Neotherm exploded, should I worry?

[vetteguy53081]

I have two different styles of finnex. Titaniums are the way to go

 

[ingchr1]

Had it for 1-2 years.

I wonder if this heater was from the old run of 200W heaters they had trouble with. I have run a bunch of 100W and 150W Neotherms and have never had trouble.

Is there a date on the plug? Mine have a date on them.

 

[OREGONIC]

Is there a date on the plug? Mine have a date on them.

Oh wow there is! Mine may be one from an old batch stamped 2 2013. Thats even more frustrating, Cobalt knew there was an issue and didnt have them all pulled. I had the heater running for no more then 2 years, most likely right around a year and a half.

 

[ingchr1]

That gives some assurance to those that may be running ones with newer manufacture dates.

Did you buy them directly from them, online or a LFS?

I don't know the history on when these were an issue or if they had any type of recall. Curious.

 

[OREGONIC]

That gives some assurance to those that may be running ones with newer manufacture dates.

Did you buy them directly from them, online or a LFS?

I don't know the history on when these were an issue or if they had any type of recall. Curious.

Pretty sure I got it from BRS, but may have picked it up from a very large lfs near me. The lfs actually wholesales in my area as well so I doubt it was sitting on their self for years. I would assume the just got a shipment of old ones somehow.

 

[ckalupa]

Are you setting a .1 degree range for on to off for the heater? Have you used this tight of a range before (and how did it work)? I use a 1 degree range between on and off on my apex to a titanium heater. Curious to know how this works for you.

 

[OREGONIC]

Are you setting a .1 degree range for on to off for the heater? Have you used this tight of a range before (and how did it work)? I use a 1 degree range between on and off on my apex to a titanium heater. Curious to know how this works for you.

Been testing for a few days now and not super happy yet with set up. I have apex set to turn on at 78.3 and off at 78.3 and still getting .2 - .3 swings each cycle. Was getting .3 - .4 swings when set to 78.3 on and 78.4 off. I have a e170 that I added a sump to and currently have probs in the aio sump and heaters in lower sump. I think I am going to move one to the upper aio sump area near that return and see if it reduces the swing. My thought is if heat is being returned to the display from both the upper return pump and lower it should heat the display quicker in turn turning off the heaters before they get as hot. Hopefully that helps with temp stability.

 

[Tamberav]

Sucks...I had two fail on me recently. One stopped turning on completely and the other kept shorting out. I have eheim now on controllers.

 

[McPuff]

Darn! I just had the same thing happen on Friday morning! Different brand but same explosion. I only noticed it because the LED was blinking. Looked closer and holy crap that thing is in pieces! I cleaned up all the pieces but the water smelled awful. Thankfully no fish were in the tank (QT), but they were scheduled to go in later that evening. Doing some research it seemed the fish would be fine. I did a small water change and added the fish later in the night. They appear to be totally fine and behaving as I would expect. Since they are damsels I didn't worry too much anyway. :0) This is exactly why I use Titanium in my display system though!!!!

 

[Mr.Z]

I'm glad I found this thread. I've been planning out my first setup and was set on getting a couple of Cobalts. I'll do further research on the topic, but I think I'll go for Eheim instead.

 

[rkpetersen]

I had 2 200w neotherms in the tank, both fully submerged.

The 200W neotherm heaters seem to do this over and over again. I had it happen with one of them, but it was only in a QT. I had previously removed two of them from the DT because of horror stories I had read. I wound up putting one of them into a QT where it actually did crack open while in use awhile later, electrifying the water and leaking something that killed a damsel, the only tank inhabitant at the time. This one was dated 5/2016.

 

[rkpetersen]

This worries me. Running 2 50w neotherm myself. Would it be better to run the eheim stanrdard heater with my apex ?

I have seen no reports of lower wattage Neotherms rupturing. Only the 200W model, although I seem to recall someone claiming they'd had a 150W model blow as well. Nothing smaller that I've heard of.

 

[rkpetersen]

Its scary it didnt even trip the gfci outlet it was plugged in to.

Do you have a grounding probe in the sump with the heaters?

 

[OREGONIC]

Do you have a grounding probe in the sump with the heaters?

No, will be adding now tho.

 

[ingchr1]

Just had a neotherm heater explode. Was sitting on couch and heard a loud boom from in the sump. Got up and made it to the tank in less then 5 seconds opened the sump door and saw bubbling and lots of smoke. Quickly shut off the heater and had it out of the sumo in less then 30 swconds from when it popped. I filled a mesh filter sock with carbon and put in a high flow area. Its been about 30min now and everything looks happy. BTA’s still fully inflated, they usually shrink if I have my hand in the tank for less then a few seconds. Duncan corals still fully open, they usually close up with any type of swing. I was lucky I was sitting right next to the tank and was able to act at olympic athlete speed. Should I worry? Should I make up some water do a large water change tomorrow? Tank has been super stable and I have rarely been doing water changes as the seen to slightly throw things off for a day or two after water changes. Here are a few pics one showing the crack in the heater and one after I removed the broken plastic to see what happened.

I created a thread for collecting info on heater failures, would be great if you could post up the info on yours: [URL="https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/electronic-heater-failure-database.570011/"]Electronic Heater Failure Database[/URL]

 

[Saltyreef]

I would highly recommend the hygger titanium heaters and strongly oppose anyone getting a via aqua titanium heater. I used to live and breathe via aqua. Thought they were the grestest thing since sliced bread. But after countless failures, very deep temperature swings, and leaking voltage, i decided to try something else. I have 2 100w versions of the HYGGER titanium heaters from amazon and for the last few months of use, it keeps my tank at 77.5degrees consistantly.
Two heaters, two controllers and both extremely accurate. Both are accurate to within .2 degrees of eachother and less than .8 degrees from my thermometer reading.

The via aqua titaniums have graduated to water mixing heaters.

The via aqua quartz seem to be a bit more accurate as i have them in my quarantine tanks without issue yet.
But they are new.

The only gripe with the hyggers is the display on the controller can be hard to read because of the type of plastic used to cover the display. But this is a very very minor issue.

Coming from someone who has been through a lot of heaters, these have been near perfect and would not hesitate to recommend them to any reefer needing a reliable replacement.
Even the controllers have saltwater ready probes unlike the inkbirds!

 

[Dolelo96]

I have a 150w in my 425xl. It struggled a bit this past winter, so I was going to upgrade to the 200w...not so sure now

 

[Saltyreef]

I have a 150w in my 425xl. It struggled a bit this past winter, so I was going to upgrade to the 200w...not so sure now

2x 150w would be a safer choice. Then you have the option to only run one heater in summer months. But do get a controller regardless as an extra layer of safety. Also over rating the heater a bit will be a lot easier on it in regards to the length of time the element stays active. Too oversized it would short cycle but i think youll be good with an additional 150 watts no problem.
Gounding probes are also a life saver for the tank inhabitants.

 

[Hemmdog]

These?

I have had 2 of these on my smaller system. Garbage, super inaccurate after a few months. It had almost wiped out my tank on several occasions.

 

[Saltyreef]

I have had 2 of these on my smaller system. Garbage, super inaccurate after a few months. It had almost wiped out my tank on several occasions.

The first generation was much more accurate but i bought two of these pictured new gen heaters and both elements wouldnt turn on 5 degrees below setpoint. Worthless.
Happy with the hyggers thus far