Heater failure!

[Austin1234]

Don’t know how I’m ever gonna be able to have a good nights sleep again after this. I don’t know how it didn’t trip a Gfci or something it just burned up. It charred the wood it was hanging on and melted the heater controller above it also. It’s a hygger 1000w. is there anything extra I can do to make things safer? Some how fireproof around the controllers?? I ordered new different heaters, the same ones that I’ve been using on another setup since 22 without issue Aqqa 800w. I want the heaters to be reliable but also if they do fail I would much rather it fail in a way that does not burn my house down.

 

[tlindsey]

didn’t trip a Gfci

I would think it should have. Have your breaker panel inspected.

 

[duanes]

I have had a number of heaters fail, mostly in the ¨on¨position.
After a number of failures, I started using 2 (even 3) undersize heaters per tank, that way in case one fails and needs to be shut down, late a night, the other(s) will pick up the slack, and under size heaters have less chance of quickly cooking the fish, if they do fail in the ön¨position.

 

[Austin1234]

I had 2 of the 1000w running on my 600, I’m gonna switch to 2 800w and maybe a 500w.
I read the Amazon reviews yesterday and mine wasn’t the first to do this same thing. Had me pretty scared not gonna lie.

 

[tlindsey]

Had me pretty scared not gonna lie

That would have scared me also.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I guess the old style heaters which use contact points are no longer made. I have some from decades ago. Every few years to a decade or so the contact points can deposit a small tit which keeps the heater on or hard to adjust. I do take them apart and file the points.

Do as duanes suggests. Have several lower wattage heaters in place of a big watt one. I like to set a lower wattage heater to come on first and a second or third higher wattage to come on a degree or two higher. The low watt heater will stay on and the others only on when the low watt cannot keep up.

 

[HUKIT]

Hygger doesn’t actually make any products, all they do is buy is buy garbage from China and slapping their logo on it. I wouldn’t trust anything from that company, especially when living creatures lives on the line.

 

[jjohnwm]

That picture of a heater controller with a giant hole melted through the center of the words "Made in China" is almost tragically comical. That could be caused by a poor connection, soldered or otherwise, inside the controller. No reason why that would trip a GFCI, that's not what they are designed for. A loose connection heats up, and in extreme cases causes damage like this.

Having 2 or 3 smaller heaters in parallel on your aquarium might definitely prevent your fish from being parboiled if one of them sticks "on", but it won't help with this problem at all. In fact, 2 or 3 cheaply built pieces of garbage actually increase your risk 2 or 3 times.

 

[LBDave]

I would think every aquarium heater is probably made in China. I have used Hygger heaters for years albeit mine have digital readouts and claim to have over heat protection and they shut off if not submerged. The only failures (one) I have experienced is a heater quit working and it showed an error code which indicated the heater needed to be replaced.

 

[jjohnwm]

Of course, Chinese companies will build whatever you ask them to build, to whatever price you want, and using whatever materials and/or design you might specify. The problem is that so many manufacturers don't specify anything other than "as cheaply as possible"...and so that's what they, and by extension we, get.

In today's world, how often do you buy something...an appliance, a car, whatever...and feel that you absolutely got your money's worth? Buying top-of-the-line stuff should mean getting the highest quality and the most/best features. More often, it has come to mean perhaps more bells'n'whistles, but manufactured to the same low standards of the budget-grade stuff...and with more potential problems because of all the added complexity.