Cobalt heater exploded

MPS · Feb 10, 2019

Last night my neotherm heater exploded in my sump, turning the water a foul greyish brown color and causing the water to smoke. The foul stench of burnt electronics instantly filled the entire room. Thankfully I was standing nearby when it happened and was able to shut the system down and isolate the fouled water mostly to the sump.
So far, I’ve drained the water in the sump and flushed it with new saltwater. What other steps should I take to keep from poisoning the display with whatever that was that came out of the heater casing?
Is there a fear that this heater bursting could harm my livestock?
I’m looking for some guidance on what needs to be done to make sure my system doesn’t get harmed by this product failure.

EmdeReef · Feb 10, 2019

MPS said:
Last night my neotherm heater exploded in my sump, turning the water a foul greyish brown color and causing the water to smoke. The foul stench of burnt electronics instantly filled the entire room. Thankfully I was standing nearby when it happened and was able to shut the system down and isolate the fouled water mostly to the sump.
So far, I’ve drained the water in the sump and flushed it with new saltwater. What other steps should I take to keep from poisoning the display with whatever that was that came out of the heater casing?
Is there a fear that this heater bursting could harm my livestock?
I’m looking for some guidance on what needs to be done to make sure my system doesn’t get harmed by this product failure.

Very sorry to hear that. I had the same happen a few years ago with cobalt.

I would do large water changes, run carbon, and if possible get metasorb or cuprisorb.

Have you noticed any problems with fish and/or corals so far?

MPS · Feb 10, 2019

EmdeReef said:
Very sorry to hear that. I had the same happen a few years ago with cobalt.

I would do large water changes, run carbon, and if possible get metasorb or cuprisorb.

Have you noticed any problems with fish and/or corals so far?

No problems noticed so far. I think I was able to shut the return pump off in time. Thankfully this was a backup heater but now I’m without a backup.

Captain Quint · Feb 10, 2019

@MPS really sorry this happened but I'm glad you were there.

SashimiTurtle · Feb 10, 2019

Could you share what wattage and approx age of your heater?

I would clean the sump thoroughly with vinegar and run carbon for a while to mlae sure any contaminants are pulled from the water that made it to the tank.

MPS · Feb 10, 2019

Robin Haselden said:
Could you share what wattage and approx age of your heater?

I would clean the sump thoroughly with vinegar and run carbon for a while to mlae sure any contaminants are pulled from the water that made it to the tank.

Hi Robin, it was the 200watt model. The heater was 4 months old but Its Only been used to heat the fresh saltwater before a water change. It was in the main system for 3 days because I think the main heater is also failing.

samnaz · Feb 10, 2019

MPS said:
Hi Robin, it was the 200watt model. The heater was 4 months old but Its Only been used to heat the fresh saltwater before a water change. It was in the main system for 3 days because I think the main heater is also failing.

wow, that's just really unlucky I'd say...

vetteguy53081 · Feb 10, 2019

Clean out sump thoroughly and utilize carbon and a sponge for entrapment of particles before the water is returned to display. Likely was out of water/low level water and got hot to the point of explosion

Larry L · Feb 10, 2019

MPS said:
it was the 200watt model. The heater was 4 months old

Just curious, is the manufacturing date anywhere on it or on the packaging? I thought Cobalt stopped making the 200 watt version quite a while ago due to issues like this.

rkpetersen · Feb 10, 2019

This is a pretty common issue with the 200W and possibly 150W NeoTherm heaters. It doesn't take a lot of googling to find multiple horror stories about these heaters cracking open and spilling crud into the water and room air. Supposedly there was some design modification a few years ago but I would guess that either isn't true or it wasn't effective at stopping the problem. I've had one crack open in a QT, killing a few fish and electrifying the water. After that I removed the others that I was using in my display tanks.

I haven't seen any reports of this problem with NeoTherms of 100W or less.
The 300W NeoTherm is 2 150w heaters running in tandem, but I wouldn't trust it.

I'd be running heavy carbon and doing water changes as soon as I noticed the problem.

rkpetersen · Feb 10, 2019

Larry L said:
Just curious, is the manufacturing date anywhere on it or on the packaging? I thought Cobalt stopped making the 200 watt version quite a while ago due to issues like this.

If OP still has the heater, the manufacture date should be stamped on the cord.

SashimiTurtle · Feb 10, 2019

I was asking because I have 2, 200W Neotherms. One is 2 years old and still running fine. The other lasted a week at most and the thermostat hung at 92°. I can't change it and it's just wide open heating all the time. I use it to heat water for water changes.

Jonreefer · Feb 18, 2019

i had a 150w from a few years ago that fell in the range of the effected ones.
It was only in service in my previous tank for about 2 maybe 3months before I shut the tank down.
When i started this new tank I was using it for heating water changes and within a few water changes it was leaking current and giving me a shock from the bucket.
I got a replacement from Cobalt but I dont think I will be trusting it to be online in the tank. Keep the Jager in there and use this again for just water changes.