Cobalt neotherm heater just blew up!!!

[fifthtoe]

So far, I have not heard back from cobalt. I'm about to give them a call.

[fifthtoe]

Originally Posted by cdmclaug

Hello, joined the forum because I had to share that this happened to me tonight as well. About 30 min ago I noticed a burning smell in the house and pinpointed it to my aquarium. First thought maybe it was the motor on the canister or even from outside since the windows were open, but then saw the crack lines on the heater. I pulled it immediately and began my internet search to see if this was a new issue as I had only seen positive reviews when I bought it back in November. I found this thread in a search I made of "neotherm 200 watt cracked." I did not have the stuff oozing out, but I had been by the tank about 20 minutes before without the smell. I think I was lucky to catch it so quick, but the smell was over powering right above the water. So far the smell has subsided rather quickly and the fish/shrimp are acting normal. Hope everything stays normal and I hope this is not the beginng of a bigger problem since I have a 25watt in the nano.

So I bought mine in September. What's your production date? Mine is 02/2013. It's located on a tag at the end go the cord.

[fifthtoe]

Just got off phone with cobalt. They were very apologetic about the heater and about not getting back to me. They are sending me out a new heater and some free stuff. Their customer service is good and there was probably a communication break down somewhere. It happens sometimes. I give them a thumbs up for customer service.

So I was also told that there is a safety shut off at at 200 degrees. There is also epoxy in the heater that can withstand the 200 degree temp. To me, it sounds like the heater safety failed and melted from inside out. I'm sending the failed heater back to them so they can figure out what happened.

[d2mini]

Awesome. Thanks for updating us!

[cdmclaug]

Originally Posted by Tzwizzle

Was yours also fully submerged? I'm superstitious about fully submerging any heater.

Yes, it was fully submerged. The manual said that is fully submersible and I had it about 4" under the water surface.

Originally Posted by fifthtoe

So I bought mine in September. What's your production date? Mine is 02/2013. It's located on a tag at the end go the cord.

My date of production was also 02/2013.

[tkeracer619]

I was going to try one of these out until I saw that they looked like the old stealth heaters that exploded like clockwork. Can anyone confirm that?

[fifthtoe]

Cdmclaug, did you just recently report your failure to cobalt? When I was speaking with them, they told me they had another failure that was recently reported. I was just wondering if that was you. I think he said it was about a week ago.

[fifthtoe]

Originally Posted by tkeracer619

I was going to try one of these out until I saw that they looked like the old stealth heaters that exploded like clockwork. Can anyone confirm that?

So far, it appears there are only two reported cases of this (on this site). The neotherms have been out for a while. However, the 200 watt heater is relatively new.

[Reefvet]

Originally Posted by tkeracer619

I was going to try one of these out until I saw that they looked like the old stealth heaters that exploded like clockwork. Can anyone confirm that?

Mine work just fine. Including a 200W. Great heaters based on my 40 years of keeping aquariums with Jaeger's most of those years and now the NTs since they came out

[cdmclaug]

Fifthtoe, I've not contacted them yet since their CS hours are when I was at work this week. However, I will be calling them on Monday. It's good to know that your experience with their customer service went well. Hopefully mine will be the same and can also get a replacement. I really liked the heater due to the accuracy and slim profile.

[David Grigor]

Here is another one from our club......

http://www.tcmas.org/v4/forums/showt...=cobalt+heater

[81Shaun]

sorry to hear that was going to buy one of these for my nano 24 but after seeing that I probably will get another brand.

[fifthtoe]

Originally Posted by David Grigor

Here is another one from our club......

http://www.tcmas.org/v4/forums/showt...=cobalt+heater

Can you tell us what happened? You can't look at link without registering. I tried to register but it's been hours and I still am not allowed access. I'm interested in hearing what happened?

