Cobalt Neotherm Failed at 3am

SENOREIDA · Mar 6, 2022

Boy oh boy did I have an eventful night. Heater failed at 3am, lucky my wife was sick and caught it when I got up to get her something. My only question is, is this lingering smell harmful? I have a 9mo in the house and am worried she can be harmed by this. I was able to do one water change so far, smell is pretty bad.

blaxsun · Mar 6, 2022

So it melted/burned I gather? Well, if you can open a window or put some kind of air filtration on in that room I probably would, yeah. I'd also get some carbon (a bag of ChemiPure Blue would work great) that you can drop into the sump to help. Definitely a water change - probably at least 25% - would be advisable sooner as opposed to later.

I don't know to what extent the heater may have melted, but I'd probably keep your offspring as far away as possible just to be on the safe side.

DHill6 · Apr 25, 2022

Same thing here, it fried while I was in the room. Smoke filled the sump area. I removed the heater, opened windows and did a 10g water change on a 34g. Needless to say all remaining heaters of that brand went straight to the trash. I had used them for years, reliable until this happened.

reefer333_ · May 8, 2022

Yeah, Cobalt heaters were the only heaters that I have experience failing.. Even cheap heaters didn't fail for me in my experience with several tanks. (I used them on freshwater tanks since they can handle heater being stuck on). One Neo therm failed on me in a year, stuck on at 94 (which is pretty common from what I can gather). Lucky for me that I read other ppl experiences with them exploding and so I pulled them out of my tank, I was only using them for heating new water for water change. Would have been a complete disaster if it was in my tank. Another one failed in same fashion a year later. I wouldn't use them if they pay me to use it on my tanks. For reefers who are thinking about buying them, DON'T. STAY AWAY from them, pick any other brand (I have good experience with Finnex and Eheim). Also get heater controller, they are well worth the price to have a safety net IMO.