Double Heater

[GeoHawk]

I havent done this in the past, but I have heard of others doing it. I am thinking of getting a second heater as a fail safe. I have an RKL so that if it sticks on it will be shut off by the RKL, but I don't have a fail safe if it sticks off. I am wondering if its worth doing? If I do it can I plug an extension cord into my rkl and run both the heaters of the single extension cord? I am out of plugs on my pc4 and I have a RKL ( I am only up to 3 modules, but I am not sure I want to use another pc4 as my forth module) My thought is if the heater fails to turn on, because the heater fails then the other will take over. If the RKL fails then they would fail either way even if they were plugged into separate sockets.

Thoughts?

 

[kschweer]

I have seen this done but not with a controller. What I have seen is one heater set at "normal" temperature" and the other set lower. This is if the one at "normal" temperature fails the temp can't drop below the setting of the "backup" heater. Hope this makes sense.

 

[GeoHawk]

That makes sense. I could do the same thing plugged into one extension cord. If I set the back up heater to a lower temperature. When the RKL kicks the heater on only the one set for the higher temp will kick on leaving the other as a back up, if it fails.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Pick up the Digital Aquatics Expansion Socket.


You'll use one plug in your PC4 to control this expansion socket. It also has a dedicated plug to supply the electricity to the two heaters (or whatever you wish to plug in)

 

[GeoHawk]

So the expansion socket goes into the pc4 and makes it so I have like 5 plugs? That could be useful

 

[Steviereefs]

I use two heaters for that exact reason, so far so good. It won't hurt to have back up. Plus for some reason with the two heaters going my temp stays more stable when the lights go out.

 

[redfishbluefish]

So the expansion socket goes into the pc4 and makes it so I have like 5 plugs? That could be useful

Yes.


The Expansion Socket comes with two wires/plugs. The thinner-wired plug is put into your PC4 where you set it for temperature and set the range. The fatter, round–wired plug goes into an outlet (not your PC4). The thin-wired plug controls the two expansion sockets from your Reefkeeper, while the fatter-wired plug supplies the power for the heaters. This expansion outlet allows you to run high amp drawn devices, such as heaters or chillers. I use it to run two 300 watt heaters that my PC8 couldn't handle. It works great.


Note that the two outlets on the Expansion socket cannot be controlled independently. They both do the same “function” as set by your Reefkeeper.

 

[jdl513]

I have always maintained two and usually three heaters making sure the heat generated by two is adequate, but one alone is not.

This way if a heater fails in the on position my display does not cook and if one fails in the off position the other two can pick up the slack till I replace it.