Pro Heat II Heater Failures

[mp3z24]

Just writing to vent my frustration, and possibly warn others.

i've had my 55 gal SW tank up for a little over 2 years... the whole time, i have run 2 150 watt won pro heat ii heaters. a little over 1 year after starting, both of the heaters decided to fail. slowly, the temperature display drifted higher and higher, well over 100 degrees. thankfully, they fail in the off position.

i replaced these with 2 new 150 watt won pro heat ii heaters. yeah, you would have thought i learned my lesson. anyway, fast forward to this week (about 1 year after the last set was replaced). currently, one of the heater displays is starting to drift up again. again, it has failed off, so i dont have to worry about it turning on. im pretty much waiting for the other one to fail.

i saw one other post on this topic from about a year ago. is this a common theme for these heaters? they seem to just fail after a year of operation. as i've stated, i've personnally had 3 of my 4 heaters fail within the last 2+ years.

im gonna try some visi-therm stealth heaters and see how they work out. i have a visi-therm deluxe in my water change bucket, and it has yet to fail. granted, i only run it when i make water, but it seems to be a more reliable heater.

thoughts, anyone?

~mike

[tecwzrd]

Almost every review site either raves or hates these heaters. I've had one for 2 years now as a back up for heating my SW (before I got the Mag 9.5 pump which heats it) and I guess I got lucky due to infrequent use.

I've heard plenty of good things about the visi-therm stealth heaters but to be honest I've never had 100% satisfaction with any heater over the decades of keeping fish

They always "drift" slightly and it seems like I have to adjust up/down about once or twice a month. So far it's never been more than a 4 degree drift in temperature and my stock hasn't suffered but is it really that hard to get a heater that doesn't "drift"

[roka64]

I use the finnex digital thermometers and so far they have been great. If the power fails, they come back on set at 80.

[tecwzrd]

Like this one? Looks pretty good, guess I'll be buying a new heater.

How long have you been using it?

[roka64]

I've had them in my 55G for about 1 year. I got mine from premiumaquatics.com. Linked from this site....nudge...
One thing, you can hear the lights click on and off.