Heater Fail

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
S

sam_everist

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 26, 2012
421
1
0
Hertfordshire, UK
Moirning All,

Has anyone ever had a heater fail, I just got to my fish house to find my 12" Red snakehead dead, put my hand in the water and it was HOT, temperature gueage was saying 43 deg which is obviously way way too hot. I'd only ever heard of heaters failing and the water going cold rather than the thermostat failing?
 
I had one fail but the tank got cold like you said.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
Nope. Heaters can fail both ways. I believe Oddball on here almost lost an FRT over a failed heater stuck in the on position. My suggestion spend the money and by a controller like a Neptune Apex that you can set parameters on. Water gets to cold it turns the heater on. Water goes past a set temperature you have set in the programming it kills power to that outlet completely. Also has many more capabilities. Sorry about your loss.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
Hello; I have had heaters fail both ways over 5+ decades. Heaters with mechanical thermostats often have a bimetal strip with contact points. As the bimetal strip moves to make and break contact, the points can build up a deposit from the brief arc that occurs. Over time the deposit can essentially close the contact and cause the heater to be on all the time. I have several times fixed this by filing the contact points back down to remove the deposit and make the contact points flat.
I have little experience with heaters having digital thermostats.

A way to avoid extreme heating or cooling from failed heaters is to have two or more smaller wattage heaters in a tank in place of one more powerful heater. This way a failure either way may be less severe and result in less dramatic heating or cooling and has often been caught in time to prevent the loss of fish.
 
I had one explode once. I heard a pop and freaked me out! I also have had them just quite working altogether...noticed the temperature was to cold in my aquarium. I have used all sorts of brands and I can't say I like any, any better than the other. Price doesn't seem to matter either.
 
I agree with silent bob. I controller is a double safety, if the thermo on your heater goes out, the controller still has a thermo and program to run it, so your covered
 
Yep... I trust my heaters to fail before anything else....
 
sam_everist said:
Moirning All,

Has anyone ever had a heater fail, I just got to my fish house to find my 12" Red snakehead dead, put my hand in the water and it was HOT, temperature gueage was saying 43 deg which is obviously way way too hot. I'd only ever heard of heaters failing and the water going cold rather than the thermostat failing?
Click to expand...

what kind of heater was it??


Sent from my iPad using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom