BEWARE!! Marineland Stealth Pro Heater

[rich_one]

while I can appreciate their willingness to pay for any damage, I would just as soon wait until they confirm the have fixed the problem. the very last thing I would ever need to happen is my 125 gallon discus tank cracking due to a heater explosion... especially if I knew about that little problem before buying the heater.

[diamond_discus]

Well, I purchased about 15 Stealth heaters (different size) from DrFosterSmith the past few years .... Half of them went bad and I sent them back to Marineland for replacement. If you return the old stealth, they will ship you back the new pro model ... And you know what ? I have some of the smaller one shipped back to me ... In less than 2 weeks, that thing doesn't work more .. I used that in a hospital tank ... The light stays on green and the heater won't heat up ... I didn't notice that until I saw the fish being so inactive ... I touched the water and felt that it's stone cold .. Well, at least mine didn't explode ..

Let me tell you something else, for my other couple old stealth heater (that I use for storage barrel) .. these seems to leak electricity .. When I touch the water, I felt some shock .. that scare the heck out of me .. I am going to return them, along with the bad stealth pro ..

I am only using Jagar for my main tanks ..

[roundfishross]

If you read through this entire 8 or or so pages of posts you will see that Marineland stood behind their product. They agreed to pay for floor damage and replace broken tank and lost live stock. Seems to be an unusual occurrence these days. They will continue to get my business. I have 6 of the Visi-Therm heaters running and none have given me any problems. The problems also appeared to be associated with only the Pro Stealth model line.

yes the old models work fine and marineland is a excellent company they do stand behind their products and they are a great company to work for as well, i have been a tech for them for about two years

[90 Gallons of Fun]

I wonder if this is what happened to me about 5 years ago. Do not recall what brand heater this was. But what a mess! Never did figure out what happened to cause this. I picked a great night to sleep on the couch next to the tank. lol

[Darrell Ward]

Any heater can fail, but Jagers are the best ones I've used. Compare a Jager with any other heater side by side. The Jager is heavier in weight, and looks way better made. Heck, the cord is even of a heavier gauge. I don't know why people spend big bucks on tanks of fish, only to risk their safety with cheaply made heaters from some back street in China. Something as important as a heater, I want the highest quality ones I can find.

[Jhhnn]

Any heater can fail, but Jagers are the best ones I've used. Compare a Jager with any other heater side by side. The Jager is heavier in weight, and looks way better made. Heck, the cord is even of a heavier gauge. I don't know why people spend big bucks on tanks of fish, only to risk their safety with cheaply made heaters from some back street in China. Something as important as a heater, I want the highest quality ones I can find.

I'm with you. Once calibrated, my blue Jagers just work.
They've been the standard to which everybody else aspires for 30 years or more, and the price is right from Kensfish, so why fool around?

Even if Marineland's warranty and customer service are great, so what? With the Jagers, it doesn't matter, because you probably won't need either one...

[mlov1022]

Any heater can fail, but Jagers are the best ones I've used. Compare a Jager with any other heater side by side. The Jager is heavier in weight, and looks way better made. Heck, the cord is even of a heavier gauge.

Good to hear, I have 2 on the way from Ken's. I'm really sick and tired of heaters not working properly. Hydor Theo's stink, they work for a few months or less then have a mind of their own. Stealth's hit or miss, had a few that worked and others, the casing bubbled and cracked. I even tried Finnex titanium w/controller and 1 started to malfunction, had it set at 83, tank water at 91. The controller stuck.

[underwaterforest]

I'm with you. Once calibrated, my blue Jagers just work.
They've been the standard to which everybody else aspires for 30 years or more, and the price is right from Kensfish, so why fool around?

Even if Marineland's warranty and customer service are great, so what? With the Jagers, it doesn't matter, because you probably won't need either one...

Probably becuase replacing all my heaters with jagers will cost hundreds of dollars for me, and right now the stealths are keeping the temps prefect on my tanks (plus nobody locally carries them, and I like to shop local when I can). Would have loved to get jagers to start with but I have to work with what I have, money don't grow on trees. Just my .02.

Alex

[rich_one]

anyone using the jager on a 6 foot long, 125 gallon? I am curious how many you are using, and what wattage... thanks.

-Rich

[gwrace]

Any heater can fail, but Jagers are the best ones I've used. Compare a Jager with any other heater side by side. The Jager is heavier in weight, and looks way better made. Heck, the cord is even of a heavier gauge. I don't know why people spend big bucks on tanks of fish, only to risk their safety with cheaply made heaters from some back street in China. Something as important as a heater, I want the highest quality ones I can find.

If you check out the forums there have been problems with Jager heaters to. You can also find Jager heaters sometimes priced below the Marineland models. Anything electrical will eventually fail. It's only a matter of time.

[rich_one]

If you check out the forums there have been problems with Jager heaters to. You can also find Jager heaters sometimes priced below the Marineland models. Anything electrical will eventually fail. It's only a matter of time.

agreed... but failing is one thing... exploding... that's another entirely!

[underwaterforest]

Just unplug the heater when changing the water, you will have to do the same thing with the jagers or else they too will crack. Exploding seems to be due to the expanding epoxy core like said previously. As long as you unplug or put it on a switchable power strip you should be fine. Mine just smoked a little and cracked the outside case, but I caught it before it was on too long.

[Darrell Ward]

anyone using the jager on a 6 foot long, 125 gallon? I am curious how many you are using, and what wattage... thanks.

-Rich

I have 2-250 models on a 150 gal. tank. They work great on it. I don't see why that set-up would not great on a 125 as well.

[Darrell Ward]

Just unplug the heater when changing the water, you will have to do the same thing with the jagers or else they too will crack. Exploding seems to be due to the expanding epoxy core like said previously. As long as you unplug or put it on a switchable power strip you should be fine. Mine just smoked a little and cracked the outside case, but I caught it before it was on too long.

Unplugging the heaters is the first thing I do before water changes. IMO, leaving them plugged in is risky, and foolish. If the heater gets exposed to air while running, then contacts water, it could be a recipe for disaster.

[rich_one]

Just unplug the heater when changing the water, you will have to do the same thing with the jagers or else they too will crack. Exploding seems to be due to the expanding epoxy core like said previously. As long as you unplug or put it on a switchable power strip you should be fine. Mine just smoked a little and cracked the outside case, but I caught it before it was on too long.

I gotcha... fact is, this is best practice anyway... sad thing is, people will trust what the Stealth claims, as far as the auto shut off feature.

but point definitely taken. I admit I am torn about this now... but certainly a good point.

-Rich