Heater Noise

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/5/2023 at 6:41 PM, Macready said:

I... hope that the surge suppressor isn't the issue. I guess it never occurred to me that could be an issue like with other larger heaters (room heaters, etc).

No it wouldn't be the issue. It's a benefit.

Sometimes people have "dirty power" and that can absolutely wreak havoc on some electronics.  They sell or make whole home power conditioners and portable units to rule that out.  In a lab setting, that's why you use the expensive power supplies and what not to make sure the signal of the power isn't an issue.

https://www.tesengineering.com/electrical-engineering-what-is-dirty-power/

Edited December 6, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I have a couple ACO heaters. They are 100% silent. Shrimps go in and out of one of them and there is still no noise at all. The one flashing EL is suctioned to the side wall so I don’t have to see it unless I look that direction. I use a floating thermometer to check temp. When I’m being redundant I will use an instant-read meat thermometer.

I don’t mess around with heaters. If there is even a hint of something being wrong with it, I throw it away or try to return it. It is not worth the risk to my animals.

[Macready]

Update: I have replaced the noisy heater with a replacement from ACOOP support.  New heater is in the same spot in the tank as the old heater, set to same temperature and plugged into the same surge suppressor.  Difference this time is the flow in the tank is much higher thanks to the Easy Flow thing on the sponge filter. Previous heaters seemed to start having trouble in approximately 3 months, so I guess we'll see. 

I am considering what you said @nabokovfan87, the heater is plugged into a surge suppressor but I'm running through what else is on that circuit to see if I've got anything that could cause dirty power. Only thing I can come up with is a vacuum cleaner every once in a while. 

Thanks for all the info. 

[Macready]

The new replacement heater started making the same noise about a month in.  I have replaced the heater with a OASE HeatUp 100 and am currently calibrating that. 

I feel like if there was a systemic issue with the ACOOP heaters a lot of people would be having this issue, I assume there must be something about my environment that is exacerbating it or causing it.  We'll see how the new heater does. 

[TMartins]

I had the same noise issues with 2 of the 3 ACO 100W heaters.  Both of them just failed in the sense that it wasn’t producing enough heat, it would just stay on with the temp at 74 degrees and it’s supposed to heat to 76.  I use a quality surge protector for all my electronic equipment and the easy flow sponge filter so I’ve assumed it’s the heater.

Edited February 11 by TMartins