Via Aqua Stainless Steel heaters are crap

[OEG]

I just wanted to post my experience with these via aqua ss heaters, they suck they have fried two of my breeding pairs now and i think they suck. i would be very careful with them if you own them or are planning to. I think if you set the dial to more than 79 it stays on. i just got home to see the female of my pb ss pair dead and the water practicly boiling.
Oscar :-X

[Jeff]

Its not just the SS heaters.

[April]

sorry to hear oeg. thats sad.
losing breeding pairs is terrible . any really.shouldnt happen.
seems to be an ongoing question. which heater to use....

[Nightowl]

These new metal heaters sometimes have a separate probe as a thermostat which must be underwater. A number of people have told me about their tank overheating. Not saying this happened to you, just saying not to use any of them....too risky!! Believe it or not I still use supreme heaters, just as I did 40 years ago....not submersible/ VERY reliable. I like Visi-therms as well.
Anyway, OEG sorry to hear of your loss of fish....

J.T.

[mench]

Sorry to hear that....I have had them in my tanks for a couple of yrs now.I have had one or two go dead ,but they just stopped working,not overheat.AndI sent them back to the manufacturer and they sent new ones.

Mench

[wildthing]

Heaters break all the time so I use the cheapest I can find....visitherm......I also make sure they are underpowered in case they should stick in the 'on' position.


OK...so who wins the draw on how long it would take Mench to get back on the computer?
:lol
:)

David

[OEG]

Mench, i have had some just stop working as well. The time it took them to stop was not very long months not yrs and i also contacted the company and they said to send them back and they would send me some new ones but i dont trust them anymore at all. I have been using the rena heaters as of late and those seem to work well, they have those top lite ones and the other ones without the lite which are much cheaper and have the same thing just not the lite. I dont need no stincking lite.
Oscar

[Jeffery_Doty]

Oscar,

Very sorry to hear your bad luck! I agree with you. I bought 3 of these heaters, 2 died and would not heat, 1 stuck on and just about boiled some fry.

I do what David does, I buy under-powered Visi-therm. But, although they are about the least expensive to buy, they are also the best heater I have! Not perfect, but I have had the least problems with Visi-therm.

Jeff
Oregon

[Dave C]

http://63.171.31.153/forum/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=3211

[Abercrombie6202]

I've been using tronic heaters, for about a year now in all my tanks, never had a problem yet.

[slicksta]

sorry to hear that friend.....I have one in a QT tank.....and so far... so good......about 6 months....
I always keep an eye on the temp on that tank and I know a few others using them with no problems so far....

Thought you might like to know about a little experiment I am working on.... on my DIYS wet/dry I noticed the pump is always very hot...so what I did is wrap a coil of 1/4" copper tube around the motor housing and have tank water circulate around it...so far it is keeping my motor cooler and my water at a steady 84....with no additional heaters running....I just started this project, so it is to soon to tell if it is a perfect plan.....

[OEG]

Hey Slick,
Good to hear from you, i havnt heard from you in a while. I hope you and your family are doing well, we are all well just killing fish. You dont have a female SSpb for sale do you.
Oscar

[slicksta]

Hey Osc'
good to here from you too.............
no.......I really don't sell any fish......this is much more of a hobby for me...plus I get attached to fish and can never give them up.....
do your self a favor and go with multiple small heaters over one large...
be well.............
John

[korbi_doc]

;D ;D ;D Well, I was lucky this time. Brand newVia AquaSS, was working in the QT tank with 4 very nice RTs (from Tyler), I was lowering the temp to get to 84*. It just suddenly stopped heating then, & their temp dropped to 78* when I caught it & changed heaters. It did turn on when I moved the dial higher, but I can't trust it now, so I'll use it in the r/o tubs. Seems we can't find any really trustworthy heater. I still like my Visitherms, that's what's in there now & they're back to 83* & seem ok today, still eating.

Oscar, so sorry, that really sucks losing such nice fish. It's a nightmare we all live with, & rears its ugly head far too often. Wish we could find a solution, Dottie