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Post by babygeige on Apr 22, 2011 19:22:55 GMT -5
Hi guys! My dad just told me he saw on the news that Marineland Stealth heaters are being recalled. Here is a quote of the danger: Hazard: A wiring problem can cause the aquarium heaters to overheat or break during normal use, damaging the aquarium and posing fire and laceration hazards to consumers. Overheating can cause the heater to shatter or the aquarium glass to break. Here's the link to the product safety commission site: www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml11/11202.html?tab=recalls
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Post by goldenpuon on Apr 23, 2011 0:25:00 GMT -5
I am GLAD I read this. I have had Marineland Stealth heaters (I am pretty sure this was the brand). No problems as far as fires or broken glass but I had issues with overheating and them not working properly such as overheating tanks or heating them to 80 F even on the lowest settings. I had issues with a couple other brands/types too I think. These were mostly ones from Petsmart.
I am going to make sure I don't have any running now and to get rid of any I have in storage.
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Post by babygeige on Apr 23, 2011 9:16:32 GMT -5
I have three of them. I've never had any problems with mine. They've always kept a good consistent temperature. But I will definitely be checking the model numbers today. I just hope I can still read the model number. I take them out and clean them, so I think some of the printing is worn off.
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Post by parker002 on Apr 26, 2011 13:47:33 GMT -5
When I got mine, Carl mentioned that Stealth Heaters have a tendency to overheat if not placed in high-flow areas.
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Post by parker002 on May 6, 2011 14:37:09 GMT -5
Called Marineland today.
They're emailing me a FedEx shipping label so that I can ship them the unit. Once they receive the unit, they said they'd mail me a check.
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Post by babygeige on May 7, 2011 9:09:00 GMT -5
I'm just going to exchange all of mine at the lfs. I called them and the owner said he'd take all of mine back, so I don't have to wait around for Marineland to send me anything.
My 30 gallon is going to be without heat for a few hours tomorrow while I exchange the heater. The fish should be ok for that... right...?
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Post by Carl on May 7, 2011 11:12:02 GMT -5
IMO you should be fine unless your home's ambient temperature is really cold (such as 65 F/ 18 C or less)
Carl
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Post by babygeige on May 7, 2011 15:06:03 GMT -5
Nah, I'd say it's high 60's in the house. Probably 68-69. If the water is 74 when I take out the heater, it should take a while for 30 gal of water to drop below 70... The absolute longest it'll be without a heater is probably 4 hours. LFS is near my church, which is 45 minutes away. If gas weren't 4 bucks/gal I would have just gone down today to the lfs to minimize heater-less time, but making that trip twice in one weekend is too pricey!
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Post by babygeige on May 8, 2011 14:22:08 GMT -5
The lfs only had a 25 watt visitherm in stock, so i took that and opted to wait for more 50 and 100 watts to come in rather than get cheap-looking Elite brand heaters. I've read a few too many negative reviews of those.
I put the 100 watt back in the 30 gallon. I put the "All-Glass" brand 50 watt that my 10 gal kit came with initially in the 10 yesterday. Now I remember why I replaced the stupid thing in the first place. I have it set at 71, and my thermometer says 80!
Would it be a better idea to put the new 25 watt in the 10 gallon? I know it's only rated for up to 5 gallons, but it seems that it'd be better than letting that stupid all-glass one overheat my fish and shrimp.
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Post by goldenpuon on May 8, 2011 17:30:14 GMT -5
I have had the same issue with some heater. If I turn the temperature all the way down or set I find it is oveheating a tank and set it lower, it still keeps the temperature above what it should.
What is the ambient temperature in your house?
Though I only speak from what happened in my tanks, I think a 25 W will be fine provided it doesn't get very cold in your house in winter.
Renee
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Post by babygeige on May 8, 2011 18:01:39 GMT -5
It's probably around 68 degrees in the house. I'll only be using it until I get a 50 watt, hopefully the lfs will get more in this week or next. I think I am going to switch them out. This way I can test out the 25 watt and make sure it's ok too.
Thanks Renee!
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Post by Suzie Q (Lori) on May 13, 2011 11:44:27 GMT -5
I had 4 of these heaters (White Writing). I took mine back to Petco (call first to make sure they are honoring the recall) and exchanged them instore for Aqu...something. Mine have Degree settings, not just a "slide" Low to High dial, so I exchanged for what they carried.
The only problem I had with mine was if there was the slightest airbubble in the head of it, it wouldn't work. I kept mine right at the intake of my filters so the warm water was not just sitting in one area. I could only get 1 out of the 4 to work so I'm quite happy with the recall.
Lori
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Post by parker002 on May 13, 2011 14:45:23 GMT -5
Petco carries Aqueon heaters...
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Post by Suzie Q (Lori) on May 16, 2011 12:59:47 GMT -5
Petco carries Aqueon heaters... I do believe that is the brand...I had chosen the Stealth due to them NOT being glass...the Aqueon are glass but they were the only ones I saw with the actual degree settings. So far so good...tanks are holding at 79*F
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Post by parker002 on May 17, 2011 10:20:47 GMT -5
Some of the Aqueon's have numbers and some don't. I'm not sure if they even have different model numbers.
I ended up going titanium with external thermostat and sensor. Thanks Carl!
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Post by babygeige on May 28, 2011 20:08:41 GMT -5
GRRRR! I'm tired of playing around with these heaters!! I had to move the new 25 watt to my 5 gallon for my new girl betta, so I put the 50 watt Stealth back in the 10 gal yesterday afternoon, until I left for the lfs today. Maybe I broke it dragging it back and forth to the lfs a couple of weeks ago, because it wouldn't work. So my 10 gal was without a heater last night and today.
