Cali Kid Corals

Most Reliable Heater?

I had another heater bite the dust. What do you guys like these days for heaters. Any that have a particularly good reliability record?
 
I like Gary Par's advice, no matter what, just change your heater every year. It's not worth pushing them. Now I'm assuming your's is older than that, if it's not..... could it be under sized maybe?
 
Ebo-jagers for me. The older models are still running strong and I have no complaints about the newer ones as of yet. That said, I always use a controller of some sort whether it be a ranco/apex/rkl etc.
 
I heard that on Reefthreads podcast as well about changing heaters every year. I was a bit skeptical. He specifically mentions not investing in a controller which seems odd.

I am using a Ranco controller and have two 250W Eheim Jaeger heaters plugged into it. The heaters are both set for 27C and the Ranco is set for 25C. If either of the heaters stays on solid it will probably heat the tanks to no more than 30C. (I've actually been meaning to try it and find out). I set the heaters higher than the Ranco in case their calibration drifts low and they start not to turn on when the Ranco trys to power them.

Every one of the 3 Hydor Theo heaters I have purchased has gone off calibration within a few months. There are reports of the Ranco controller eventually failing or the probe failing and I do have one Eheim that's so far off spec that I can't "recalibrate" it any more with the plastic dial. Everything to do with heaters seems to fail eventually. I'll likely only buy Jaeger's until they fail me or I move to a heat exchanger (which may never happen).
 
Better to run more small heaters that way if (when) they fail, you have backups if one fails off, or time to correct and catch it if they fail on.

Check out BeanAnimal's entry on his website.

http://www.beananimal.com/articles/aquarium-heaters-what-you-need-to-know!.aspx
 
I run 2 smaller heaters, plus 1 large one that is also on a controller.
I use ViaAqua titanium. No issues, and some have been going 5+ years.

I chose them because the electronics for the controls are well away from
the heat of the heater, instead of integrated all into the same tube.
Electronics break down much faster when hot.

I avoid glass ones because of user error. (I dropped on once)
 
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