Hydor External Heaters

[Miss Wiggle]

hi guys, anyone know anything much about the hydor external heaters, we've had ours on our main tank for a few years now, always worked fine.

did a water change yesterday and felt that the water was cooler than it should be, fiddled around with the heater nad deduced that it's not working, it's all plugged in and stuff but it just didn't switch on whatever we set the temp on it too.

we're pretty good with spares so we had another normal heater which we've stuck in there for now so all the fish are fine and no emergency worries over heating. But the heater was pretty expensive and we much prefer it to having an internal on the tank so just wondering what we can do to fix it if this is likely to be possible?

Anyone else had one that's broken and can you recommend anything we can check or do?

 

[raptorrex]

hi guys, anyone know anything much about the hydor external heaters, we've had ours on our main tank for a few years now, always worked fine.

did a water change yesterday and felt that the water was cooler than it should be, fiddled around with the heater nad deduced that it's not working, it's all plugged in and stuff but it just didn't switch on whatever we set the temp on it too.

we're pretty good with spares so we had another normal heater which we've stuck in there for now so all the fish are fine and no emergency worries over heating. But the heater was pretty expensive and we much prefer it to having an internal on the tank so just wondering what we can do to fix it if this is likely to be possible?

Anyone else had one that's broken and can you recommend anything we can check or do?

sounds like bad luck. i did hear of a, so called, bad batch, about a year ago. and there seem to be some comments on problems if flow drops too much, they may burn out, apart from that most comments are good on operation and reliability.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

aye, i've not heard a single bad thing about them so far so i was a little surprised that ours isn't working!

fairly sure i bought it from aqua essentials i might drop them an e-mail and see what they recommend.

 

[raptorrex]

aye, i've not heard a single bad thing about them so far so i was a little surprised that ours isn't working!

fairly sure i bought it from aqua essentials i might drop them an e-mail and see what they recommend.

it may even be worth dropping Hydor a line, you never know! especially it it is an unusual problem.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

aye, will do some investigation.

i do have one thing to check tonight though, fuse might have gone in the plug which i just realised i didn't check last night

 

[BigC]

Hi Miss W.
I ve just finished constructing a 2' cuboid tank (marine) for a friend with bottom drain and return on a closed loop to a power filter and am undecided wither to employ a Thermofilter or a Hydor external heater/stat and canister filter combo (cheaper option). Watching this thread with interest.
Regards
BigC

 

[Miss Wiggle]

will make sure i keep it updated then!

we bought one cos they look nice and neat tucked away out of sight and every review is that they are good and reliable. i've not heard of a single fault with them except ours and obviously anything that's mass produced can have the occasional faulty model so i wouldn't assume that ours is representative of a trend...... anyway i'll stop waffling and let you know how i get on!

 

[rabbut]

Bring it into work if Hydor won't take it back and I'll dig out my electronics test gear for you. It will be either the relay, the thermistor or the coil. There isn't realy much else to go wrong with them. If it's the coil or thermistor, it'll be like £1 for the parts from Maplins at the most, and a quick 5min solder repair job. Not much can be done if the coils gone though...

 

[raptorrex]

i for one would be interested in the contents of the case. if you could manage a couple of phone pics, it may be interesting. either way it, would be worth finding out just what it was that failed.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Bring it into work if Hydor won't take it back and I'll dig out my electronics test gear for you. It will be either the relay, the thermistor or the coil. There isn't realy much else to go wrong with them. If it's the coil or thermistor, it'll be like £1 for the parts from Maplins at the most, and a quick 5min solder repair job. Not much can be done if the coils gone though...

cheers mate appreciate that, of all the things Ian can fix electronics isn't one of them, too fiddly!

gonna pick up a new fuse for the plug this weekend to make sure that's not the problem. then if it doesn't work i'll fire off an e-mail to hydor and aquaessentials and see what happens.

 

[rabbut]

i for one would be interested in the contents of the case. if you could manage a couple of phone pics, it may be interesting. either way it, would be worth finding out just what it was that failed.

Hopefully Miss Wiggle will get it fixed with either a new Fuse or though Hydor, but if not, then I can probibly arrange pics inside the case and a description of the problem if Miss Wiggle does not mind? Depending on what mood I'm in at the time and how much time I have spare for messing about, I could mebe think about a tutorial of the fix, assuming it's fixable The issue here is I don't know exactly what is wrong with it untill it is probed with test gear. It could be the main sensory circuit, or the over-heat safety cut-out that is the problem, or the coil. There may even be some form of interface betwee the two also.

I will always start a trouble shoot with a circuit diagram so I can see what current should be flowing where when, so of course I will post that also if I get to look at it with Miss Wiggle's permission. That said, the circuitry I believe is pattented with this product, due to how it cuts out on overheat... I'm guessing there is just two heat sensors in there on independant circuits and that either the main circuit or the cut-out one has developed a fault where by the element cannot be switched on. Should be fairly simple to fix this assuming they used a bog-standord potential divider sensor in there.... There are otherways to do it, but that is the cheapest and easiest one I've come across in my electronics course....

All the best
Rabbut

 

[Rooster]

I'd be happy to take looksee, but I think rabbut has your back.... get yourself a cheapo "multimeter" from Maplin etc, about a fiver and worth their weight in gold for times like this.... Id be happy to write a "how to" if anyone would like to invest...