Heaters on Apex

[Second Shot]

Trying to decide if it is best to run the heater by its own thermostat and have the apex as emergency cut off or have the apex actually turn it on and off. I assume most people have the apex turn it on and off?

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

I use the Apex to control my temperature....

 

[andrew james]

Apex control and the heater as the backup.

 

[smh254]

I use my heater Control and have apex set to turn off if it gets stuck on.

 

[Bob Escher]

I use the heater but use apex as a backup

 

[Radman73]

I've always used my Apex to control the heater. Also, buy a 2x1 electrical plug and run 2 heaters off of one Apex outlet. This way if one heater fails you have a backup and you aren't wasting another port on your Apex. Unless, of course, you have one to spare.

 

[BlueCursor]

I use my Apex for heater and for chiller control. Apex gives much better temp control by reducing temp swings.

A heater's thermostat may turn on and off allowing a 1 degree swing. A chiller can easily have a 2 degree swing. With Apex I have a 0.1 degree swing for both heater and chiller.

 

[Second Shot]

Guessing there is no issue with the apex turning on and off constantly if it controls the heater?

 

[Larry L]

I use two heaters (for redundancy) and I let them control themselves, and use the Apex to set upper/lower bounds in case one or both of the heaters get stuck on.

I don't have any specific evidence but it seems to me that letting the heaters controls themselves puts less wear and tear on their electronics than repeatedly flipping their power on and off via the Apex (I suppose it might depend on the type of thermostat they use internally).

Also, I use Cobalt Neotherms which keep the temp within about a half a degree of the set point all by themselves, so I don't see any need to have the Apex try to control them any closer than that.

I recently had one of the heaters get stuck on, and I knew right away from the Apex graph. The temp had been staying within a half degree or so, but then started ramping up past that. When the temp hit 79.5, the Apex shut off the heaters, and turned them back on when the temp dropped to 78, so things stayed in a reasonable range until I could get a replacement.

 

[Sleepydoc]

Consider that heaters are probably the single most failure-prone piece of equipment in our tank and the most common point of failure is the thermostat.

Most aquarium heaters use inexpensive bimetal thermostats. A bimetal leaf flexes in response to temperature and touches a metal contact, closing the circuit and turning on the heater. Over time, arcing across this contact leads to the metal pieces fusing together and the thermostat being stuck in the 'on' position, potentially overheating your tank.

The Apex energy bars are controlled by much more durable mechanical (or solid state) relays that are less likely to fail. In the case of the EB832, you an also monitor the current and have it alert you if there is current flowing when the switch should be off.

The best way to configure the system is to set the heater thermostat a degree or two higher than the Apex temp setting. This will leave the heater thermostat in the 'on' position and let the more reliable Apex relays do the switching. Since the heater thermostat is not cycling on and off, there is virtually no wear on it. In the event that the apex fails and the outlet stays on, the heater thermostat will kick in and turn off the heater before catastrophic overheating occurs.

You can, of course do the reverse and have Apex as a backup, but then you are using the less reliable switch as the primary and the more reliable as the backup and you will likely need to replace your heaters more often

 

[alanjeffery]

I use Schego titanium heaters controlled by a separate digital thermostat and use the Apex as redundant back up to shut power off in case of malfunction/overheat and to warn if temp drops below set point. I think Radman75 made a good point using 2 heaters off one outlet in case of one heater failure, more redundancy i will be adding. Maybe even better to have 2 heaters each run off its own separate digital thermostat and monitored by Apex