Best Heater... Does A Good One Exist?

[Zeithelden]

I've tried a few different heaters, and all of them seem to have issues with inconsistencies, failure, etc... 

I typically use eheim now, but as they're getting more difficult to get, I was wondering what others find to be the best heater around.

Thanks!

[Irene]

I wrote a blog post on heaters and at the time, we recommended the Fluval E Series heater because of its 5-year warranty (and other features). I haven't owned my Fluval heater for 5 years yet, but so far it's been rock solid and is one of my favorite "higher end" heaters.

[KBOzzie59]

I like Aqueon, not sure why as I have some no name brands that work just as well.  The new Aqueon pro heaters feature a "durable thermal plastic shatterproof housing", I have not tried any of the plastic models.

[pedrofisk]

2 minutes ago, Irene said:

I wrote a blog post on heaters and at the time, we recommended the Fluval E Series heater because of its 5-year warranty (and other features). I haven't owned my Fluval heater for 5 years yet, but so far it's been rock solid and is one of my favorite "higher end" heaters.

Except those are really hard to get too, especially at certain sizes. I think all the best ones don't sell as well for whatever reason, price I guess.

I like the Neo-Therm (expensive!), Ehiem and Fluval brands.

[Irene]

1 minute ago, pedrofisk said:

Except those are really hard to get too, especially at certain sizes. I think all the best ones don't sell as well for whatever reason, price I guess.

I currently see all three sizes of the Fluval E Series for sale on Amazon right now, but you're right, the extra features do make it a bit pricier than other models and brands.

[RyanR]

I started using the Aqueon Pro also mostly because it's solid black and doesn't really standout in the tank.  I have a Fluval M in our 40 breeder, but the silver shiny color is noticeable.  The one thing I don't like about the Aqueon Pro is how hard is to turn the dial to adjust the temp.  I haven't had mine for a long time, but so far, they are nice.  The Fluval E like Irene mentioned are very nice, but a little pricy.

Edited October 2, 2020 by RyanR

[pedrofisk]

58 minutes ago, Irene said:

I currently see all three sizes of the Fluval E Series for sale on Amazon right now, but you're right, the extra features do make it a bit pricier than other models and brands.

But no 50w ☹️ alas

[endless_summer]

Ugh I was considering picking up a new strain of guppies but instead $$$ I just replace a heater I broke during an aggressive water change (whoops). I've tried what feels like every major brand of heater on the market running at 50w or less. The Eheim 50w is my favorite heater! It runs around $35 and IMO its well worth the money since it has outlasted and and is more accurate my other heaters. I don't like purchasing through Amazon so if it ever leaves Petsmart I'd look for something similar. 👀 

This heater was super duper accurate for almost three years running in a 10 even though its rated for a 16 in a room that runs cold at night and warm in the day. After this time the heater hit "max calibration" where the red ring would be pushed all the up "up" but heater would be heating my tank ~4F higher than it was "set at". I figure it may have since changed or warped from use over time in a room with temp swings. I've since moved this heater to my 20 gallon that doesn't experience heat swings and I found I was able to recalibrate it to just-below-center to reach 78F. So far so good but I'll be watching closely to make sure temperatures continue to behave as expected. (And will totally update here if the unit does indeed fail.)

 

Edited October 2, 2020 by R41NB0WF1SH
realized OP isn't looking for Eheim, removed large paragraph

[Cory]

I'm testing another heater again... This is still a continually work in progress for me. This one appears promising from the beginning. Should be affordable, has digital temp display, you set the temp outside the tank. Lot of the little things I like, I'm waiting for my sensor to show up so I can track the temp on a graph for some more testing currently.

[endless_summer]

38 minutes ago, Cory said:

I'm testing another heater again... This is still a continually work in progress for me. This one appears promising from the beginning. Should be affordable, has digital temp display, you set the temp outside the tank. Lot of the little things I like, I'm waiting for my sensor to show up so I can track the temp on a graph for some more testing currently.

Wahoo! So happy to hear this!