I called the lfs in the middle of the week to see if they got any more 100 w and 50 w visi-therm heaters and set one of each aside for me. The lady says, Oh yeah, we have lots of them. Just come on in. So I went there today and found no visi-therms in my wattages. Since my 10 gal doesn't have a heater right now and we've been running the AC, I had to get one. They had a Fluval M and an Eheim Jager. I looked up the Fluval on my phone at the store and saw some mixed reviews, plus it was a good 3 inches longer than the Stealth. Why would they make such a long heater when it's only rated for smaller tanks? That's just dumb.
So I'm giving the Eheim Jager a try. The reviews I looked at quickly on my phone were decent, and the lady at the lfs says she knows people with them and heard good things about it. I'll try it for a few weeks. If I like it, maybe I'll get it in a 100W, or perhaps eventually they'll get Visi-Therms back.
I put the crappy 50W All-Glass heater in my 30 gal. I figured since it kept my small 10 gallon in the upper 70's to low 80's at the lowest setting, maybe it'll be able to keep the 30 at a good temp. So far so good. I don't want to make it permanent or anything, but it'll do for a little while.
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Post by Carl on May 29, 2011 11:45:17 GMT -5
Babygeige, we have used many Hagen products (& my service company now run by Gregg still uses many Hagen products). We have found their products to often be very mixed in quality, some excellent, some not (many over rated, some not).
As for Heaters the M series is so-so as you noted. However the Hagen Fluval Tronic has provided good results and maybe is worth looking into.
I know many here have been happy with the VisiTherm, but that has not been my results and Gregg has also told me that he has "inherited" many VisiTherm heaters with new accounts and has continued with the unreliable results.
The Ebo Jager Heaters are excellent, albeit over priced and the company does NOT stand behind their retailers when the rare defective heater is returned.
Carl
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Post by babygeige on Jun 2, 2011 19:19:26 GMT -5
Thanks Carl. I feel better knowing that you think the Jager is a good heater. It was an even exchange from the Stealth, so I'm ok with that price. One think I thought was odd: The price for the Fluval M was the same for ALL of the sizes. They had 25 W up to 250 W and they were all $25.99 or something. I do like the Jager so far. It's kept the temp constant. The only thing is that the LED is pretty bright, With the way I have the heater positioned, I've woken up a couple of times in the middle of the night thinking, "Holy cow, what is going on??" Then I focus a bit, realize it's just the heater, then I go back to sleep. It hasn't happened for a couple of days, so hopefully I'm getting used to it. Either that, or I haven't been facing that direction when the heater was running...
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Post by angelminx on Jun 18, 2014 2:58:47 GMT -5
Hi! I was just cruising around and saw this thread. I've had terrible luck with heaters. I've got 2 150W Jagers in my 55 gallon right now, and a Tetra (with a fixed temperature) in my 10 gallon quarantine tank. I haven't had any problem with the Tetra (I've had it a couple years) but don't like that you can't adjust the temp. The Jagers I got last fall to replace a couple of Aqua Tops (I had heard good reviews about them); they worked great for about a month, then quit working. The best heaters I ever had (your experience may not have been the same) were the Accura 1000 heaters. I had mine (different sizes, for use in different tanks) for YEARS before I had to replace any of them. I don't remember how long for sure, but at least 7 years. I still have 2 Accura 1000 100W heaters that I use as a back up when my others fail. I have them put away to get out when I need them, but don't keep them in the tank, because they are so old. When I needed to replace them, I got 2 VisiTherms, a 50W for my Betta, and a 150- or 200W for my 55 gallon (I only used one heater per tank back then), because Tetra quit producing the Accuras. The VisiTherms worked for about 2 years before they died. Then the problems started. I went through 6 Visitherms in 2 months (in the one tank). One of them didn't even work the first time I tried to use it; you could turn the knob, but the little red bar that is supposed to show what temp you have it set at wouldn't even move! Also, a couple of them had issuses with water getting inside them. At one point (I don't remember when) I got a 200W Ebo-Jager, which I still have, and have used more extensively (when I was without heaters) than the Accuras because it is newer. I bought a Stealth heater, which worked for a while (better than the VisiTherms), but when I went to buy a new one I could no longer find it (now I know why). I forgot what heaters I had before I got the Aqua Tops, but I had nothing but problems with them, too. I had bought the fixed temp Tetra by this time, so I didn't get a replacement for it, but am wondering what to get when I do. Again this is for the 10 gallon quarantine tank. I got the 2 Jagers just before I found the AAP site. I like the idea of the separate temperature probe, but is this really necessary whith a 10 gallon tank?
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Post by devonjohnsgard on Jun 18, 2014 7:47:41 GMT -5
I forgot what heaters I had before I got the Aqua Tops, but I had nothing but problems with them, too. I had bought the fixed temp Tetra by this time, so I didn't get a replacement for it, but am wondering what to get when I do. Again this is for the 10 gallon quarantine tank. I got the 2 Jagers just before I found the AAP site. I like the idea of the separate temperature probe, but is this really necessary whith a 10 gallon tank? The Via Aqua brand have been great for me. Inexpensive price, but reliable. It's what Carl suggests using. I'd think a 50 watt would be good. I wouldn't think you would need the temperature probe, just because it's a 10 gal.
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