Iceturf Posted October 25, 2014 Report Share Posted October 25, 2014 (edited) There seems to be a lot of opinion on 'good' or 'bad' heaters out there. I'm seeings prices all over the place, without reviews to always back things up. I seem to have lost my old heater, and since I've moved my tank to the common area, it is getting surprisingly cold. Looking for advice on a 20 gallon sized heater, to raise the tank about 5*f. Whats good, whats not and why? Edited October 25, 2014 by Iceturf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burbot Posted October 25, 2014 Report Share Posted October 25, 2014 Penn-Plax Cascade HEAT Fully submersible, internal glass tubes (not ceramic core) for better heating efficiency. Guarantied for life, if it craps out I take it back to where I bought it and get a brand new one, no questions asked. Note, I do go to one of the greatest LFS on the planet. Thank you Riverfront! Low cost is the clincher compared to other brands. What's not good---> hang on the back or ceramic core heaters. Very poor efficiency, the points stick and fry the tank due to condensation inside the heater, and anything without a temp control. Cheers :beer: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattsBettas Posted October 25, 2014 Report Share Posted October 25, 2014 I love the GH series from Aquatop (off amazon). Reliable and affordable, and I'm yet to have one fail (that wasn't my fault). 100-200w for a 20g tank depending on how warm you need it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyfisher Posted October 26, 2014 Report Share Posted October 26, 2014 Everybody has their favorites I like Hydor inline heaters for large tanks always proven reliable and they are mounted outside the tank .For smaller tanks like my 20 gallons I use Eheim Jager 75 watt again proven reliable & durable I tend to hard on my equipment always getting banged around and abused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted October 26, 2014 Report Share Posted October 26, 2014 The reality is most heaters made for the aquarium industry are crap. Buy a controller, or roll the dice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayba Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 The reality is most heaters made for the aquarium industry are crap. Buy a controller, or roll the dice. I am a Jager fan,they are thermally shatter resistant and have some Fluval (mirrored) ones. But controllers make even crap heaters like store brands better. As they take the cheap contacts out of the equation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjerrom Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 Hydor inline Heaters are great just wish they'd make a larger connection for the FX5/6 filters as necking down the hoses is always a pain! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 Jager can be crap too, Jay. Jason from Pets & Ponds told me a couple of years ago that Jager had one of the greatest failure rates (hence store returns) of all the brands that he sells. That doesn't surprise me, there's been a few threads on that subject here on AA over the years as well, like this one from last year. http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=39939 The old Ebo-Jager, pre 2006 when Eheim bought them out, no argument, one of the most reliable heaters on the market. The reality is that a certain percentage of ALL aquarium heaters made today WILL FAIL, no matter the brand. Even those with the newer electronic thermostats such as Aqueon Pro can & have failed. A fellow from Aqeuon's R&D dept posted the following: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=252381 That is true but also can be misleading. Yes an electronic thermostat does eliminate the problem of contact points remaining in contact when they should have separated. However, an electronic thermostat can also fail for any number of reasons that can result in the heater overheating. Basically you are trading one method of failure for another. Although IME most of the time when an electronic heater fails it fails in to a shut off mode and stops heating entirely.Most heaters today have a thermal cut off device built into the heater to prevent a fire in a run dry situation. Some heaters use switches that will reset when the heater cools down and some use fuses that permanently disable the heater. If you have ever done a water change and forgotten to unplug your heater first you probably have activated the thermal cut off. If the heater died afterwards then that heater likely had a fuse. The lights may still function but the heater will no longer heat.Andy Dr. Tim Hovanec, Ph.D. and owner of Dr. Tims Aquatics stated years ago on a public forum something along the lines of, high quality "reliable" heaters would be priced out of the market for most hobbyists. Not a lot of people want to pay $100 or more for each heater that they require. Ironically enough I was just discussing this same thing on another forum yesterday. Do a google search on your favourite heater, then add the word 'failure'. As an example, the following search string on google, hydor inline heater failure, brought up this discussion. Hydor inline heater just wiped out my tank http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=190059 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmullin Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 Grab a model you like and go with that. There is always going to be a horror story with ANYTHING in life. Make the best choice you can with what is available to you and your good to go. Tens of thousands heaters, tens of thousands light fixtures, 100's of thousands etc etc are being made there is a failure rate on ANYTHING produced. Vehicles have failures and can lead to death yet people still buy them. My x brand heater has worked just fine from day1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 Correct, there is a failure rate on almost everything, the difference is that when it comes to aquarium heaters there is an easy way to add some redundancy to ones system, and it doesn't have to cost a lot. (a controller unit) With a controller in place now two units have to fail in order for one to potentially suffer fish loss. My x brand heater has worked fine since day1 too, but I've also been kicking around this hobby long enough to have seen a LOT of fish deaths due to faulty aquarium heaters (remember the Stealth recall of 2011?), including numerous members of this little forum, where we are not talking about 100's of thousands, or even tens of thousands, of ANYTHING. Just some friendly advice, the OP is free to take it or leave it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psylant Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 I've gone through 6 heaters in 3 years. 3 300W Visitherms, I believe they're called, 2 250W Jagers, and a 1000W titanium heater. They all suck. Pick your poison. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 There seems to be a lot of opinion on 'good' or 'bad' heaters out there. LOL, it is no different in here it seems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekbottom Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 Yup, every bodies got their own favorite. My fav is the finnex heater controller or the Chinese STC-1000 that I've wired myself. Then you can put almost any heater in the tank. I think the heater is the single piece of equipment we use with the most chance of killing everything in the tank. I Shake my head every time I read a heater failure thread. Spend the money ($40) on a controller and you won't be spending way more than that to replace cooked fish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted October 28, 2014 Report Share Posted October 28, 2014 If this thread did nothing else, I had never looked at controllers before. Think I will go in search of one if they are only $40 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cullymoto Posted October 28, 2014 Report Share Posted October 28, 2014 (edited) Hello. Similar to this topic so,. I need about 1000watts of heat for my new holding tank. Needs to be fully submersible and have a cord length of 10'. That's the hard part, a 10'cord. Any suggestions? I've found the "won titanium heating tube 500w" to have a 10' cord. Anyone have any experience with won brand? If they're worth having than getting 2 and respective controllers would be about 240 bucks. Not unreasonable. Edited October 28, 2014 by cullymoto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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