Heaters.....

[357MAGNOLE]

What do you choose to rely on?

I had one of these enheim jager heaters on my 120 but the relay kept getting stuck off or on and it had condensation isinde the glass. So I choose to believe they aren't all they are cracked up to be.

Now I have a tank, cooling to room temp and need a couple new heaters.

 

[souzie]

I had the same thing happen to 3 of my eheims...they're rubbish these days.

I now use Via Aqua glass heaters in my 120 with no issues.

 

[Hendre]

I use both Jeagers and "Dophin" with success

 

[FreshyFresh]

I have no preference to brand. I keep hearing Sera are built well, but haven't had the need for a new one in a while. I've been getting free replacements to my Aqueons and Marineland heaters when they poop out. Just save the box and receipt. Most have lifetime warranties.

IMO, bet thing you can do with heaters is keep the dial end out of the water all the time. Works for me to make them last longer. Obviously make sure they're powered off during water changes too. That's the number one killer.

Sometimes what appears to be condensation in the glass is oil from the factory. It's sealed and safe.

 

[357MAGNOLE]

This definitely wasn't oil. It looked like a fair amount of water made its way insides I knew the relay was sticking because aside from obvious temp swings as soon as you tapped it with your finger the relay switched over. Luckily the heater was slightly undersized and I didn't have to worry about it cooking my fish.

 

[Hendre]

I found my cheap dophins held the temperature better in my other tanks than my jaeger. However I found that just undersizing the heater worked just fine in our mild(ish) winters. Advantage is they use half the wattage of similarly "sized" heaters

 

[FreshyFresh]

I like'em slightly undersized for that reason too, so it would be difficult for them to overheat the tank. Probably best to run two smaller rather than one big one, unless you want to use an external temperature controller.

 

[Pulcher]

I use on both my tanks Eheim Jaeger's and I dislike the way that you have to set the tempeture, but I just hook them into an Inkbird controller and they work perfectly. I have the temp probe inside the tank and a digital thermostat to make sure the temp is correct. It seems like every heater on the market has complaints.

 

[squint]

Why would heaters have oil in them from the factory? If it really was oil, it's probably even worse than water.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Why would heaters have oil in them from the factory? If it really was oil, it's probably even worse than water.

When I contacted Central Garden and Pet (parent co of Aqueon) in regards to some beads of liquid inside my brand new Aqueon 200w, that's what they claimed it was. Some type of mineral oil used in the manufacturing process and claimed it would be harmless to fish in the event of some catastrophic failure where tank water got in/out.

Obviously if you've got water going in/out of your heater you've got bigger problems.