So What Type Of Heater Should I Get?

[wodesorel]

So... all four of my tanks are heated by Marineland Stealths (Three of which are brand spanking new.) I just found out 15 minutes ago that there's a recall on all of them. *cry* I'm about 30 days away from unplugging them for summer, so I'm kinda stuck since I still need them and can't afford to go right out and buy new ones. (It couldn't have waited until the end of May - I already lost a whole bunch of fish once this winter when the last heater died! No, it wasn't a Marineland.)

I'll call the company in the morning, but should I take them up on the Visi-therm replacement if they are still offering it? Or should I take the refund and switch to a different brand? I've had three Hydors fail in the last three years, so I'm not really a fan. The Stealth I bought on sale over five years ago is still going strong which is why I chose to buy all that type, but it looks like safe replacements are out of the question. I don't know a thing about the other companies, and trying to figure out fast is overwhelming.

Any ideas?

 

[mw1982]

Hello...Its seems that you havn't had much luck with heaters in the past few years, sorry too hear that.
The only thing that I can say is go for the Visitherm replacement. It won't cost you anything and in my experience Visitherm are one of the best brands out there. I've had one running for seven years solid & another wasn't used for two years & has been in a set up for three years now.

Hope this helps

Regards

Mark

 

[OldMan47]

I have both Visi-therm and Stealth heaters and have had no trouble with either one. With that said, all of my stealth heaters will be returned soon. The Visi-therm has been around for many years before the stealth came out on the market and I have no reason to believe that they would be anything less than great heaters in place of the stealth model. The only place that I know the stealth always excelled was in showing what was going on in a tank. My daughter kept fish, actually some very large cichlids, that were bothered by the pilot light in a normal heater and smashed them when they saw the pilot light go on. When she swapped to a stealth heater, she saw the first time that the heaters lasted more than a few weeks.

 

[hillmar77]

I've been having a upward battle with heaters since the recall too.... trying titanium atm and everything is smooth. Going to slowly remove the Fluval heaters in a few weeks to see how the titanium stand up by itself. here is a link to my post
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/356482-heater-issues-going-titanium/

 

[wodesorel]

Turned out to be a moot point, really - the only heaters left in the county were Aqueons, so that's what I got. I've already called Marineland and their customer service was excellent, and hopefully the refund will be here shortly. (Trying to return the heaters to Petsmart was not - they never got the memo about the recall on the smaller heaters and wouldn't help me.)

I am debating whether or not to return my original 25W Stealth that I purchased between 4 and 7 years ago (Can't remember if it's my original heater from 2004 or if I bought it later in 2007). It's part of the recall, but it's so old and working so perfectly I'm loathe to take the chance on yet another new heater. (It's the same heater as the new Aqueons, I'm sure of it.) The other 3 were Pros purchased all In January of this year so they were definitely a bit of a worry! But my old little powerhouse that has lived through three fish tanks is causing me to pause.

 

[OldMan47]

I called the customer service number at Marineland and they suggested that they send me some replacement heaters from their Visi-therm product line. It seems the recall only affects the Stealth and Stealth-pro products. I was glad to hear that since I have about 8 or 9 Visi-therm heaters in other tanks and only had 4 Stealth heaters.