Finnex Heaters

[Reefologist]

whats the word on Finnex Heaters? Good or bad?

[pjf]

I have a Finnex HMT-300 "Ultra Compact Electronic Heater." There is a review of it on Reef Central. I think you can find a better heater for the price.

The water temperature differs from the set point by up to 4 degrees and it cannot be calibrated as an Eheim Jager. When the temperature is steadily rising or steadily declining, the thermostat "bounces" by turning on and off repeatedly.

[kdblove_99]

Seen to many threads about these not working after a short time.

I like the Ebo Jagers have also heard good thing but never used a Visi therm stealth

[Fiziksgeek]

I've been running finnex heaters for a while now and never had any problem. The Key is to buy the tube only and use a better controller to run them. I use a single stage Ranco. I have never had a heater with built in controller last for more than 6 months, regardless of brand. Its the controller that fails most of the time, leaving the heater stuck in the on or off position. I've been running 2x300watts finnex titanium (tube only) heaters for 15 months now...

[Reefologist]

thanks, for all the help..... happy reefkeeping

[danco]

I have tried two of the Finnex 800W Deluxe Titanium Heating Tube only heaters on a 500 gl setup and they both failed with in a month. They were controled by my ac 3. One lasted a week and I ordered a replacement ( thought maybe it was just a bad heater) , Out of them two, first one failed after a month and the second failed after about 2 months. I would never use their products again

[Paulairduck]

I have used a a 300 and 500 watt for over a year on Ranco controllers, and they have worked flawlessly. :)

[kdblove_99]

Seems risky. But what ever you do always add a controller that will save you

[pjf]

Controllers are not fail proof. During a water change, my controller sensor accidentally fell out of my tank. Luckily, the thermostat on my heater was set only a few degrees higher.

Two heaters totalling no more than 3 watts per gallon is enough. If you calibrate your Eheim Jager heaters and set them a few degrees higher than your controller, that should prevent most heating disasters.

[phishlet]

Finnex heaters are junk and I say that with experience. I've been in this hobby for 12 years or so and have used many different heating systems on different tanks. I've had one 500 watt titanium element "serviced" by Finnex three times now. It just died again last week. I won't be getting another and I won't be sending this one back to Finnex again to "service". Each time I received my tube back functioning. But its only a matter of time (like 6 months or less sometimes) before it will just stop working. I've been running my Finnex on a Neptune Aquacontroller III. The same time I was running the Finnex I was running a Stealth 250 watt heater. Guess what, the cheaper Stealth has worked flawlessly.