Does anyone routinely change heaters?

[plateletboy]

This is something ive been wondering about for a while. I'm guess the most destructive non-disease event that can happen to all our fish is a heater/stat sticking on and boiling our fish........

From what I've read around the net and various reviews its a fairly random event that can occur more often with certain brands, and 'bad batches', and sometimes with brand new heaters. But do we think older heaters definately run a higher risk of sticking on?

Does anyone have a really old heater/stat that have been running faultlessly for 10's of years, and that they still use?

Does anyone periodically renew there heaters at a given interval - say after 2 years??

I kinda concerned as i bought a great joblot of gear that had 2 oldish looking interpret minimatics with, and I wonder whether i should replace the one i use in my 23g - its worked perfectly for 6 months with a nice 'clean' click when it switches on and off..

Any Thoughts?

PB

 

[Joviella]

I would only change my heaters if they stopped functioning correctly. As part of routine maintenance on my tanks,I check the heaters as well as the filters to ensure they are working properly.
Why spend money needlessly is my view!!




Edited for a typo!! )

 

[clutterydrawer]

As part of routine maintenance on my tanks,I check the heaters as well as the filters to ensure they are working properly.
Why spend money needlessly is my view!!

Because by the time it's stopped working, it's too late and all your fish are dead.

It happened to me and in future I think I will replace heaters before they break, 2 years sound like a good interval as my other one broke after 3years. A new heater every two years isn't *that* expensive.

 

[modernhamlet]

This is why I have two heaters in my tank. Neither is big enough to cook the fish by itself. It would take the incredibly unlikely situation where both failed for that to happen.

 

[plateletboy]

This is why I have two heaters in my tank. Neither is big enough to cook the fish by itself. It would take the incredibly unlikely situation where both failed for that to happen.

this is exactly what ive been thinking.... Low power heaters have to be the way to go. If you have, say, 1x 50w heater in a 35g tank it may run almost continuosly, but it wont use any more electricity - as thats a constant dependant on how much water there is and ambient temp. The switch is most likely to fail when operating, which it will be doing less, and theoretically the temp will be more stable as it is a constant maintenance of temp rather than a large wattage heater going on and off all the time giving 'pulses' of heat..........

PB

 

[Rybka]

I replace my heaters every 2/2.5 years because I don't want my fish boiling like my friends did not that long ago again...

He had a heater for 4 years (well two of them) and guess what happened...they boiled his fish. And do you know what fish he had??

In his main tank he had 6 discus and 2 zebra plecs plus other fish like bandit cories etc...So there goes alot of money and then the other blew in his newly hatched discus fry tank. So if you think about it its cheaper in this case to replace a heater then all those fish.

 

[Rybka]

Also I forgot to add...I tend to use smaller wattage heaters than one big heater due to a smaller risk