Heater "Blowing Up"?

[calpoly12]

I just saw a pic of a guys heater that blew up. It looked like someone shot the tank from the inside. He said he was in the room and it sounded like someone shot a shotgun from the inside out and blew glass and water everywhere. Stay away from stealth heaters!!

Ya, guess Im going to have to replace it.

i have a 250watt for 5 years still works never had anything happen with it.. but have heard about them blowing up!!

Are you going to replace it?

I experienced a 200 watt heater blowing up while changing the water....I left the tank while siphoning.........I came back, and started filling the tank again with water.........Once the water reached the coils, it exploded.........Remember to leave the heater under water when doing water changes..........

yes definitely leave them off while doing water changes. Not worth taking the risk.


Anybody know of a good heater that is small and not to expensive? it needs to be small so that it can fit in the back of the biocube (8g).

 

[calpoly12]

Also doing some research and a lot of the problems are from early 2010....do they still have a problem? Also it was on the stealth pro's is what I am reading. Is there some information that I am missing?

 

[philfreenode]

Hey, It was probably only certain ones or a certain lot that were bad, I have a bunch of stealth that i purchased between August 2010 and now, and none have blown up. One quit heating though, and i found the lot # matched one people had posted on the internet. When I emailed marineland and complained they sent me a new one without even asking for proof of purchase or the old one back. That's service.

 

[calpoly12]

Hey, It was probably only certain ones or a certain lot that were bad, I have a bunch of stealth that i purchased between August 2010 and now, and none have blown up. One quit heating though, and i found the lot # matched one people had posted on the internet. When I emailed marineland and complained they sent me a new one without even asking for proof of purchase or the old one back. That's service.

I purchased one around christmas and cant get the lot number off it right now, but I am assuming that it is "ok". anyone heard of any recently manufactured heaters blowing up? it could be an old one if it was sitting on the shelf for a long time but I dont think it was..i will have to check though

 

[Dan F]

I must have posted before the photo finished uploading (super-slow dial-up).

You can see how the end of the heater is all a little melted/warped. The whole tank smelled of burnt electrical equipment after it failed. It was a single fish (a monster Pangasius Cat), but I'm sure any fish in there would have died.

A heads-up to everyone: Aqueon is also marketing these P.O.S. heaters under their name, I bought one without realizing it...

 

[calpoly12]

I must have posted before the photo finished uploading (super-slow dial-up).

You can see how the end of the heater is all a little melted/warped. The whole tank smelled of burnt electrical equipment after it failed. It was a single fish (a monster Pangasius Cat), but I'm sure any fish in there would have died.

A heads-up to everyone: Aqueon is also marketing these P.O.S. heaters under their name, I bought one without realizing it...

Holy crap! How long did you have the heater before it did it?

 

[Dan F]

Holy crap! How long did you have the heater before it did it?

About a year or 16 months, maybe.

 

[calpoly12]

About a year or 16 months, maybe.

holy crap. When was this though? ive read that the only ones that malfunctioned were manufactured in early 2010. I am assuming my was made in late 2010 as I purchased it in december. I just dont see mine sitting on the shelf for a full year

 

[Dan F]

holy crap. When was this though? ive read that the only ones that malfunctioned were manufactured in early 2010. I am assuming my was made in late 2010 as I purchased it in december. I just dont see mine sitting on the shelf for a full year

It failed in January of 2010 (at least that is when I took the photo), so I imagine it was made sometime in 2008 or early 2009. I've been reading about failures since before then - I really don't think it is a case of a bad batch of heaters, more like an inherent design flaw.

 

[calpoly12]

It failed in January of 2010 (at least that is when I took the photo), so I imagine it was made sometime in 2008 or early 2009. I've been reading about failures since before then - I really don't think it is a case of a bad batch of heaters, more like an inherent design flaw.

hhmm, well looks like i need to thrown down some $$ before mine blows up and makes a mess and really waste some $$$