Whats a great heater to use?

[Nexenn]

Prob done before but its winter and my heater isn't keeping up. I've got a 300W heater from petsmart I bought several years ago. I have a controller now and I'm able to notice that the heater isnt keeping up on my 120g system when the house temp is ~<68.

Looking for a heater that can keep up, is reliable and difficult to break. Prefer not to have digital because I'm going to control it with my apex.

Thanks

[Frogmanx82]

Visi therm. I've run them for years and still waiting to take them up on their lifetime warranty.

[Anemonebuff]

I use the Via Aqua 300 watt titanium on my 125. The house temp is 69-70, but drops to 67-68 at night.

[moondoggy4]

Via Aqua and Ebo Jager are both heaters.

[mcoomer]

I don't recall the brand but for several years now I've been using titanium heaters with an external controller.

Mike

[wreck]

i have been using the hagen elite heaters and ebo jager heaters. no complains so far. i have heard bad things about the stealth heaters over on the simply discus website. but i have no personally used them. i have bought tetra heaters and have ahd them not work properly from the start. and i have also bought a petsmart brand heater and it lasted for about 4 months. i have only been in the sw hobby for 6 months and i have only used the elites with my 2 sw tanks. but the other heaters i have used on my fw discus tanks.

[zaheda]

Nothing better than a Jager heater. I have mine for 13 years and still working.

[t4zalews]

ive tried many different heaters...Jager wins in a landslide

[worldnewsmap]

I use via aquas they do a great job always keep my tank within a degree of where i want it. I personally do not know about the Jager have never used any of them, but have heard good things about them.

[Sugar Magnolia]

Visi therm. I've run them for years and still waiting to take them up on their lifetime warranty.

You're one of the lucky few then. I had two different Visa-therm heaters malfunction and overheat my tank on two separate occasions. Fist time I thought it was a fluke, second time I did a bit of searching to find others who had the same thing happen. I now use an Ehiem Jager that's been running for over eight years. ;)

[dearmey]

+6 Ehiem Jager

[SBJim]

Jagers used to be fully submersible and now say they're not. Any thoughts out there?

I have had mixed results with visi-therm. One that works great on a controller but not so great on its own after 4 years. Another that sucked out of the box: currently waiting for my replacement from the Company.

My advice is to use two moderately-sized heaters, with both on a controller. If one fails off, you still have a back-up. If one fails on (unlikely with controller but conceivable), it's not so massive that it fries the tank.

[Beamers]

BRS has a nice heater tube w/magnets and external controller.

All these +jager posts make me want to try one though ;)

[SBJim]

Jagers used to be fully submersible and now say they're not. Any thoughts out there?

I have had mixed results with visi-therm. One that works great on a controller but not so great on its own after 4 years. Another that sucked out of the box: currently waiting for my replacement from the Company.

My advice is to use two moderately-sized heaters, with both on a controller. If one fails off, you still have a back-up. If one fails on (unlikely with controller but conceivable), it's not so massive that it fries the tank.

[Beamers]

The Jager's I've seen for sale all say submersible?

As for vise-therm, I've had two of them and both died in less then 2 years.

[bandsaw2]

Jarer's the only one I'd use. I'd go with two in that tank.Though I'd put two in any tank I'm setting up.

[Rudolph]

the external controller is nice especially if you put the heater in the back of the tank and behind rocks....where it is not convenient to adjust......I have also seen digital temps on the heater that shows the temp of the water....both nice add-ons...

[d0ughb0y]

via aqua titanium heater. no risk of breaking glass. not that expensive either.
very accurate. I discovered this by accident.
I control my heater via ac jr. to turn off at 79. when I did my maintenance, I must have accidentally turned the heater setting and it ended up at 78. I then noticed on my ac jr despite it saying heater is on, temp does not go up beyond 78.1. that's pretty accurate imho.

[atreis]

I use an 8 year old Ebo-Jager heater, with a 5 year old Won Brothers Titanium heater as backup.

I don't use the built-in thermostat for either one (although both are still working reasonably well). They're controlled by my ACjr.

[rguyler]

I have one of the newer Eheim Jager heater in my RODI tank and it sits on the bottom without any issue. That one has worked great so far but another one just like it won't heat most of the time so it's about to find it's way into the trash. $40 down the drain but I guess a bad one can happen along with any brand. I've used Jager (used to be Ebo Jager) heaters for 20+ years and they've always been quality.

Speaking of VisiTherm, I only have one and it heats my salt mixing tank. I've had it for at least 10 years and the darn thing won't die. I've even let it run completely dry a time or two to the point where it melted plastic and was sizzling ( :) ) but it keeps on ticking. I don't think I would trust it in my tank at this point but it served me well in the past for that application too.

I just bought a Fluval thinking it might be a good one. No frills for sure and was a bit on the pricey side but it says that's it's not fully submersible. Maybe that's the new trend these days since submersible heaters have historically been prone to leak when fully submerged.

[moondoggy4]

The reason Jager are not always submersible is that they do not want to spend the money to be UL . They are considered submersible in Europe. I had one went bad it never worked properly it would never shut off so I use that one in the salt water mixing station.

[noobtothereef]

all are junk unless used on a controller, ive had every brand of heater fail, some are better than others but i would trust "0" of them when not on a controller

[Frogmanx82]

Visi-therm has a problem with their new stealth pro, turns out it explodes frequently. The standard glass ones had many years of reliable performance. Another example of a quality product bought out, farmed to China, and turned to crap.

[Nexenn]

Thanks for everyones replies. I think I'll go with the Jager heater and I have room on my apex for two, anyone have a comment on what wattage would be good for me to use?

[moondoggy4]

I guess it depends where you live how cold you leave the house. I would think two 200 watt heaters should work.

[ArmanS]

jbj true temp heater, has its own separate controller with its own probe.

[Anemonebuff]

I use a single 300w. I would prefer to use two 150 watters. If one fails the other could have just about enough to keep the temp somewhat up until I noticed. Then if one fails on it would be tougher to boil it without noticing.

[javickrey]

another vote for jager, anything made by eheim has to be good. imo

[rguyler]

I agree with the importance of having a separate controller from the heating unit. I'm considering an RKE with the temperature controller so what is everybody's choice for non-controlled or even non-adjustable heaters?

[Everyones Hero]

I know this is about good heaters- but I'd advise against the Marineland Stealth heaters ini the plastic packaging (I think US made were in cardboard/paper boxes.) I think around early to mid summer they switched manufacturing to China & I've seen a lot of them get returned because they cracked, got stuck on, stuck off, ect.

[rguyler]

It's good to know about the bad ones too. :)

[Everyones Hero]

IMO it's a shame that the Marineland Stealth heaters have gone to crap. I've had a US made one for a couple of years & I still use it. But I noticed the packaging changed & I looked them over & realized they are now being made in China. It was around that time that I started seeing a lot of them getting returned & hearing about all of the problems with them.