Heaters

[Znaika]

Just admit you have their shares

I have had heaters of all kinds of brands and types; electronic as well as bimetallic. The biggest difference between them is, I maintain, price. I currently run five different brands, including jager and they all work just fine. A taiwanese one for $8, hydor for &15 and jager for $30+ have been doing their job just the same for a lo-o-o-o-ng time. But I know like my own hand, that if I drop any of them on a concrete basement floor, it will spell the end of it, jager or hydor or fluval or, or, or... Only metal ones are somewhat sturdier, but I would not be sure about their electronics after hard drop anyways.

Peace...

Edited January 18, 2013 by Znaika

[Jayba]

Just admit you have their shares

I have had heaters of all kinds of brands and types; electronic as well as bimetallic. The biggest difference between them is, I maintain, price. I currently run five different brands, including jager and they all work just fine. A taiwanese one for $8, hydor for &15 and jager for $30+ have been doing their job just the same for a lo-o-o-o-ng time. But I know like my own hand, that if I drop any of them on a concrete basement floor, it will spell the end of it, jager or hydor or fluval or, or, or... Only metal ones are somewhat sturdier, but I would not be sure about their electronics after hard drop anyways.

Peace...

I agree 100% with Rick, if dropping heaters to the point where it was a major contributing factor when choosing a heater I also would stay away from good heaters. Heaters proven by the international community obviously are better heaters, end of story. As prices have dropped on heaters, they no longer are built well. Good, more expensive heaters are just that. Store brand are crap, low cost, high margin junk made for the Jones' that have a fish tank.

For those of us who keep high end fish,(For lack of a better term) and have them flourish, it's pretty safe to assume that we use quality heaters that keep a constant, consistent temperature. This is why better heaters are more money, all heaters get hot, a quality heater cycles off and on frequently to minimise swing. Fish like a constant tempurature. A tempurature swing all day long causes stress, unnecessary stress.

Last time I had a tank crash I lost a almost two thousand dollars worth of fish in that tank, and wiped a generation of Rick's rainbowfish off the map in Canada I do believe. Not an easy pill to swallow! These are extinct in the wild, not like you can go to Petsmart and get more.

Just for giggles, drop a large (250 watt +) chinese heater in 2 gallons of water and see how well it performs when trying to hold a tempurature of about 80 degrees.lol

Another point of a pyrex heater, when you do a large waterchange and a cheap heater cracks from thermal shock. When you put your hand in, you just became the path to ground for the electricity. People die every year from this. So buy the cheap heater, but be sure to buy a ground probe and a GFI outlet or breaker. Just a tip.

Edited January 19, 2013 by Jayba

[Eugene]

GFCI would be redundant cause you either save your life or kill your fish cause it trips and shuts off either your heater and your pump when you don't notice it till its too late.

[Jayba]

GFCI would be redundant cause you either save your life or kill your fish cause it trips and shuts off either your heater and your pump when you don't notice it till its too late.

After the water change your lights go out. Pretty good indicator.

This dangerous situation could be avoided by either a) unplugging the heater prior to the water change and hopefully remembering to plug it back in, or buy a good heater that will not fracture due to thermal shock. That was my point with that previous repartee.