My heater is over 3 years old...should I replace it?

[Doctorgori]

yeah keeping your tank mid 70’s makes total sense, akin to keeping alkalinity away from the lower ranges for safety. Especially given the size….
…loose a few hundred in fish from a stuck thermostat makes one a lil cautious…
I can comfortably say heaters are situational at latitudes somewhere south of the Ohio river, for larger tanks anyway….

 

[fish farmer]

Thanks for the great feedback everyone! I think I'll go ahead and replace the heater and keep the old one as a backup.

I will likely downsize the wattage as well. Currently, I'm running my tank at 77 degrees and my home's ambient temperature is between 70 and 72 degrees, so I think 150 Watts is overkill for ~35 gallons of water volume. I'm not as concerned about the temperature bottoming out and I think 150 Watts could definitely cook my tank if both the Inkbird and the heater failed in the on position.

Would 100 Watts be sufficient or could I go down to a 75 Watt Jager?

I have a 29 gallon with sump, usually keep my tank around 78 and my house is mid 70's during the summer without the heat running. By fall when I'm running the furnace it it 65 during night and when we aren't home, 70 in the evening.

I was running one 100 watt heater on a Ranco controller. At some point in October I noticed the temp on the controller was 73. The 100 watt wasn't keeping up. I had a small preset 50 watt I was able to throw in for the time being which was adequate to keep my temp up.

 

[Cell]

Keep in mind sometimes those older versions of things are more durable than their freshly made counterparts, especially nowadays. I've seen some recent posts of Jagers taking in water that made me wonder.

 

[snorklr]

unfortunately its not like inkbirds dont fail too...i was considering the brs setup but i think having both the controller and a heater with an internal thermostat would give one more line of defense against an overheat...ps my 4 yr old aqueon pro died 2 nights ago, tripping the GFI and shutting off the pumps...tank was 65 in the morning...which is still better than an overheat

 

[Bubblebass]

Ya'll replace heaters? I've got an old cobalt going on 8 years now

My Cobalt failed in the on position. Thank goodness it was Apex controlled.

 

[Sshannon]

My Cobalt failed in the on position. Thank goodness it was Apex controlled.

I've got mine hooked up to an inkbird controller this week after realizing everyones else thoughts on this forum