Tronic Heaters?

[heavyp83]

Has anyone had experience with Tronic heaters? ;D

[DREW]

I've talked to a few people who have them and they've had no problems. I'm not sure how long they've been on the market though. For a few bucks more you can order a titanium heater and thats what I just bought from the dr's.

[Kevin]

Heavy I have a few of them. they seem to work well enough. We have been switching to via aqua stainless steel heaters. they are reasonable and work fine. If you get a foster smith fish catilogue you can get them online for 19.99 for a 300 watt. the address iswww.drsfostersmith.com, or you may be able to buy them from your local store at twice the price. K.

[jeep]

A friend has some and one nice feature is an optional heater guard to keep the fish from getting burned...

[Jeff]

I would do the titanium heater. They are much better. I just a Tronic heater go out after 4 months last week.

[Toothfairy]

I have two of the 50W versions. Not very accurate, at least the ones I have are not. I have one set at 92degF and the other at 90degF but the tank temperatures are at 86degF which I double-checked with a thermocouple instrument and another RTD instrument.

I would recommend you try other brands IMHO.

Grace

[oodi]

Hi Heavy...

I haven't tried the titaniums yet, but have had Tronics and Visitherms... prefer the Visitherms. HTH

Judi

[heavyp83]

thanks everyone!

[korbi_doc]

I really like the Via aqua titanium heaters. Try them, Dottie ;D ;D

[daninthesand]

I currently am running 8 tronic heaters. 150 watts. (1 of them is 50w) They've been reliable as far as keeping the temp up, but the actual temp is different from the dial setting, which to me is irrelevant since I have a thermometer on every tank anyway. I just use the setting as a guide and check with the termometer.

But once set it stays an even temp.

The claim of preventing accidental overheating from running dry during water changes has proven to be false so far. It happened to me once and the heater glass broke from over heating. So much for the manufacturers claim of the heater shutting itself off when it overheats! :-\

I've been running these heaters for about 5 months now, so time will tell if they hold up to the test of time. I also have a couple EBO's and I've had one lose its temp already after less than two months.

So if you can get titanium for only a couple of bucks more, I'd go with that. Until we discover they cook our fish just as easily as any other cheap heater and we decide cheap is not the way to go! But then again, at least the titanium wont break.

JMHO. Daniel

[Fish_Fin-atic]

I'd have to agree with other statements that Tronics aren't very accurate. They do keep a "constant" temperature for the most part, but the temperature on the dial is not what the thermometer reads. I've had about a dozen of these guys in the past 2 years or so, and one of them burned out on me, the rest are fine still. Oh yeah, two of mine developed a leak between the seal at the top of the tube, and the glass. This let water slowly drip inside the heating chamber, which left a bunch of hard water deposit on the inside. I saw the problem in time, and I don't fully submerge these heaters anymore. I'd say, go with the titaniums if you can afford to. JMHO

[Tin Pusher]

I like Tronic but if you get sick fish I found that the top end for the dial is 93 degrees. Lots of cures recommend 94 plus degrees to kill bad things.

[Pick]

I ordered a Rena Cal Excel today to give them a try. I might regret it but it's just one heater. I've never had any problems with my Ebo's (old or new) but due to the widespread outbreak of bad ones right out of the box I opted to try something different this time. I did not want to try the Ti route yet.

TC