faulty heater?

[christyf5]

So I bought a 200w eheim jager to replace my dead stealth (which is on its way back to united pet group, thanks for all the help guys! :biggrin:). However, it is hardly ever on. I am currently using that and another 250w Ebo Jager in the sump for 200g total to heat. I accidentally left the heaters off last night due to stupidity after a water change (I have a cold, thats all I got to blame it on) and the tank was 73F this morning. After firing up the heaters, both stayed on but now the tank is at 76F and the new Eheim is not on while the Ebo is still going strong (going by the indicator lights). The Eheim is cranked up to 83 to try to get it to work and still nothing. Did I get another POS heater? I'm thinking this one is going back to the store. My other Ebo Jager (150w) that I use for my waterchange barrel stays on and is currently helping to heat the tank but I wanted two of the higher powered ones in there.

So, whats the deal? Are they all like this now? Do I need to crank the heater higher to get it to work? Is this even advisable?

Hmm, I just lifted the eheim out to see what I had it set at (not fully out of the water though) and now the light is on. Cripes, is all the newer stuff so unreliable now? My Ebo is probably 10 years old and works like a champ!

Thanks! :)

[christyf5]

And now the light is out again. What a piece of junk.

[christyf5]

cranked it up to 86, seems there is a wide temperature deviation from what my tank reads. Light seems to be staying on. The whole thing is hooked up to my controller which switches off at 80, so not a huge deal but still annoying.

LOL, I'm bored and its lonely in here all by myself :razz:

[StirCrazy]

ebo's are junk. thats what stuck on and wipped out my tank. I will never run heaters with out and external temp controler now.

Steve

[Cal_stir]

[quote=christyf5;678818]cranked it up to 86, seems there is a wide temperature deviation from what my tank reads. Light seems to be staying on. The whole thing is hooked up to my controller which switches off at 80, so not a huge deal but still annoying.

sometimes the internal temp of the heater rises to the point where it will shut off before the water is up to temp, but it will cool down and turn back on, this should not be a problem, i find the higher wattage heaters are more prone to this, also, if the heater is not in a high flow area

[christyf5]

cranked it up to 86, seems there is a wide temperature deviation from what my tank reads. Light seems to be staying on. The whole thing is hooked up to my controller which switches off at 80, so not a huge deal but still annoying.

sometimes the internal temp of the heater rises to the point where it will shut off before the water is up to temp, but it will cool down and turn back on, this should not be a problem, i find the higher wattage heaters are more prone to this, also, if the heater is not in a high flow area

Oh thanks! The area its in now doesn't have much flow so maybe I'll move it and see how that goes :biggrin: I have been checking it throughout the day and really it never seems to be on but hopefully moving it will help.

[Nate]

Are they sitting sideby side? Take the temperature beside the heaters.

[christyf5]

They're pretty close together now in an area of "moderate" flow, the tank is now at 79F and so is the spot that the heaters are at. Both of them have their indicator lights on. I guess the new heater just needed more flow.

[sumpfinfishe]

That sucks christy hopefully things.are sorted out now. I was on rc the
other day a saw a bunch of peeps had heater issues too, maybe there's
a bad batch out there hmmm. I'm concerned as well, i picked up an aqueon
150 for my 33, today the temp dropped from 77 to 74??? so in order to get the
temp back i had to turn up the heater to 86 and it has remainned there because if i
dial it back then the light goes from green to red, now im freaked that im gonna wake to
see bubbles an steam!!!

[mexxedm]

I had two TOP FIN heaters. 200w each for my 55G tank. One of them was faulty. It over heated my tank. I lost 6 fishes and 4 expensive Australian SPS. Piece of ****!

[paddyob]

I would think that is a small heater for that much water.

I have a 300W on 100G of water.

[Cal_stir]

big heaters are more prone to fail, I run four 100watt heaters in my 90g with a temp controller, if one fails I probably wouldn't know except my controller tells me the amps so I would know, if more than 1 fails then the temp might start to drop a bit but you would have time to troubleshoot, the odds of all 4 failing at the same time are pretty high.

[christyf5]

I would think that is a small heater for that much water.

I have a 300W on 100G of water.

you're right, it is but I needed a second heater pronto and that was the biggest one the store had (and the only brand) and I hate paying for shipping so I bought it local-ish.

Tank held steady at 78.8F last night which is better than its done for over a month (usually drops to 76-77).

[sumpfinfishe]

Well that's good- holding is better than what i have.
My heater reads 80 now-86 yesterday:sad: to give me a temp of 76 in tank
So i picked up a second glass thermo this am,
after 5min in the tank one says 76 an the other 82-what the hell!
now what:question::question::question:

[sumpfinfishe]

ps sorry Christy didn't mean to mow your lawn:wink:

[christyf5]

LOL, no worries. I never believe what the heater says, I always have another thermometer and go by that. Once you hit your target temp, turn the heater down till the light goes off and keep an eye on it.

[sumpfinfishe]

I hear ya but one glass thermo says 80 the second reads 76 one bought today an the first
is a month old, the heater is turned off right now but it did read 80 as well, so do i assume the second thermo that i got today is correct?

[christyf5]

LOL, I dunno what to tell you, chuck one of the thermometers and go with the one you keep :razz:

[sumpfinfishe]

Hahaha, i did figure it out with the help of two more thermos and an infared,
the old thermo was out by 5 degrees so over the course of one day the tank went
from 74-86. Now i just gotta me a better thermo than this $3 mercury one.
Do you use digital, pinpoint, mercury?
Lucky all livestock are ok but it must have been a trip for them.

[christyf5]

I use a digital one, got it from jl for ten bucks. Time and temp I think its called or something like that