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Failed Heaters - Overheating Problems

DWhatley

Kraken
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After CaptFish found a heater that failed and overheated Seven's tank and several others reported a similar problem, I thought it might help to capture some of the information on the types of heaters being used that fail with the thermostat sticking ON (vs just not heating or cracking). Primarily my interest is to find out if this is common with the remote style thermostats and metal bar heaters or if it occurs with both the partially submersed glass and the fully submersed metal (stainless/titanium) style units.

It would be helpful to mention the brand if you know it but the style is more the intent since it is never clear who actually makes electronics today.
 
Cool. good idea

Mine is a Penn Plax Cascade 300w Heater.
It is a glass one with a analog thermostat on the top.

since the incident it has been working fine.
 

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Yeah, I had it in a bucket just to see if it held temp and it did. I tried all different temps and it worked like a champ so i put it back in. I have it set at 77.7 which is a few degrees cooler than before. i also replaced the batteries in my digital thermometer.
 
I use titanium heaters because I like the durability and the away from the heater controls. Mostly though, I like to run the heater on an external controller with the controller set a few degrees above the heater so if it does stick, the controller will shut it off before it becomes a real problem. I like redundant protections. :smile:
 
Interesting redundancy.

I definitely like the remote thermostats (but NOT remote sensors) and am slowly replacing my glass units (octo large tanks were the first and I had not needed them in others until this year on most tanks because we kept the house warmer). I was glad to see that the one that CaptFish was using was one of the glass kind as I know he has some remotes. So far the titaniums are holding temperature exceptionally well but the oldest ones are only about a year old where my glass units were purchased many years ago.

I also keep stick on thermometers on all the tanks and only use the digital for double checking or acclimation as I have found them unreliable. After our chiller experience, I think the probes die on the digital units. I must have a dozen around the house and none of them give a consistent reading any more. They do OK for acclimation since all I am looking for is a match but I don't trust them for valid temp readings.
 

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