Heater Fail

[Frank Patano]

Hello, I have a Marineland Precision 300 watt heater that failed in the “on” position. Luckily , I caught it on time. I started researching further and came across InkBird temp controllers.


Dumb question, since the internal thermostat failed on the heater , could I use the inkbird as it’s thermostat or discard and replace the heater?

Thanks!

 

[Big G]

Big fan of Finnex Titanium heaters and the Finnex controllers. Lots of reefers use InkBird controllers.

 

[Saltyreef]

You could do that if you wanted to get the most of your heater instead of throwing it away but i would suggest buying two smaller 150w heaters and putting them onto the inkbird controller. That would help you out down the road when your next one decides to stick on. Also you can look into the hygger titanium heaters with the external controller. They both have been extremely accurate right out of the box. Cant say the same for my old finnex and via aquas i had with inline controllers.

 

[Frank Patano]

Awesome ! Thank you guys!

 

[P-Dub]

In theory and practice, you could do that. However, redundancy is the key. Take for example what happened to you in the first place. Had you the redundancy of the InkBird you would have been clear had you not caught and averted a catastrophe. Now you are just doing the same thing by relying solely on the InkBird and you may not be so lucky the next go around. Do the math, what is the least expensive? Losing all livestock or buying both a new heater backed up by an InkBird. Don't forget to factor in the value of the piece-of-mind that a new heater and redundant and separate controller provides. The best would be what @Saltyreef suggests and get two smaller heaters along with the separate controller.