[shifty51008]

Originally Posted by fifthtoe

Can you tell us what happened? You can't look at link without registering. I tried to register but it's been hours and I still am not allowed access. I'm interested in hearing what happened?

from the site

"I woke up to a burning smell throughout the entire house at 2am. I couldn't find the smell but, found it was it's strongest at my 180 reef. I found that my cobalt neotherm heater I bought from rays reef this past summer, had cracked and spewed something into tank. I've been all over the cobalt website, and forums on google. I don't know whats inside it. I IMMEDIATELY put a huge canister of carbon hooked onto the sump, and killed my skimmer (to protect skimmer). I don't have time to do a water change tonight, but will do one in the morning and probably one a day this weekend.

can anyone tell me whats inside the neo therms? they're supposed to be heavy duty/ indestructible. I've never ever had it out of water, and it sits completely flat on the bottom of my sump. I'm really nervous this might be the end for this tank if it wipes everything out."

[fifthtoe]

Thanks shifty!

[fifthtoe]

So I spoke with Cobalt Friday afternoon, and received my new heater Sunday morning. They were actually out of 200 watt heaters so they sent me a 150 watt and will send me a 200 watt when they get them in.

[Squidward5]

Originally Posted by fifthtoe

So I spoke with Cobalt Friday afternoon, and received my new heater Sunday morning. They were actually out of 200 watt heaters so they sent me a 150 watt and will send me a 200 watt when they get them in.

Thanks for the update.

[David Grigor]

But the bigger question, why would you put another back in your tank unless they acknowledge that a manufacturing flaw in a batch that has been corrected or a new design. While I agree with others that all heaters will eventually fail none should shatter without being exposed to air.

[fifthtoe]

Originally Posted by David Grigor

But the bigger question, why would you put another back in your tank unless they acknowledge that a manufacturing flaw in a batch that has been corrected or a new design. While I agree with others that all heaters will eventually fail none should shatter without being exposed to air.

I actually will not be putting these in my tank. I already removed the second 200 watt heater I had and replaced with Jager heaters. I'm fine if a heater fails and the damage is contained within the tank. When this one failed however, it affected the whole house. I'm not fine with all the smoke from burning plastic this thing released. I can't believe how much smoke there was in a matter of a minute. I had just got home from work when this happened. If I wasn't home, it could have really poisoned my dogs from all the smoke. The heaters were underwater too, bubbling smoke.

[jcdeng]

wow, and I was about to replace my jager with 2 200watts of neothermal... I guess I will put that on hold until this is all cleared up, or just return them to fostersmith.

[David Grigor]

So now second failure in our club since Jan, this one just 2 months old. Didn't blow up or anything just stopped working.

Perhaps there are more reliability issues than originally thought.

http://www.tcmas.org/v4/forums/showt...oided-Disaster

[shifty51008]

heck, my visi-therm heaters are guaranteed for life but that don't mean I trust them completely, I don't think there is a heater out there I would trust full out.

I'm glad no one got hurt from any of these malfunctions, but just goes to show you that even the spendy stuff can fail.

[Spyderturbo007]

Well this is scary. I just bought one of them for my Betta's 12g Fluval. I figured with a price point of $55 for a 50w heater it had to be top notch quality.

Now I'm worried......

[Reefvet]

Originally Posted by Spyderturbo007

Well this is scary. I just bought one of them for my Betta's 12g Fluval. I figured with a price point of $55 for a 50w heater it had to be top notch quality.

Now I'm worried......

You put a 200W heater in your Betta tank ?

The only reports of failure have been a couple of the 200W.

In the mean time hundreds of other brands of heaters of all sizes are failing daily. But that's not any news to anyone.

[Spyderturbo007]

Originally Posted by Reefvet

You put a 200W heater in your Betta tank ?

The only reports of failure have been a couple of the 200W.

In the mean time hundreds of other brands of heaters of all sizes are failing daily. But that's not any news to anyone.

No. If you reread my post, I specifically indicated that I purchased a 50w heater.