Topic: Heater brands

[bulrush]

I'm thinking of getting a 300w Odyssea submersible heater on Ebay. Is this brand any good? I've had major problems with Penn Plax so I will never buy those again. Any other brands that are good?

I keep changing my aquarium water and forgetting to unplug the heaters. I've killed 3 heaters so far.

Are there any brands/types that will not die if plugged in and out of water?

[RinsMom]

Wow... are you emptying the water down that far so that the heater is exposed?  I have mine just a few inches above the substrate, and don't have a problem exposing the heater.

[Cholly]

I actually buried the submersible in my oscar tank(next to the UGF lift tube, so I'd still get water flow around it),  but don't the Visi-therms have an overheat protection mechanism? I stay away from Tetra heaters after two stuck on failures with different heaters. I know it can happen to any heater, but my experience has been three heater failures, the two Tetra and the third(a Penn Plax, by coincidence) just plain died, but at least it was close to 15 years old and it didn't kill any of my fish.

[Pam]

For submersible heaters I went with the Marineland VISI-THERM STEALTH PRO HEATERS http://www.kensfish.com/stealth-pro-heaters.html and they seem to last longer for me then the bare glass kind.
I also cracked a few heaters during maintenance and decided to go ahead a spend a bit more and have not broke a stealth so far. So I would recommend those.

[bulrush]

Yes, my heaters are vertical, so when I remove 50% of the water, the heater is exposed. I should put them horizontal down lower to save me some money.

So far the Odyssee is working out. I don't expect it to last more than 6 months, but we'll see.

[Ppulcher]

I make a point of unplugging all the equipment in the tank when I'm doing water changes or putting my hands in the water.  Even though I use GFCI receptacles for my fish stuff, I don't want to test them if there is a problem.  It also saves on having heaters crack

[bulrush]

Yes I know this, but I'm an idiot. And forgetful.

[Ppulcher]

I've never used them before, but there is at least one line of titanium heaters that are supposed to be unbreakable.  Won Bros. pro heat I think is the name.