How often do you replace your heaters?

[philipraposo1982]

Hi everyone,

I have a eheim jager 300W that's been running in my 75g for 3 years now. I am thinking / worried about it failing and frying my precious fish. Is it best to replace them after a certain time in hopes to never have a failure?

I read about JBJ Heater controller and it seems to be alright but temps seem to swing with the unit which I don't like.

How likely is it that when the heater does fail it will be with the result of staying on and bringing the temp to a very high temp? or is it more common for failed heaters to just stop heating?

My house is kept at 22 degrees Celsius so if the heater does shut off I highly doubt the temp drop would be that significant to cause an issue. But overheating is definitely a concern.

Many of us have large fish that live for a long time, I would hate to think of all that time and care going down the drain because of a faulty $80 piece of equipment.

Thoughts?

 

[dan518]

I have two smaller heaters so if one sticks on it can't over heat the tank, I also tend to buy mid price heaters and replace them every 18 months. Normally I think it's the thermostat that goes in heaters, something that a heat controler could help with, I am looking into getting one.

 

[PYRU]

Usually 2 yrs or so. Depending on how much faith I have in the design. I could probably go longer, but I've lost some high dollar fish to heater malfunctions.

Heaters these days just don't last that long. Ive had them quit altogether, hang open, lock up at the control knob, and one even electrified the water permanently damaging my 5 yr old jag. Cheap pet store brand to aqueon pro

 

[Fish on Fire]

Whenever they stop working.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01A...F8&qid=1490037143&sr=8-2&keywords=inkbird+308

I use this as a controller to keep the tank from overheating if the heater gets stuck on. I did have a heater get stuck on and fry one of my tanks, killing all of the fish. With the controller, I can set alarms to let me know me know if the heater is stuck on, or if it's stuck off.

One of my setups:

Heater thermostat: 82 deg F
Controller thermostat: 85 deg F
Controller diffential: 1 deg F
High alarm: 84 deg F
Low alarm: 75 deg F

The high alarm will go off if the heater gets stuck on, but the controller will cut it off at 85. If the heater is stuck off, the low alarm will go off. Then, you are very safe, in my mind, and can wait to replace the heater until it actually fails.

For heaters, I had a Tetra heater fail on and cook my fish. Now, all of my tanks have AquaTop heaters in them and one of those, the 200W in my 29 gallon tank, has been running for over two years. I have also heard good things about the ViaAqua heaters and will probably try them next time I buy heaters.

I think that using a controller makes it ok to use the cheaper heaters. Along with that, I have not heard of any better reliability from the more expensive heaters compared to the cheaper ones.

 

[jsodwi]

I switched to all titanium heaters with a Ranco controller a few years ago on my two big tanks. But my smaller tank I use the ranco controller and set the temp a couple degrees lower than the visitherm heaters

 

[DN328]

Hi everyone,

I have a eheim jager 300W that's been running in my 75g for 3 years now. I am thinking / worried about it failing and frying my precious fish. Is it best to replace them after a certain time in hopes to never have a failure?

I read about JBJ Heater controller and it seems to be alright but temps seem to swing with the unit which I don't like.

How likely is it that when the heater does fail it will be with the result of staying on and bringing the temp to a very high temp? or is it more common for failed heaters to just stop heating?

My house is kept at 22 degrees Celsius so if the heater does shut off I highly doubt the temp drop would be that significant to cause an issue. But overheating is definitely a concern.

Many of us have large fish that live for a long time, I would hate to think of all that time and care going down the drain because of a faulty $80 piece of equipment.

Thoughts?

As has been mentioned, a heater controller is a good approach if you are paranoid (and with good reasons) about typical heaters.

There are many threads discussing controllers. I dont know how much "swings" you get with jbj, but I'd consider that over roulette with cheap heaters. Then again there's other controller options that are fairly accurate to choose from.

 

[packer43064]

Years. Whenever one fails. Which is rare even with crap heaters. Personally at least.

 

[skjl47]

hello; That folks actually replace heaters which are not broken is a new one to me. I replace them when they break.

To the fry the fish worry, use two or more heaters of reduced wattage. That way if one fails, either off or on, there is less chance of a serious problem.

 

[monkeybike]

Too often