Heaters in the overflow?

[BadGaskets]

Anyone here ever put their heater in the overflow tower? Specifically the tall black plastic type that come with predrilled tanks. The water level would definitely be high enough to support it.

I haven't had a tank before with these sorts of overflows so I'm asking just in case there's some potential problem I haven't thought of. I intend to use something durable to help keep the heater from touching the pipes or overflow wall.

The reason I even need to do this is because my sump will be located in a utility closet that only has 1 electric circuit that is also shared (stupidly) with the kitchen, so I need more amperage to heat the system than I have left over on that system.

The tank itself will be on an outlet that has plenty of juice because it'll basically j7st

 

[yellowfinfmb]

I think that when power goes out to the pump water level will drop , then heater be on if you bring the overflow tube up high enough will be alright but I would not do it not much volume of water in the overflow box

 

[Deadeye]

I tried this in an attempt to hide the heaters. The problem I ran into was that as tank water evaporates, the overflows would eventually drain in water level. The small water volume would evaporate quicker than the larger volume, and soon the whole water level would drop below the overflow line, making the overflow lose water even faster. This lead to the heaters being exposed to air (at least partially), and then melting themselves.
Long story short, I started keeping the heaters outside the overflow box after that first time…

 

[fishguy1978]

I do. Works great. The stand pipe in the overflow maintains a water level higher than the heater and I've never had one go dry.

 

[Deadeye]

I tried this in an attempt to hide the heaters. The problem I ran into was that as tank water evaporates, the overflows would eventually drain in water level. The small water volume would evaporate quicker than the larger volume, and soon the whole water level would drop below the overflow line, making the overflow lose water even faster. This lead to the heaters being exposed to air (at least partially), and then melting themselves.
Long story short, I started keeping the heaters outside the overflow box after that first time…

I’ll add that I was running canisters through the overflow and not a sump, which may have made the difference.

 

[puffers4puffers]

I would not...

 

[TwoHedWlf]

I tried mine in the overflow, it worked fine. If the power goes out the water level dropped an inch or two, but it would have taken weeks for evaporation to drop the water enough to care. Only issue I had was that there was enough turbulence and current it made the heaters rattle around. And it was too narrow a space to get my hand into to properly suction the cups to the glass. So into the sump they went.