Bannerfish Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I'm looking at heater options, and came across this brand. They look pretty decent for the price,but before I buy some, I was hoping some of you guys have tried them and could share your experiences. TIA! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bige Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I had one explode. Actual fire on the water. The replacement also failed. Maybe the new ones are better but that's my experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bannerfish Posted October 27, 2012 Author Share Posted October 27, 2012 Yikes!! How long ago was this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubasteve92 Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I am looking for reliable heaters as well, but everything I see online is "this heater killed my tank!!" and that is with every heater.. so which do I choose. I would be willing to spend the money on a reliable heater and controller... but which one!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bannerfish Posted October 27, 2012 Author Share Posted October 27, 2012 Same here. I think the best ones I've tried are the hydor heaters, with fluval a close second. Definitely won't waste my money on a Marineland. But I don't like how all of them vary ago much in temp. Without buying an expensive thermostat it sounds like your screwed no matter which one you get! My husband read mostly good things about the finnex, and I've read good things about the cobalt heaters. The cobalts look nice, and they're advertising only a .5° variance in temps, but with one of my systems being about 160gal, buying enough of their heaters would cost me almost $600. That's not counting the rest of my tanks. It would be cheaper for me to just heat the house to a suitable temp all winter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard L Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I am looking for reliable heaters as well, but everything I see online is "this heater killed my tank!!" and that is with every heater.. so which do I choose. I would be willing to spend the money on a reliable heater and controller... but which one!! Because of all the failures I hear about, I'm a big proponent of using a controller with 2 small heaters. Controller can precisely turn a small heater on and off and then kick on a second one during a cold snap. An Apex Jr. with a couple of titanium heaters would set you back about $225 which but I always consider it life insurance for your tank's residents. Multiple Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bige Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 In my case, the heater had bad silicon. It let water in side and electrocuted the tank. Could a controller have detected that? I'm not familiar with controllers to know if it could. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I recently switched to jäger heaters. In the 50-300 watt range they seem to get the best reviews of any glass heater. Fwiw. I like mine so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobR Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I recently switched to jäger heaters. In the 50-300 watt range they seem to get the best reviews of any glass heater. Fwiw. I like mine so far. +1 on the jager heaters. Had tried a finnex heater with the digital display built in, and it worked great for about 3 months, then one day it just quit heating... Switched to the Eheim jager heater and have been very happy with it so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubasteve92 Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I am looking for reliable heaters as well, but everything I see online is "this heater killed my tank!!" and that is with every heater.. so which do I choose. I would be willing to spend the money on a reliable heater and controller... but which one!! Because of all the failures I hear about, I'm a big proponent of using a controller with 2 small heaters. Controller can precisely turn a small heater on and off and then kick on a second one during a cold snap. An Apex Jr. with a couple of titanium heaters would set you back about $225 which but I always consider it life insurance for your tank's residents. Multiple Thanks! I will look to make this one of my next upgrades! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Grog Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 I recently switched to jäger heaters. In the 50-300 watt range they seem to get the best reviews of any glass heater. Fwiw. I like mine so far. +1 on the jager heaters. Had tried a finnex heater with the digital display built in, and it worked great for about 3 months, then one day it just quit heating... Switched to the Eheim jager heater and have been very happy with it so far. My DT has one of these too. I like it. Temps seem to hold well. Only part I dont' like is the temp adjustment ring. Kind of fiddly IMO. I'd rather just have a knob. Not sure all are like the one I purchased but that was the only negative. I'll buy another. I use a big Marineland for my SW mixing tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bannerfish Posted October 28, 2012 Author Share Posted October 28, 2012 How hard/easy are the controllers to use? I've never tried any type of controller before Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard L Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 I'm only familiar with the Apex, but there is a learning curve to get things setup. Fortunately there are plenty of people who have gone thru the same startup so there is a lot of good information and help out there. Once setup it can be as simple or complex as you want to make it. For an example related to your this thread, it can simply turn on and off a heater like a thermostat. Or you can set it up like mine to do the following: 1. Turn on heater #1 if the temperature falls 0.1 degrees below 78.0. 2. Turn on heater #2 if the temperature falls 0.3 degrees below 78.0. 2. Turn all heaters off once the temperature hits 78.0. 3. Send a text to my cell phone if the temperature falls below 77.0. 4. Since I have two temperature probes (2nd is needed to monitor ORP levels) I also have it setup to text me if the difference between the two probes is more than 0.3 degrees signalling that one of the probes may be malfunctioning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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