No luck at all for this newbie.....Today's episode...heater

[turbovr6]

SO for the past few weeks I've been trying to get my 150gal running.

Disaster 1:Build a stand, fill up tank....small leak... drain, repair, fill..

Disaster 2:turn on my pumps, 1 is noisy as hell. order new impeller.

Disaster 3: Today I check water temp, close to room temp so I say "hey let me plug in the heaters to get the temps up and help the cycle process.
Plug them into power strip...hit the switch....I am blinded by the light that shoots out at me. So far I can see the strip is dead. Now trying to figure which heater is the culprit. If anyone happens to know I checked both heaters with an ohm meter at the plug. 1 is at 65ohm, the other is zero ohms. Now my years in the auto buisness tell me that the one at 0 ohms is the dead short, but I really have no AC electrical experience. The heaters are (2) 200 watt rena cal.

I'm about ready to drain the tank and buy a snake or something

 

[Zagz]

Don't despair! Are the heaters new? If so warranty would be the option I would look at. I agree the one at 0 ohms is the culprit. The one at 65 ohms should have the light go on when plugged in. IMO it will be worth it in the long run. I can guarantee that!

 

[turbovr6]

yeah brand new, so I can return/warranty. As far as the light going on, lets just say I'm quite scared to plug either in. It's one thing when it gets you by surprise, but when your odds are 50/50 for a repeat performance...........

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

Electricity+resistance=heat, so zero ohms=dead.

 

[rich311k]

Plug the other other one back in. What are the odds of two bad heaters bought at the same time. If it makes you feel better take them both back and have them replaced. Play dumb. "I do not know which one shorted out. Could you please replace them both"

 

[turbovr6]

I just sent a "friendly" email to Rena support. I looked closely at the one reading 0 ohms. The 2 main elements that the coils are soldered to are twisted and touching each other. Thats the short. The inside of the glass at this area is also all white now from the arc. Lucky the glass did not break. It makes me wonder if they do any quality control at all since this is an obvious defect that happened during assembly.

 

[Zagz]

They will warranty it, if you worked in the automotive industry you know quality control is anything but perfect. I work in the automotive industry and nothing suprises me anymore. And like Rich said if it makes you feel better return both, but I'd be awfully suprised if the other heater was no good.

 

[bosk1]

Wow. That certainly could have turned out worse than it did.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

If anyone happens to know I checked both heaters with an ohm meter at the plug. 1 is at 65ohm, the other is zero ohms. Now my years in the auto buisness tell me that the one at 0 ohms is the dead short, but I really have no AC electrical experience. The heaters are (2) 200 watt rena cal.

Heaters are purely resistive, so 120V/65ohm = 1.84amps * 120v = 220W = Working
120v/0 = divide by zero error = toast.

Good call metering it

You may also want to ask them if they are going to replace the other stuff blown by the short

 

[Lonewolfblue]

If you aren't sure about the other heater, you can return both and have them replaced. Or if you want to try the good heater, you can always plug it into a power strip with a surge protector, and have the power strip off. Then after it's plugged in, just flip the switch on. If the light on the heater comes on, you are in business. The other heater could have also been damaged in shipping as well, it's not always a quality control issue. If that particular one was dropped, and one of the filaments broke and landed against another filament or other metal part in there, can spell for disaster. Luckily the glass didn't explode.