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Stealth pro heater users *Beware* (1 Viewer)

I was not aware of the new Jager having thermostat accuracy problems but that's easily resolved with the temperature controller that no tank should be without. I haven't had the new version long enough to know if the seals and leakage is more likely to happen than the ebo version.
 
so the ebo model is older and no longer in production?
 
HOLY CRAP. The Lightning Maroon's tank has a Stealth Pro heater on it right now. I already have THREE old-style Stealths that failed this fall when temps got cold, and are sitting on my dining table in a box to be mailed back.

I think I'm swapping out the Lightning Maroon's heater for one of the new Ebos (yes, Ehiem Jagers) I have sitting around....at least when glass heaters fail and crack they don't also EXPLODE and blow the back out of the tank.

I emailed that thread to Marineland and asked them point blank for more info...I have several of the new Stealth Pro heaters sitting around in use, and such a failure risk is unacceptable!

Matt
 
David Grigor said:
Correct now produced by Eheim ( which is still a reputable company ) and just called Jager.
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going back- all i have ever had was Ebo-jagers. i have only bought one heater new and it was a marineland probably 6 years ago and it failed.

the water line on the ebojagers is supposed to be there for proper heat dissipation i thought. not because they leak- because they are waterproof whether they market them as being so or not. Though mine never goes deeper than the water line.
 
I have had 2 of those heaters fail on me now and in both instances AC voltage started to leak into my tank... yes I was zapped both times (must be the stage before explosion) Since then I have added a grounding probe and upgraded to a Finnex Titanium heater ( no problems so far) As for the Stealth heaters after seeing that pic with the the exploded heater I don't think I"ll be using that brand anymore..... Just think let's say you were doing some tank maintenance with one arm in your aquarium while standing in a puddle and the heater explodes the dead fish would be the least of your problems! Be proactive replace heaters before they fail and use a grounding probe. I picked one of these probes up from DA for like $10 bucks or so they aren't that expensive and for the safety of your aquarium inhabitants and yourself start using one!!!!!
 
I had one for less than 6 mos and it cracked end to end. I had it on a reef keeper lite. I got woke up by the gf at 4 am to play guess where the smell is coming from, the heater and smells worse when out of water. Only sign of it failing was bad smell and low tank temp. One of them site you guys posted is from the area as someone in the lfs knew the person with the 75 gal that exploded.
 
Nanofins said:
Personally I think that people get the impression that there is a preponderance of bad experience with a particular brand because of the nature of the internet. Stealths are probably one of the most commonly used heaters in the country now and as a result they are, even with the same percentage of failure as any other brand, going to have more failure reports. Since we can now get feedback from people all over the world without any effort, it starts to seem like a lot.

For now it is probably true that without a controller, you have no 100% reliable heater.
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Good point, but I had not previously heard of other heaters exploding. If the Stealths really do that sometimes, that worries me.

Otherwise, I agree that reliability can be an issue any time you use heaters. During the course of over 45 years of fish keeping (usually with about 1 to 2 dozen tanks running at any given time) I've had a few heaters (I can count them on the fingers of one hand) of various brands stick on and overheat a tank (maybe only one or two of these incidents resulted in disaster, but most of these failures were not in reef tanks). I've had a few stop heating.

Regardless of brand, all the submersibles seem to eventually start getting moisture inside.

Replacing heaters every 3 to 5 years as David suggests is a great idea, though this gets a bit more daunting when you have a lot of tanks (people with large fishrooms tend to maintain that with lots of tanks it is cheaper in all respects to just heat the room, though I have never gone that route because it would mean keeping the whole house a lot warmer than we normally do in winter - most folks keeping reef tanks don't have these large numbers of tanks though).

Keeping the tops of the heaters above the water line is a great idea, but those darn suction cups go bad so fast and it is hard to do this without good suction cups. This suction cup matter is the thing I hate about these newfangled submersible heaters (OK, they aren't that new, but I still have a number of 20 year old Supreme hang on heaters in use at home).
 
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I shot a message to Marineland, here's the response I got regarding Stealth Pro heaters:

We had some quality issues with the first batch of heaters that shipped and we replaced all of the product on the distributor level. Non should have reached you. Just to be sure if you want to check your lot code. You will find it stamped on the top of the heater below where the line cord goes in. It will look like 01A32. Just let us know.
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Glad I read this thread yesterday, woke up and my 24 gallon softy tank was at 74 my 2 year old marineland stealth quit working yesterday lol glad I caught it soon enough
 
Fishmonger70 said:
Anyone ever heard of this heater/contoller?
http://cgi.ebay.com/300-Watt-Titanium-Aquarium-Tank-Heater-Controller-300w-/350281315690?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item518e64b56a
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That's not a controller, that's just a temperature control that's separated from the heater. The thermostat is still part of the heater and is susceptible to being stuck on.

A controller uses a thermostat that is completely separate from the heater. It uses a relay to control power to the heater so that if the heater gets stuck on (thermostat fails) the controller will shut off power to the heater.
 
i dont even use the thermostat setting on the heater. i turn it up most of the way and let my controller do all the on/ off work.
 
For the best protection set the heater 2 degrees higher than the controler temp.
kcooley said:
i dont even use the thermostat setting on the heater. i turn it up most of the way and let my controller do all the on/ off work.
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Sent from my SPH-M920 using Tapatalk
 
kcooley said:
i dont even use the thermostat setting on the heater. i turn it up most of the way and let my controller do all the on/ off work.
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Personally, I set the thermostat on the heater to 3 degrees above my target temp. If the controller plug fails in the on state you have a back up. Or perhaps controller switches never fail?
 
patent said:
Personally, I set the thermostat on the heater to 3 degrees above my target temp. If the controller plug fails in the on state you have a back up. Or perhaps controller switches never fail?
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Anything can fail, but I would be more concerned about the controller's temp probe failing, or falling out of the water, etc. before I'd worry about the relay failing.
 
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