phisigs79 December 11, 2009 Share December 11, 2009 So i went to clean out my overflows last night and got a huge shock. Turn off everything and turned them on one by one and its was my stealth heater! I could feel the electricity throw the pvc return pipes. What a peice of junk. This thing was my backup heater in case my main heater failed and wasnt even 2 years old. There is no way that my fish and corals couldnt be affect by this. Anyways just wanted to rant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind December 11, 2009 Share December 11, 2009 Now that you have gotten the rant out of your system I suggest you get a GFCI before you kill yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phisigs79 December 11, 2009 Author Share December 11, 2009 I have one but i dont use it because of them tripping all the time. Guess its time to plug it in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
extreme_tooth_decay December 11, 2009 Share December 11, 2009 Just the latest in a long list of threads I've read about those heaters. Don't know why people use them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind December 11, 2009 Share December 11, 2009 Internal pumps, powerheads and heaters should always be on one. Maybe it was tripping before because it was sensing that the heater was going bad. I do not put my lights on one because of the nuisance tripping from the electronic ballasts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw December 11, 2009 Share December 11, 2009 Just the latest in a long list of threads I've read about those heaters. Don't know why people use them. Quite simple......not everyone can afford the expensive controllers and probes to go with them. It's either this or the glass ones; These mess up every once in a while and the glass ones break. What is the alternative? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak December 12, 2009 Share December 12, 2009 Titanium heat probe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boret December 12, 2009 Share December 12, 2009 Justin pointed this one out on a different thread: It's the Hydor ETH In-Line Heater in 200, 250 and 300 watt versions. Around $50. I've seen them for as little as $40 and free shipping for the 300. A couple of problems, you can only treat max 75 gal with 1 300W heater, so I need 2 maybe even 3 for my 180 gal system, and you need to run water through it, so either run it with a split from your return or dedicate a pump for it. I wonder if I could run three of them in series.... hmmm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tygger December 12, 2009 Share December 12, 2009 I just bought one of these and I dont like how there's not a light to indicate when its on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boret December 12, 2009 Share December 12, 2009 I just bought one of these and I dont like how there's not a light to indicate when its on. I didn't know about the light. Not sure if my stealth has a light either. How is the performance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctenophore December 12, 2009 Share December 12, 2009 Justin pointed this one out on a different thread: It's the Hydor ETH In-Line Heater in 200, 250 and 300 watt versions. Around $50. I've seen them for as little as $40 and free shipping for the 300. A couple of problems, you can only treat max 75 gal with 1 300W heater, so I need 2 maybe even 3 for my 180 gal system, and you need to run water through it, so either run it with a split from your return or dedicate a pump for it. I wonder if I could run three of them in series.... hmmm? Disclaimer: Keep in mind I have never used one of these so I can't vouch for their quality, I only brought it up as a potential solution to the problem of submerged heaters failing by cracking or broken epoxy cord seals. Boret, probably not in a series, the thermostats for the two downstream would never turn on. Unless you had all three turned way up and plugged into a controller. I still prefer to keep a heater's thermostat at a sane value in case the controller fails. Try to think of your heater load requirements in terms of amount of heat needed rather than tank volume. If you kept even a 10gal tank outside in the winter, this hydor heater would never keep up. Conversely, a 300g tank that only falls 1 or 2 degrees on the coldest day of the year would be just fine with a single small heater. I will try to dig up a BTU calculation spreadsheet that I made which will help approximate the amount of heat needed in watts. 1 watt is about 3 BTUs per hour, and one BTU is the amount of heat needed to raise 1 pound of water 1F. Calculate your water volume then multiply by 8.5 to get pounds, and multiply again by your temperature difference (D) in winter. Then divide by 3 which will give you watts of heat to raise your tank (D) degrees in one hour. Dividing by 8 or 12 is probably a "good" wattage heater to get. A better way would be to unplug your heater on a cold day and see how long it takes your tank to fall 1 or 2 degrees, then base your heater wattage on that. It's a good idea to size heaters appropriately, because if they stick on or the controller fails, they won't cook your tank. I try to aim for a 70-80% duty cycle, i.e., the heater is on 3/4 of the time. That way there is buffer for a really cold day (or your house thermostat fails), but if it sticks on, it takes a while to cook the tank. Also, switching on and off less probably (just guessing) is easier on the heater's circuitry near the thermostat strip, which should prevent stick-on (or off). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
extreme_tooth_decay December 12, 2009 Share December 12, 2009 (edited) Quite simple......not everyone can afford the expensive controllers and probes to go with them. It's either this or the glass ones; These mess up every once in a while and the glass ones break. What is the alternative? Expensive controllers and probes wouldn't help in this case. The heater itself is junk. I must of read 10 stories of Stealth failures on WAMAS and RC in the last year. I don't recall a single one regarding an EJ heater. I've always used an Ebo-Jager heater. There are stories if people bashing them very hard on counters and them not breaking (I can't speak for the veracity of those stories). There are at least 10x as many failure stories for stealths than EJ as well. I myself had the same (green) EJ heater for well over 10 years, it always worked perfectly. Edited December 12, 2009 by extreme_tooth_decay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve175 December 12, 2009 Share December 12, 2009 Expensive controllers and probes wouldn't help in this case. The heater itself is junk. I must of read 10 stories of Stealth failures on WAMAS and RC in the last year. I don't recall a single one regarding an EJ heater. I've always used an Ebo-Jager heater. There are stories if people bashing them very hard on counters and them not breaking (I can't speak for the veracity of those stories). There are at least 10x as many failure stories for stealths than EJ as well. I myself had the same (green) EJ heater for well over 10 years, it always worked perfectly. +1 for EJ; have had many heater-related shocks/failures over the years: have never had a problem w/ any of my EJs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tygger December 12, 2009 Share December 12, 2009 I just bought one of these and I dont like how there's not a light to indicate when its on. I bought three of them, but only have one on my sw tank. Since my tank is usually on the high temp side, there wasn't a need for the heater to come on. I recently tried turning the temp all the way up and I don't think it's working. The other two I bought seem to be working fine. An indicator light would've been helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw December 12, 2009 Share December 12, 2009 I've been using the stealths for about 2 years now.........I thought I started using them because of an icident where Howards Ebo Jager glass one broke. I might be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that's why I started because I got rid of my EJ when I heard the story. I guess I'll start looking back into the EJ heaters for my systems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami December 13, 2009 Share December 13, 2009 I've been using the stealths for about 2 years now.........I thought I started using them because of an icident where Howards Ebo Jager glass one broke. I might be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that's why I started because I got rid of my EJ when I heard the story. I guess I'll start looking back into the EJ heaters for my systems. Steve, just be sure that you research the new EJ heaters first. There have been reports that their quality has suffered since being acquired by Eheim. The new ones apparently don't have the same reliability as the old ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boret December 13, 2009 Share December 13, 2009 A good article on heaters: http://www.beananimal.com/articles/aquariu...-know!.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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