Heater dying on me

[Anovack]

Just curious. When heaters go out on people do they just stop or gradually decline in efficiency?

The reason I ask is because I have a heater I keep having to turn up to keep it 77-78 degrees. It's obviously still generating some heat but not as well as it used to. Kind of a dumb question but I'm just curious.

Thanks,


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[54seaweed]

some go out slowly over time and some go out with no warning , I make it a ritual to change out heaters once a year as they don't last forever , usually the same day I change out battery's in smoke detectors

 

[Anovack]

Wow. That sounds about right. Pretty much a year since I put this particular heater in my cube and it's going down. I guess they don't make things to last like they used to.




Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[PassengerTN]

One of mine does the opposite. It works quite well, but can't regulate temperature. You can set it on 70° and it'll heat well past that. I've forgotten to unplug it once, made it to 87-88° before I caught it. Lucky it was during a fishless cycle so it did nothing but help lol

 

[Anovack]

I had that problem in the summer months. What I had to do is set it like 73 degrees and that kept the stable 77-79


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[candymancan]

Hmm lol I have heaters that are 15-20 years old and are just fine... I have to turn them up slightly to say 80-82f to get to the water to be at 78f but they are perfectly fine.. What kind of heaters are you guys using lol

 

[TMRC Exotics]

I've had two stick off and one stick on. All aqueon preset brands. I noticed all of them quickly enough to not lose any fish.

 

[PassengerTN]

My problematic one is an Acura 1000 by Tetra/Second Nature.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[IllusionX]

I also have 20+ years old heater that work just fine. But the 4 out of 4 hydor 50w that I have, the thermostat has become way off.

Other heaters that I use are the cheap tetra heaters that cannot be adjusted. They seem to become way off after I took it out of the water.

 

[Sniperhank]

I've had many heaters through all of my years of keeping fish. I've only had one heater dump out on me. It was so many years ago I don't even remember who made it besides the fact it was cheap. If you are able to spend an extra couple on a good heater you will have better results. With the wonders of the internet, compared the guess work and being limited by what your LFS had before such, you can read pages upon pages of reviews on them to help put your mind at ease.

 

[IllusionX]

I've had many heaters through all of my years of keeping fish. I've only had one heater dump out on me. It was so many years ago I don't even remember who made it besides the fact it was cheap. If you are able to spend an extra couple on a good heater you will have better results. With the wonders of the internet, compared the guess work and being limited by what your LFS had before such, you can read pages upon pages of reviews on them to help put your mind at ease.

x2. I've had good experience with both Eheim and Aqueon heaters.