Anyone with knowledge on these heaters?

[tess24278]

I bought a new heater the other day for a smaller tank (20 Gal) its a Marineland Stealth Visi-Therm Submersible Aquarium Heater from PetCo I believe it was the one suitable for up to 35 gallons.
It was working great the first day set the temp, it heated the tank and pretty much did what it was supposed to. I think it was only on the second day of having it that I noticed something floating in the tank. The top part of the heater had come off and had floated up the cord and the temp setting dial had come off and was floating in the water. It was kind of a WTF moment. I put the pieces back together, took the risk, held my breath and put it back into the tank. So far so good. It was still working, and my stick on thermometer thing was registering around 78/80.
LONG STORY STILL LONG
I ended up touching part of the tank tonight and thought it felt abnormally warm to the touch, felt the water, wicked warm, and then looked at my thermometer and it wasn't even registering a temp. Not right. I unplugged it right now because..its freaking me out, id rather not boil my fish.

Anyone have any experience with these heater, have used them before, or know what's up?

 

[NCStateFisher]

the new stealth heaters have been having loads of problems, I just replaced mine on my 45 gallon with a 200w fluval e series. Some people have even had them blow up, if i were you i'd check the lot number on the packaging and check online to see if it's one that's had an issue, and send it in for a replacement

 

[Morledzep]

wow, never heard of them coming apart like that. i don't know if the stealth heaters i have are Marineland or not, i bought them used. i never had any trouble with any of them till this year, 2 of the 5 of them quit working. they just stopped heating the water.

i believe there was a MFKer that had one explode, probably could do a search on exploding heaters and see that thread. i believe the stealth heaters are not as good as they used to be and the ones that i have are older versions. the 2 that quit working i have been using for several years, and i bought them used, nothing lasts forever.

 

[tess24278]

After reading a few of those threads I dont know how the hell I'm going to sleep tonight haha. I'm taking that thing OUT of my tank for now then. Of course I threw the box out. going to have to go trash digging for that tomorrow.

 

[NCStateFisher]

yeah i was paranoid too, bad thing is i have the box and just never checked, bought a new fluval since they're on sale at petsmart right now lol

old school stealth heaters with the 4 lines running down and no LED are good to go though

 

[skillzizzo]

deffinetly lots of problems with these heaters lately seems like. Lots of threads and post of them leaking white fluide, or blowing up ect. I guess you got lucky and diddnt have it contaminate your tank with that white crap what ever it is. Sucks thow 30 bucks or so for those 100w stealths for them to be garbadge. Comapanys suck im sure you bought that over a lower quility one so you would have a good one and have it work properly. I recently bought the same thing about a month ago. To have quilty instead of junk. And mine is working fine guess i got lucky. One lessoned learned the hard way. Allways keep the packages for stuff you buy atleast untill we know they are working properly or not. Sorry you wasted your money

 

[CLDarnell]

Hi Tess,

Yeah, Marineland is up to their eyeballs in warranty claims I'm sure. It's good you caught your's in time!

Since you will be claiming a warranty failure, and you have your receipt, you most likely won't need the box to return it. If they do give you a hard time, stand firm and explain the multitude of issues other's have had with this heater.

I am surprised Vendors or even Marineland themselves haven't pulled these heaters off the shelves yet.

 

[Morledzep]

I am surprised Vendors or even Marineland themselves haven't pulled these heaters off the shelves yet.

i'm not sure that the dedicated LFS haven't pulled them off the shelf. Petco and Petsmart won't because people still buy them. and Marineland is owned by Tetra now so ya know where that is going...

 

[smitty03281964]

Take it back to the store and exchange it. Also being a member of several forums I have heard disturbing stories of Stealth heaters. But you know they all seem to have some sort of problem from time to time. However a recent thread showed how a Stealth blew out the glass on an aquarium.