Fluval E-series heaters

[jschall]

I got a 300 watt fluval e-series (the ones with the LCD temperature readout) heater. I put it in my 75 gallon tank which was already at 82 degrees), plugged it in, set it to 82F.
I woke up the next morning, temp was 79.
I thought that was odd, thought my house was too cold for it (was probably 65 at that point) and turned my house heater on. It's been about 70 in my house ever since.
Went to work, came home, it read 78 (note: I checked all these temps with a glass thermometer. The LCD is dead-on accurate)
Today, I put the marineland back into my tank, took the fluval E to the LFS, exchanged it for another E300, set it to 82. It read 81 degrees for a couple hours, now it's reading 80.5. It's going down, instead of up.

Any thoughts? The marineland heater (same wattage) kept it at 82 just fine.
The fluval obviously knew that it should be running (since the LCD was blue indicating that it was more than 2 degrees under the set temperature), but it just wasn't, or not very much.

 

[rj32l]

thats funny that you are having this problem too..i am also having the same problem with this heater for my ray tank..wish i could figure out why its doing this

 

[nes999]

it didnt drop enough to trigger the heater. they are like your house if u set ur house to 70 and ur house dropes to 69.5 it wont kick on

 

[jschall]

it didnt drop enough to trigger the heater. they are like your house if u set ur house to 70 and ur house dropes to 69.5 it wont kick on

So you're saying it's ok for the temperature to vary by 4 degrees?

 

[jschall]

thats funny that you are having this problem too..i am also having the same problem with this heater for my ray tank..wish i could figure out why its doing this

Do you have a lot of flow around the heater?

 

[phillydog1958]

if the heater is below the set temp, the LED should be blue. If it's above your set temp, it should be red. What color is your readout and are you sure that you have properly set the temp? Mine is accurate and works very well.

 

[Sword625]

I have a heater in my tank that is set to 78 but keeps the temp stable at 80. Even if I make the temp lower than 78 it still keeps the temp at 80. The light comes on indicating the heater is active and it is not just residual heat from something else. I was thinking about buying the Fluval E series heater. Now that I read your situation, it seems like it does the opposite of my old heater. We should swap lol

 

[jschall]

if the heater is below the set temp, the LED should be blue. If it's above your set temp, it should be red. What color is your readout and are you sure that you have properly set the temp? Mine is accurate and works very well.

Readout is blue. Temp is set at 82.

 

[swk]

I have one of these and it's a complete waste of money and a total piece of sh*t. I had the same problems you're having. I went and bought some jagers for half the price and smaller wattage and have had a nice stable 78 ever since. I would come down stairs in the am and the heater readout would be blue and that damn heating element wasn't even on!

 

[Kerbins]

In order for the Fluval E series to work properly you need to make sure there is plenty of water flow going over/through the heater.