Is my heater working?

Trever · Aug 4, 2020

I'm such a newb!

So I have had my heater on for 1 hour and I don't see my 38 gallons of water temperature budging.

Also if I touch the heater, it's finally warm but only barely, I expected to get a burn. Nothing nearly that spectacular, that's for sure.

It's a BRS 100W with their controller, new. First time using it. The display when I set things was a little weird, not matching the manual, so I'm wondering if something is wrong with it.

Controller is set to 82 (for cycling the tank) but the temp just stays at 72.1 after an hour.

Trever · Aug 4, 2020

Suddenly it says 72.5.

I'm gonna guess with "cold" water flowing over it, it feels cool but this is working normally?

I guess it's for keeping water warm, not frying the fish...

Reef. · Aug 4, 2020

You won’t feel it hot as the water moves the heat away.

what was the temp of the water at the start?

tank heaters are slow to heat, depending on the starting temp it could take 12 hours to heat that water.

Trever · Aug 4, 2020

Reef. said:
what was the temp of the water at the start?

Started at 72.1

Reef. · Aug 4, 2020

Trever said:
Started at 72.1

when I heat 5 litres of water from 68f to 79f it takes around 30mins.

so expect a good few hours.

Trever · Aug 4, 2020

Ok, so never mind, it's definitely going up now.

Blipped up to 73.2. It's a heat wave!

Such a newb. lol

Pistondog · Aug 4, 2020

Trever said:
I'm such a newb!

So I have had my heater on for 1 hour and I don't see my 38 gallons of water temperature budging.

Also if I touch the heater, it's finally warm but only barely, I expected to get a burn. Nothing nearly that spectacular, that's for sure.

It's a BRS 100W with their controller, new. First time using it. The display when I set things was a little weird, not matching the manual, so I'm wondering if something is wrong with it.

Controller is set to 82 (for cycling the tank) but the temp just stays at 72.1 after an hour.