Who makes the best heater?

dogofwar

dogofwar

CCA Members
My household furnace!

90% of my tanks are at room temperature. I try to minimize using heaters as much as possible because of their power use and because of their proclivity to fail.

Matt
 
Frank Cowherd

Frank Cowherd

Global Moderators
Staff member
For my tanks that have heaters I use Eheim/Jaegers. They are good quality for the cost. But the more expensive ones, like double the price are probably better. Cobalt had some heaters on the table at the last mtg and they were in the $80 range. Pretty sure they would be really good heaters. ANd the all metal (like the Titanium ones) ones are really good and unbreakable, but also very expensive. But then if you are heating a show tank with lots of good fish, the expense may be justified.
 
Tangcollector

Tangcollector

Active Member
Staff member
I have multiple Eheim/Jaegers. I also have two Aqueon heaters.
The Eheim/Jaegers have worked well but I did have two fail on me recently. One leaked internally and the other one I could not get it to keep a steady temp. It just kept creeping up. That being said no losses were suffered and I would buy them again. The Aqueon heaters have been dead steady. I like the pro heater because it has the green light for when the temp is right and it is black. Jehmco has a great sale price right now on some of the Eheim/Jaegers heaters. IMO I think you would be fine with either one.
 
JLW

JLW

CCA Members
Cobalt's NeoTherms are probably the best, but they're also the most expensive.
 
Reed

Reed

Very Fishe
I have a numerous brands of heaters including :cobalt, fluval, Chinese junk, Jager, Aqueon etc . They all work until they don't! Heaters are the weakness link in your tank. Try to avoid buying a used heater it's worth spending a few extra bucks for a new one. I prefer the jagers they appear to have a thicker glass tube, they, have a heavy duty cord, proven by many fish geeks and I have not had one fail yet.
 
Becca

Becca

Members
The Cobalt NeoTherms are the best. They won't break and they last forever. Plus their shape makes them a little easier to work with in tighter spaces. They are expensive. If you want one, this is a great time to buy because of the Cobalt order that Batfish is doing.

After the Cobalts, the Eheim Jaegers are my top choice. I have them in most of my tanks. My only complaint about them is the calibration dial has a stopping point, so it's not always possible to get them calibrated correctly.
 
JLW

JLW

CCA Members
Reed said:
They all work until they don't! Heaters are the weakness link in your tank. Try to avoid buying a used heater it's worth spending a few extra bucks for a new one.
Click to expand...

Reed is absolutely right. Having a heater stick "on" is all too common. Cobalt makes a device that can really act as a safety net for this, though it's not marketed for this purpose. They sell the NeoTherm controller separate from the heater, integrated into a power cord. You plug your regular old heater into this, and use the probe to measure the temperature. You are supposed to allow it to then control the heater, and unless it simultaneously fails with the heater, it won't cook the fish. There are two ways to use it as a safety net.

One, you set the thermostat on the controller to 85, the one on the heater to 75, and the controller is "always on." The thermostat on the heater works normally, and if the heater sticks on, the controller cuts it off at 85.

Secondly, you set the thermostat on the heater at maximum, and set the controller at 75. The heater is always "on," but the controller turns it on and off. This minimises the risk of the heater cooking your fish. Especially with an electronically controlled heater, there is virtually no risk of a cookout.

Those things are more expensive than the NeoTherm heaters. But, when you think about the cost of the fish in the tank... it's a safe investment.

Of course, you can also buy an Apex or something similar. :)
 
londonloco

londonloco

Members
I would have given a shout out to my Fluval M's, until this happened just last night in my reef:



I heard a pop, saw several large sparks, and then smoke, I quickly pulled the plug on the entire tank. Thinking I was lucky to be right in front of the tank when it happened.

I have these heaters on 2 other tanks, so last night after calming down I ordered 5 Cobalt NeoTherms. Hoping not to deal with that ever again.
 
kevin911

kevin911

Members
I had cobalt before and didnt have the best experience.

Sent from my HTC One using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
mchambers

mchambers

Former CCA member
Which model? There were some incidents with the 200W Neo-Therm model. I think I reported my problem here.

Cobalt replaced my heater promptly.

I haven't read of any incidents with smaller Neo-Therms.
 
mchambers

mchambers

Former CCA member
Since I dared venture into this thread, let me say that I really don't know what the best heaters are. I like the two Neo-Therms I have, despite my bad experience with one, which I attribute to a production problem. I have an old Jagr that's great, but I don't know whether the newer ones are as good. I also have a Fluval Series E that seems great (it's a different series than the one in Loni's post above).

Having said all that, I think all heaters run the risk of failure. An external controller makes a lot of sense, but it is a big expense, especially if you have a lot of tanks. Also, our personal experience isn't worth that much, since we have a small sample size problem. What you really need is a large scale testing of the various heaters, but who's going to do that?

Most of my tanks don't require heating April through October, or even later. Right now, the only tanks I have with heaters on have angels in them.
 
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