[Zeithelden]

40 minutes ago, Cory said:

I'm testing another heater again... This is still a continually work in progress for me. This one appears promising from the beginning. Should be affordable, has digital temp display, you set the temp outside the tank. Lot of the little things I like, I'm waiting for my sensor to show up so I can track the temp on a graph for some more testing currently.

Hope to hear more about this! I haven’t done a ton of work with the fluval, but I have had bad experience with their products in the past. Do you think you’ll be making a video on heaters again in the near future? 

[Zeithelden]

4 hours ago, Irene said:

I wrote a blog post on heaters and at the time, we recommended the Fluval E Series heater because of its 5-year warranty (and other features). I haven't owned my Fluval heater for 5 years yet, but so far it's been rock solid and is one of my favorite "higher end" heaters.

Hey Irene! I don’t think I’ve used a fluval heater, but I generally have stayed away from them after a few bad experiences with some of their other stuff. But, maybe I’ll have to give it a shot! I’ll take a peek and see if I can find that video, too. Thanks! 

 

Not a video - the article you linked! Haha whoops! Thanks!

Edited October 2, 2020 by Zeithelden

[Seized]

The best heater are fluval. They are easy to use and you can set the temp on them. If its for a tank smaller that 20 gallons i would suggest the sicce jolly as it is affordable and realistically great for smaller tanks.

[Zeithelden]

52 minutes ago, R41NB0WF1SH said:

Ugh I was considering picking up a new strain of guppies but instead $$$ I just replace a heater I broke during an aggressive water change (whoops). I've tried what feels like every major brand of heater on the market running at 50w or less. The Eheim 50w is my favorite heater! It runs around $35 and IMO its well worth the money since it has outlasted and and is more accurate my other heaters. I don't like purchasing through Amazon so if it ever leaves Petsmart I'd look for something similar. 👀 

This heater was super duper accurate for almost three years running in a 10 even though its rated for a 16 in a room that runs cold at night and warm in the day. After this time the heater hit "max calibration" where the red ring would be pushed all the up "up" but heater would be heating my tank ~4F higher than it was "set at". I figure it may have since changed or warped from use over time in a room with temp swings. I've since moved this heater to my 20 gallon that doesn't experience heat swings and I found I was able to recalibrate it to just-below-center to reach 78F. So far so good but I'll be watching closely to make sure temperatures continue to behave as expected. (And will totally update here if the unit does indeed fail.)

 

Yeah, that’s what I have in every tank now. I just threw out my last junker heater off Amazon and finally got my last tank on the eheim. Ranging from 150-50 W. But my frustration with them lies in the fact that they’re all calibrated differently - at least that’s been my experience. Much less plug and play than others, maybe because they have that extra calibration layer. 
 

the reason I actually posted this in the first place is because I just replaced that junker with an Eheim (it was over heating - surprise) and the Eheim was dramatically under heating out of the box, so I had to play with it for a couple days. In that ‘replacement’ situation, it’s not as user friendly, I find. You can’t go to the store to buy one and replace it putting the settings in the same place, even if you’re replacing another Eheim. 

[Leo2o915]

4 hours ago, Irene said:

I wrote a blog post on heaters and at the time, we recommended the Fluval E Series heater because of its 5-year warranty (and other features). I haven't owned my Fluval heater for 5 years yet, but so far it's been rock solid and is one of my favorite "higher end" heaters.

So far my favorite one I ended up buying 2 more for back up 

[pedrofisk]

I think it's like the airline industry. Some people have favorites but given a large enough pool somebody, probably several somebodies will have had an awful experience. I've had Marinas actually get water inside them for instance which is terrifying. I also have an inline Hydor on my canister filter that's been running great but is a sample pool of one.

[StephenP2003]

I'm one year into using several of the cheap Orlushy heaters from Amazon, and they've been working great. They've survived a few dumb moments of mine, i.e. draining the aquarium too low and smelling smoke.  Running some aqueons and eheims, same "reliability" so far. 

