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Stealth pro heater users *Beware* (1 Viewer)

Thanks for the heads up. Going to try to talk to a Marineland rep tomorrow to see if I can get more info on this for us.
 
Yep, this is why I have stayed away from them. Whenever there is a "heater stuck on!" or "tank dropped to 65" thread I have noticed it is always the stealth.

I have always ran the visitherm deluxe with no issues other than the paint flaking off, but I know jäger is the other reputable one. Bottom line- use a controller or expect disaster.
 
I took out my Stealth a few weeks ago and replaced it with a Jager. :biggthumpup:

Sad when this happens
 
My stealth just about crashed my tank in September. Thankfully, I caught it when the tank was at 89 degrees. I pulled it out, slowly allowed the tank to cool and Merkurfan hooked me up with a Titanium heater. Next week I am adding a controller so this will never be an issue again. The Stealth was about a year and a half old. I keep it to warm up my water for a water change, but it will never go in the tank again.
 
If you read through Reef Central, there are many stories of exploding Stealth heaters. Not good at all.
 
I have a stealth that's really old. works great. however I probably got it before marineland outsourced to china...
 
Every heater i have ever used is a jager. But the controlloer still takes all the worry out of having a heater in the first place, no matter how unreliable or old it is.
 
Controller is great for temp control. But it would not know if the heater body split and is charging the tank.

This is also a common stealth problem.
 
Oddly. There has been a run on them. I think I have a 100 watt one for your 40b
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While I have seen the stealth issues before where they blow up.

I must say, there is not such thing as a perfect heater and you should replace them proactively. At some point all heaters are susectable to the seals finally giving out.

Of the 3 different brands of titanium ones I've tried I really haven't seen that they are any better or more reliable. So just because it's titanium don't think your immune to failure. To date I have had the best luck with the Jager ( which has thick glass ) and even though they can be submersable best to keep the top out of the water to lessen the chance of seals wearing out.

For a show tank I'd proactively replace every 3-5 years for this reason. I hate to push the limits and kill the whole tank over a $30 part.

Like others have mentioned all heaters should be on a seperate temp controller and Ideally with other safeguards such as email and audible alarms to catch under/over heating before it's catastrophic.
 
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Can these explosions occur even using a controller, or does that only happen when the heater gets stuck "on"?
 
I haven't research the stealth issue to deeply ( mainly just look at the pictures ) but all heaters have to potential to eventually leak with or without a controller. This is why being proactive in replacement before they are too old is a plus.

Controller would only help with stuck on. Fail off controller would only help if alarms are in place or redundand heaters.
 
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i have no clue if wether they explode during being stuck or not. It seems only the stealth pro has this issue. I have been running stealths since they were released and never had issues. i still run all stealths right now except my stealth pro.
 
To be honest, there are no perfect heaters out there from the big brands, but there wasn't necessarily EVER a time when there was. The old Ebo-Jagers came pretty close and were extremely reliable. I still have some 20+ year old Ebos that are still running in my tanks. The old Tronic heaters from Hagen were also excellent and that is currently what I run in most of my tanks. When Hagen discontinued the Tronics I bought up a ton at clearance. Aside from the old Ebos which haven't been in production for some time, tronics were the best model available in production in my experience. They were also extremely accurate, whereas I often found ebos held a steady temp but weren't always accurate (of course, this was after 10-15 years of use, so...). I think Hagen may have started a new Fluval line of heaters using the internals of the Tronics, but I never bothered to find out because they are running over twice the price of the old tronics and I got plenty of the old ones before they went out. The new Ebo Jager heaters are not anywhere near as reliable and people are misinformed if they think they are. I have purchased and stopped using probably over a dozen new ebos because they wouldn't hold an accurate temp. Unless you have the old green ebos with the key-turn dial top, you don't have a "set it and forget it" heater. The new Black/blue ones with the adjustment ring suck and I've had more problems with them than any other premium brand. Stealths, in my opinion, are no worse than any other commonly available heater. I've had no issues with any of mine, and at the store I was working for we had over 60 of them in use with no major malfuctions. Visi-Therms are made with the EXACT same guts as a stealth, but with a glass tube which can break.

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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