Who makes good heaters these days?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I have a bunch of Eheim heaters in my smaller tanks, all but one set on a completely different temperature than what they actually heat to.

One even drifted 5 degree up and down again over a week, so I check them more or less daily. One of them developed cracks that let water in and two just gave up over the last 3 years.

Really not a big fan of Eheim, was upset by one of their newer filters aswell.

If there is sth. of value in your tank, get a proper controller.
 
In over 60 years of fish keeping, I've tried all brands, from titanium, to In-line, to glass submersible, to hang on back, and everyone has failed at some point, so I figure getting 1 year out of any of heater is par.
Because it's about a 50/50 chance they fail in the off, or fail in the on position.
I prefer to undersize, rather than get a large one that can cook the fish, and use 2 or 3 depending on the size of tank.
In that way if one undersized fails in the on position, the other will cycle off, and undersized means there is less chance of a BBQ.
If one fails off, the other will still be able to provide enough heat to keep fish from freezing.
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I also prefer to keep them in sumps, where couple 300 watt heaters will heat 4 or 5 tanks, and where they are out of view in display tanks as much as possible .
 
phreeflow said:
Nobody makes a good heater. Back in the days, the old green Eheims were extremely reliable but nowadays, all brands are all prone to failure.

I think Aqueon Pros and Eheims are better than most but I still buy backups just in case and always hook them up to Inkbird temp controllers.

I once lost an colony of 22 adult zebra plecos due to the heater thermostat getting stuck in the on position.
Click to expand...

That's really disappointing. Sorry about the Zebras. I remember when Eheim was my go to heater. How times have changed.

duanes said:
In over 60 years of fish keeping, I've tried all brands, from titanium, to In-line, to glass submersible, to hang on back, and everyone has failed at some point, so I figure getting 1 year out of any of heater is par.
Because it's about a 50/50 chance they fail in the off, or fail in the on position.
I prefer to undersize, rather than get a large one that can cook the fish, and use 2 or 3 depending on the size of tank.
In that way if one undersized fails in the on position, the other will cycle off, and undersized means there is less chance of a BBQ.
If one fails off, the other will still be able to provide enough heat to keep fish from freezing.

I also prefer to keep them in sumps, where couple 300 watt heaters will heat 4 or 5 tanks, and where they are out of view in display tanks as much as possible .
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, no sumps for me right now but there will be once my little demon is bigger and my wifes cats calm down. I really wish companies still made a quality product that didn't fail after a year. It makes me want to dig out the boxes of my older equipment and see what still works. Its all close to 25 years old but I wouldn't be surprised if it all still worked.
 
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Aquatop and eheim, had an aquatop in one of my tanks for almost 5 years now
 
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I run a Hygger in my 125+100 saltwater tank. I've had it for 2 years with no issues, but also have an Inkbird since, as said above, you never should trust the sensor on a heater. Because the heater shows what it thinks the current temperature is on a digital display, I can instantly see if there's something wrong with that. Without this, it's easy to not notice the heater is stuck on until your back up thermostat fails, which is less common but still happens.

 
I'm a fan of controllers too. I bought a Hygger 200 watt titanium heater and it came with a controller when the heater on my quarantine tank crapped out almost as soon as I started using it. I just ordered a couple of the same model, just 500 watts for this 125. Hopefully it lasts for more than a year.
 
Sveral times people metion inkbirds on here, what models are you using? Just looking for a simple safety in case the heater gets stuck on, but many models are programmable day night, or on off times, etc. More complicated than necessary.
 
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