How long do heaters typically last? Or is it like a hard drive -- between 20 seconds and 20 years.

[Daniel]

@StephenP2003 in my experience the mean time between failure is a few years but there is a lot of variance.

The best heater is one paired with a separate controller. Heaters go on and off constantly and eventually fail so it is prudent to plan for this to happen. Otherwise when the inevitable happens and if it is stuck on, you will cook your fish. How many people on the forum have had this happen?

This last happened to me in the early 2000's. I received a panicked, tearful phone call from my then 10 year old son that all the Heckel discus had turned ghostly white and were gasping and dying. I lost my pets and lost over $1000 dollars that day.

I've used JBJ controllers since then, but somebody mentioned in another thread a much more affordable option called an 'Inkbird' I think.

 

[StephenP2003]

1 hour ago, Daniel said:

I've used JBJ controllers since then, but somebody mentioned in another thread a much more affordable option called an 'Inkbird' I think.

I have 3 of those inkbirds, one of them dedicated to the brine hatchery though. I plan to accumulate more in the coming weeks, prioritized by cost of livestock. 

Sorry for your loss. I know it was 20ish years ago, but that must've really stung. 

[Boot282]

I usually pair an inexpensive heater with the Inkbird 306-T. The probe on the 306-T is rubberized and can be submerged  constantly. 

I currently use 5 Inkbirds that have been running flawlessly for a couple of years on 5 of my larger tanks.  My only complaint is the suction cup used to hold the temperature probe to the side of the glass is crap.  I purchased them on eBay for around $25 each.  Gives me piece of mind that I won't cook my fish. 

[Paul]

14 minutes ago, Boot282 said:

I usually pair an inexpensive heater with the Inkbird 306-T. The probe on the 306-T is rubberized and can be submerged  constantly. 

I currently use 5 Inkbirds that have been running flawlessly for a couple of years on 5 of my larger tanks.  My only complaint is the suction cup used to hold the temperature probe to the side of the glass is crap.  I purchased them on eBay for around $25 each.  Gives me piece of mind that I won't cook my fish. 

Ditto that. I’m running Aquatop,Aqueon, and Eheim heaters and they’re all hooked up to Inkbird controllers.

[Rikostan]

I picked up one of the JBJ controllers that @Daniel recommended a while back for my 55 gallon ,but the 45 needed one too, so I just grabbed one of the inkbird ones. It'll be interesting to see if there is any major difference between them over the upcoming months.

[ChemBob]

I've been using an Inkbird controller for years in another application, and it has worked very well for me. I just bought their aquarium model for my new 40 gallon.

[Daniel]

I just moved some juvenile angelfish in to a different tank and I noticed they were lethargic. I put my fingers in the aquarium and it felt too cool.

I needed to add heat, but I don't have a spare heater controller.

There is a work around to make heaters slightly less dangerous.

Use a couple of heaters that are under powered in tandem. That way should one of them fail it would it take a long time for that one broken heater to heat the aquarium to fatal levels. This isn't a fool proof solution, it is merely an improvement on the single heater solution.

Dual thermometers? Well lets just saying I am crowd sourcing the temperature measurement.

Also just ordered a couple of Inkbird heater controllers to see what all the buzz is about and so I can lessen the chance of boiling my baby angelfish.

[Paul]

3 minutes ago, Daniel said:

I just moved some juvenile angelfish in to a different tank and I noticed they were lethargic. I put my fingers in the aquarium and it felt too cool.

I needed to add heat, but I don't have a spare heater controller.

There is a work around to make heaters slightly less dangerous.

Use a couple of heaters that are under powered in tandem. That way should one of them fail it would it take a long time for that one broken heater to heat the aquarium to fatal levels. This isn't a fool proof solution, it is merely an improvement on the single heater solution.

Dual thermometers? Well lets just saying I am crowd sourcing the temperature measurement.

Also just ordered a couple of Inkbird heater controllers to see what all the buzz is about and so I can lessen the chance of boiling my baby angelfish.

@DanielI think you'll be very happy with your purchase.