I wanna be bluetooth" haha. It's based on the RFID standard and by design is only supposed to work for VERY short distances. That said, the Sicce NFC heaters are pretty gimmicky IMO and look like a HUGE hassle from the real world use videos I saw on YouTube. But I'm not sure bluetooth is really the right solution either, as it can be very finicky (it's a very complex protocol).

That said, how often are you having to adjust your heater that this is such a thorn in the side for you?

 

[Spare time]

Bluetooth and wifi heaters sound like the most useless application of technology. A heater just needs you plug it in, calibrate if need be, and that's it. What am I missing? Not saying it's a bad idea I just don't understand why it's needed.

 

[Spare time]

I've got an inkbird, hate it. dont want it. glass heaters are a big risk, thank you sir. ive had glass heaters since the mid sixties. Only ever broke one! and at one time i had 28 fresh and 2 marine tanks. any plastic guard on a heater will help to a degree. no pun intended! right now on my Fiji 32 AIO i have a 100 watt Supreme heater, vintage 1975!! i ordered a Eheim e150 with wifi today.

What is wrong with the inkbird? I have 3 and they have never caused an issue.

 

[Fredinva]

Bluetooth and wifi heaters sound like the most useless application of technology. A heater just needs you plug it in, calibrate if need be, and that's it. What am I missing? Not saying it's a bad idea I just don't understand why it's needed.

Useless? do you own any security cameras? do you ever monitor your home via the intrernet?
when i am away from the house, i would like to verify the heater is working,,,,and i can adjust it if need be!!
thus, not so useless!!

 

[Fredinva]

What is wrong with the inkbird? I have 3 and they have never caused an issue.

maybe mine is faulty?? my wife is continually telling me my heater is beeping!! its out of warranty and i wont replace it. I ordered a wifi Eheim!!

 

[DaJMasta]

Useless? do you own any security cameras? do you ever monitor your home via the intrernet?
when i am away from the house, i would like to verify the heater is working,,,,and i can adjust it if need be!!
thus, not so useless!!

But if your heater is broken, you only need a thermometer in view of the camera to verify that - and there would be no amount of tweaking of the temperature that would fix an always on or always off heater - the failure modes.

And as has been indicated before, virtually every aquarium controller has a web interface, a temperature probe, and a switchable outlet - why need an extra app and account when you could do all the adjustment through that?

Even if it was easy to get wireless communication through water, the use case is barely there and is covered by other commonly used devices. It would be redundant or useless for 90% or more of users and would add needless cost, complexity, and troubleshooting hassle on the part of the manufacturer.

 

[Reefering1]

And on what circumstances might you need to remotely adjust the temp? If Temp is out of range, it's broken, adjusting won't help. If anything a apex or something that can cut power to the heater

 

[anthonymckay]

when i am away from the house, i would like to verify the heater is working,,,,and i can adjust it if need be!!

Bluetooth wouldn't solve this problem, as you can only connect when you're pretty much in the same room.

Sounds like all the problems you are trying to solve would easily be solved with a wifi controller like a Hydros. Temperature monitoring, the ability to cut power to the heater, control the things remotely from an app, etc.

 

[Fredinva]

Bluetooth wouldn't solve this problem, as you can only connect when you're pretty much in the same room.

Sounds like all the problems you are trying to solve would easily be solved with a wifi controller like a Hydros. Temperature monitoring, the ability to cut power to the heater, control the things remotely from an app, etc.

ok already! i ordered an Eheim wifi heater. my inkbird controller is on the way out.