Another heater bites the dust

[Fishnut]

After a near disaster from a failed heater 1.5 years ago I am again replacing another broken one. This one was a JBJ Tru Temp Titanium with digital remote controller. The controller said the tank temp was 75 but the water was closer to 85. And the heater would not turn off. After spending $150 on this heater and only getting 1.5 years out of it is very disappointing. JBJ customer service has not responded to my calls. Please help me pick a new reliable 200-300 watt heater. Thanks

 

[jda]

You cannot just run a heater, or anything with one temp sensor/controller. Get a Ranco (or inkbird if you cannot afford a Ranco, but the Ranco is better) and get a Ehiem heater or another type with an internal thermostat. That way, both need to fail "on" to have a disaster. A pair of 150w heaters is better than a single 300w since if they do stick "on" they they are slower to melt a tank.

All heaters fail, so have a plan for when they do.

 

[Pistondog]

You cannot just run a heater, or anything with one temp sensor/controller. Get a Ranco (or inkbird if you cannot afford a Ranco, but the Ranco is better) and get a Ehiem heater or another type with an internal thermostat. That way, both need to fail "on" to have a disaster. A pair of 150w heaters is better than a single 300w since if they do stick "on" they they are slower to melt a tank.

All heaters fail, so have a plan for when they do.

To Op:
Ehiem is best since it is bimetallic thermostat, not electronic.
Since you will be cycling power to the heater more frequently than it was designed for, an electronic heater would be more prone to failure than the bimetallic.
Set the ehiem higher say 80, and the ranco at 78, so the ranco is controlling.
On my apex, I stagger the 2 heaters so only 1 is switching.
Since 150 watts is switching, the temp swings are slower.

 

[Fishnut]

Thanks for the replies. But I thought that the “True Temp” remote controller with remote temp probe was the same as using a Ranco.

 

[jda]

Nope. First, it is not as good as a Ranco. Second, there was no second thermostat in the actual heater as a redundancy.

 

[Fishnut]

Got it. Thanks

 

[homer1475]

While I have had heaters fail on me, I have been running the same 300W finnex titanium heating rod for the last 5 years without failure.

I better go knock on wood. lol