Rena Smart Heater

[TeddyBass]

I am thinking about buying one of these. Does anyone have experience with using them? Any Good?

 

[T1KARMANN]

they look good

BUT the advertisment is a bit misleading

i says it can be conected to a filter intake pipe this doesnt mean anything other than you can clip it onto the pipe in the water that is no big deal you can conect any heater to a pipe with cable ties

 

[rchambers]

I think they mean it replaces the end of the filter intake so that the water is drawn through the heater. That way the heated water is distributed around the tank by the filter. Great idea, wish I'd thought of it! lol

 

[T1KARMANN]

what so all of the crap in your tank and plant matter gets sucked into the heater yeh great idear i wish i thought of that

if its warm water all round your tank then get the hydor inline heater you can get them for £24 on ebay then you wont have some big ugly black thing stuck on the end of your filter pipes with loads of plant stuck to it

 

[vonjankmon]

They're very good heaters, well made (I dropped mine twice before it made it into the tank and it didn't even scratch it) and if you have a Rena filter, either a external or HOB they are 100% fantastic. It replaces the intake tube for their filters so it's basically like you don't have a heater.

Very good idea on Rena's part IMO. If you don't have a Rena filter it may be tougher or impossible to hook it up so I don't know how worth while it may be then but it can just sit in the tank like a normal heater too and they're not glass so they don't break.

 

[T1KARMANN]

if you have a chance to get the heater out of your tank completly they why not use the hydor

i just cant understand why every one doesnt have them

you can see what im saying about the plants all getting stuck to the heater cant you

is it good for the filter to have very hot water going into it

with the hydor its on the exturnal return pipe so the very hot water doesnt go into the filter i dont know how good water that hot would be for the filter seals

 

[aaronnorth]

you can see what im saying about the plants all getting stuck to the heater cant you

I can but they surely must of designed them in a specific way to not catch the dirt!

 

[vonjankmon]

The heating element in the Rena Smart heaters is on the inside, not the out. So I'm not sure how plant matter would stick to the heating element in the Rena any more or less than the Rena.

Basically the Smart Heater is like the Hydor, it's an inline heater that just happens to be in the tank instead of out.

I'm using smart heaters on two tanks right now and hot water going into the filter doesn't seem to be any kind of problem on either one.

Hydors are fine, the reason I went with Smart Heaters is that I can buy them at my LFS and with this I don't have any concern about the connections on an inline heater coming lose and leaking, granted it is a minor concern but IMO the fewer hose connections you have the better.

If you have a Rena HOB filter the Smart Heater is a no brainer, if you have a Rena Canister you can get it or a Hydor, both are excellent heaters.

 

[rchambers]

Also a puny aquarium heater won't heat the water up a great deal anyway. Think of a power shower, they are something like 10KW to heat the water enough.

 

[T1KARMANN]

well water must be fairly hot going into the filter you may not have problems now but after say 1yr of in the summer whats saying they may over heat the filter pump

im not saying 100% this will happen but it may and hot water makes the filter seals softer thats why themo filters have a diffrent type of seal