Heater ???

[Jiddy]

Well i wanted to be cheap and get those Won Brother Titanium heaters for my tank, everyone said, no Jiddy dont they are cheap, but i said, no i will test them out, you dont know what your talkin about. And all three went to junk, so tell Won and his brother, i dont want them. The good news is nothing bad happened, i have to ordered some new heaters, whats the brand you trust? Im guessin Ebo Jagr???

-Ill listen this time Jiddy

 

[mungus]

I would go with a ranco controller with a titanium heating element. I just picked up a ranco from patriot supply on ebay (unwired) for $46 with shipping. The extension cord was $10 to wire it. If you get a cord with the led in it you will know when the heating element is on. The heating element was another $50. I think finnex, jalli, and aqua medic make the heating elements. I am not sure if one is better than another. I picked up the jalli because I could get a good price. This setup has been awesome ever since I set it up. I would never trust another glass heater in my tank after I had one explode underwater. That was a frickn mess I would never want to clean up again.

JMO

Brian

 

[Pikachu]

Ebo Jagers are nice, it was kind of hard to get mine calibrated. As a suggestion, you can try using 2 heaters, both different brands, in a single tank. This way you will reduce the likelihood of heater failure, but nothing will stop your tank from overheating if one fails. The most secure way is like mungus mentioned, controllers, but descent ones are kind of pricey.

 

[Slickdonkey]

I also like the Finnex titanium heaters, but not their controllers or integrated controller/heater combos. I've had several of those fail and the controllers are junk IMO.

I've had several glass heaters explode or break (yes, even Ebo-Jaegers), leading to glass shards in the sump or giving me a good jolt of that old 120V. Eventually I plan to replace the glass heaters I still have with titanium.

I just ordered a couple of the new Visi-therms. They are glass but supposedly really hard to break.

 

[DonW]

Diy reef always has a good deal on Ranco's with a good Ti element. These are the only way I would go. Meaning ranco and Ti.

Don

 

[ronj]

i like the Aqua Via titanium heaters...i have them on most of my tanks

 

[dnjan]

Before I bought the ranco, I had two separate jali controllers die.

 

[burning2nd]

ive used the lcd pro won heater for over 7 months now......
no problems.

i havent touched it since i set it back in the day.

on at 80.1 off at 80.4

 

[Jiddy]

ive used the lcd pro won heater for over 7 months now......
no problems.

i havent touched it since i set it back in the day.

on at 80.1 off at 80.4

Well i bought 3 when i setup the tank and my last one just died on me, that was 16mo's of life for 1 out of 3

 

[DonW]

Well i bought 3 when i setup the tank and my last one just died on me, that was 16mo's of life for 1 out of 3

Along with being garbage they can be a fire hazzard. I havent figured out why they are still on the market.

Don

 

[cwby416]

I had the via aqua titanium heater and it just plain died after only 3 months! I got a stealth now, no issues with it.

 

[burning2nd]

jiddy u went thur 3? in 16 months?

 

[piercho]

I had the opposite luck with Finnex, two of the titanium heating elements failed (open, luckily) while the Finnex controller with mechanical relay has been accurate and bombproof. My next tank will use solid state relays to control a main and a redundant heating element via microcontroller with redundant thermocouple inputs.

As far as glass vs titanium, I've used both and its been the emmersed seal that fails and eventually leads to heater failure, IME. That includes seal failures on Ebo Jager. I've never broken a glass heater through abuse (impact, emmersing while hot) but if you are prone to abuse them I'd avoid glass heaters. One thing I do like about glass heaters is that you can see the beginnings of water intrusion if you are inspecting them regularly. The best arrangement for the heating element, IMO, is to have the element emmersed and the sealed end of the heater out of the water. Glass or titanium, I'd have it mounted in a location where its not rattling around the bottom of the sump, begging to get busted.

 

[Slickdonkey]

Piercho, one reason the Finnex heaters can fail is that I think they have an internal fuse that blows if they are exposed to air. Is it possible that could have happened?

Really keep an eye on those Finnex controllers, I'm telling you they're junk! Get one of those thermometers with the alarms. If I didn't have one I would never have caught it in time.

 

[class clown]

Back in the day, I went through two won brothers Pro-Heat II Titanium IC Heaters in a year before I learned that they are junk and redundancy is key..

first one fried the tank - not a good sight - 90 + degrees
Second one let it go ice cold - also not a good sight - 60ish degrees

Learn from my mistakes, stay away from won brothers digital LCD controllers or at least build in some alarms or redundancy in your tank.

 

[class clown]

I use Viaaqua titanium now and havne't had any issues to speak of yet - been about a year and a half worth of use.

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_heaters_viaaqua_titanium.asp?CartId=

 

[piercho]

the Finnex heaters can fail is that I think they have an internal fuse that blows if they are exposed to air. Is it possible that could have happened?

I cut both apart and a piece of the circuit was open and I didn't recognize it as any kind of fuse. It appeared to be a solder connection that came apart. I stopped water flow past the heater in both failures, so the heater did get hotter than it normally would be with the pump running, but it was immersed in water. I got the controller and these heating elements years ago almost as soon as they became available in the US, so maybe the heaters have been improved or the controller is now cheaper. Anyway, my Finnex controller has never failed, two Finnex heaters failed, but failed open which is infinitely better than shorting.

 

[Jiddy]

I use Viaaqua titanium now and havne't had any issues to speak of yet - been about a year and a half worth of use.

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_heaters_viaaqua_titanium.asp?CartId=

the link is for glass, do they make titanium ones?