Which heaters to buy

[BIG-G]

I use jager in all my tanks. I have had a couple fail but they stopped heating not over heating. Both times I was able to take them apart and repair them.
The older versions of these heaters where of a better quality for sure. Ehiem is a great company but the original Ebo version out lasted any heater I have ever owned.
I need to look into a couple controllers though.
I would hate to fry some of my fish.

 

[nzafi]

I am torn on this. I had titantium heaters from Finnex and they failed quickly. I had the aqueon pro heaters for a long time. They come with a lifetime warranty and I discovered that they were leaking voltage into the water. Emailed the company and they replaced them for free, just needed the receipts.

For my 535g, I am thinking of tossing the aqueon and going with the Jager. I had them before but got rid of them for the aqueon. I got rid of them because condensation was in the glass. While I have a grounding probe in my tank now, I am worried about voltage leakage from the aqueons still. In the new tank setup I will be able to have the Jager stand up straight, and I think I will even be able to keep the dial out of the water. That is suppose to be the cause of most failures even though they are suppose to be water tight.

 

[nzafi]

Forgot to mention, I am running a drip to my tank and am planning on buying a honeywell thermostatic controller and changing my drip from cold water to hot water. This way the heaters are barely used saving me $ cause they run a ton now, and if I ever a tank outage, my tank will always be heated.

 

[nzafi]

Don't want to be a spammer, but there was one other thing that is making me change my heaters. When you look at manufacturer recommendations, I found that the eheim heaters were rated for warming larger quantities of water than the aqueon. I am not sure how accurate this is but I suspect there is something to it. The eheim are very large heaters which means they can technically heat more water at the same time than the aqueon. I suspect glass is a better heating conductor than the plastic on the aqueon also.

I have been measuring my heaters and while the 3 aqueons combine for 650w I have only been getting a reading in the high 500s like 585 or so. The heaters are clearly not putting out the heat they are suppose to. Additionally, while the heaters never let the temp of the tank drop more than 1 watt below the set amount, I find they are constantly running. 650w on a 180g should not be taking so long to heat the water.

 

[BIG-G]

What is the ambient room temperature where your tanks are? Some heaters may struggle to maintain that temperature at a set level given the water volume and room temperature.
It may be a little more cost affective to heat the room vs the tank

 

[nzafi]

What is the ambient room temperature where your tanks are? Some heaters may struggle to maintain that temperature at a set level given the water volume and room temperature.
It may be a little more cost affective to heat the room vs the tank

If you are referring to me, my tank is in the family room where the temperate probably stays around 72 degrees. I keep the tank temp at 76. I am running a cold water drip of 2gph which will have some impact. The heaters should be plenty strong considering I probably only have 150g of water in the tank.

 

[Gourami Swami]

I've been using Hydor Theo heaters in all my tanks for the past couple years. They are low-profile and look nice. I have three and none of them have broken yet in any way, and they heat the tanks just fine.
I've used jaeger in the past, had no problems with it either. Though I think they are kind of ugly personally.

 

[Southjerseycichlidz]

Knock on wood I run cheap aqua top heaters and have never had a problem

 

[jsodwi]

I have a couple of the hydor in a 180g. Which come to think of it I’ve had them for a long time.

 

[smitty03281964]

I remember years ago when I first started using titanium heaters thinking that they would be better. That certainly was not my experience. I pretty much use Visi-Therm heater and they have performed well, but not perfect, so keep that in mind. The good thing with them is that they come with the lifetime warranty. I have sent defective ones back and have never had any problem getting a replacement. I have not sent any back in the past 5 years, and I have not had to buy any, so I am not sure if the warranty policy is still the same.