I was wondering why induction aquarium heaters do not exist. Something like a vortech pump where the power supply and cables exist outside the tank so no risk of stray voltage and the like. The system would eat something like a conformal coated puck in the water through the glass. My guess would be that there are too many losses or that induction systems do not like operating and "mild" temperatures compared to as hot as possible.
Why don't Induction Heaters Exist?
- Thread starter jeffww
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Larry L
Valuable Member
I think the issue is with being able to transfer the amount of current that heaters need through the glass to a heating element on the wet side. AFAIK with the Vortechs the current doesn't transfer through the glass, it's used to spin a magnet on the dry side and that spins another magnet on the wet side.
Joekovar
Active Member
I had this same thought last night and spent today looking into it.
One big hurdle is keeping a ferromagnetic material in the tank while keeping it water/corrosion proof. A lot of the materials you would use to achieve this are also thermal insulators, which isn't useful at all for a heater.
I stumbled on a company that uses a Chemical Vapor Deposition process to basically grow a diamond coating on tool steel.
Diamond is a fantastic thermal conductor, is an electrical insulator, it's impervious to water and corrosion, and as we all know, extremely hard and could be cleaned with just about anything.
I think using that CVD process to encapsulate either a simple iron plate, or perhaps an alloy since the CVD diamond process seems to require specific substrate properties may be the answer to the "wet side" of an induction aquarium heater.
Another hurdle is magnetic field coupling. Aquarium glass ranges in thickness, so calibrating the wattage used to induce heating in the "puck" is going to vary from aquarium to aquarium.
In all instances, a separate thermal probe will be required to monitor tank temperature. It appears a lot of titanium heaters already work like this.
Another consideration is common aquarium glass vs low iron glass. Iron is ferromagnetic, so glass that has iron impurities in it is going to be affected by the induction more than low iron glass aquariums.
Though, the heaters would most likely be used in a sump, where typical glass would be used.
Which brings me to acrylic tanks and sumps. Obviously we can't have a heating puck magnetically coupled to an acrylic pane. It would deform or discolor the acrylic.
We also can't have a diamond coating sitting directly on glass. Dipping one side of the puck in the same silicone used to make oven mitts would protect glass from the diamond coating, protect acrylic from heat, and provide friction so the magnetically coupled wet and dry sides don't just slide down the pane.
so that's where I'm at with it.
One big hurdle is keeping a ferromagnetic material in the tank while keeping it water/corrosion proof. A lot of the materials you would use to achieve this are also thermal insulators, which isn't useful at all for a heater.
I stumbled on a company that uses a Chemical Vapor Deposition process to basically grow a diamond coating on tool steel.
Diamond is a fantastic thermal conductor, is an electrical insulator, it's impervious to water and corrosion, and as we all know, extremely hard and could be cleaned with just about anything.
I think using that CVD process to encapsulate either a simple iron plate, or perhaps an alloy since the CVD diamond process seems to require specific substrate properties may be the answer to the "wet side" of an induction aquarium heater.
Another hurdle is magnetic field coupling. Aquarium glass ranges in thickness, so calibrating the wattage used to induce heating in the "puck" is going to vary from aquarium to aquarium.
In all instances, a separate thermal probe will be required to monitor tank temperature. It appears a lot of titanium heaters already work like this.
Another consideration is common aquarium glass vs low iron glass. Iron is ferromagnetic, so glass that has iron impurities in it is going to be affected by the induction more than low iron glass aquariums.
Though, the heaters would most likely be used in a sump, where typical glass would be used.
Which brings me to acrylic tanks and sumps. Obviously we can't have a heating puck magnetically coupled to an acrylic pane. It would deform or discolor the acrylic.
We also can't have a diamond coating sitting directly on glass. Dipping one side of the puck in the same silicone used to make oven mitts would protect glass from the diamond coating, protect acrylic from heat, and provide friction so the magnetically coupled wet and dry sides don't just slide down the pane.
so that's where I'm at with it.
