Problem with Visi-Therm Heater

C

cichlidcichlid

AC Members
Jun 15, 2006
893
0
0
I just received my replacement heater from Marineland and it seems to already be acting up. After leaving it running in my tank for 30 minutes there is water vapor/condensation building up inside of the heater tube.

Is anyone else having this problem?

After taking it out of the package I got the feeling that it was cheap. It reminded me of an inexpensive heater from Petco with those little painted on fish symbols on the outside of the heater. Also the suction cups that it comes with leave very little to be desired.

This is a far cry from the Stealth at least when it was working. It actually felt like a quality product. Instead of blending in with the tank or at least leaving the glass tube bare they painted it silver.

Should I just ask for a refund and try my luck with another brand? If so which would be a quality heater (not made in china), have a bare glass tube, silent, and accurate? This is really frustrating to me because I have a free heater that came with one of my used tanks that works perfectly. I think the brand was Tronic.

What heaters do professionals use on display tanks? People pay them money to maintain them so I would assume they would use top notch equipment.

Any help that you can give me in this matter would be most appreciated.
 
Last edited:
I should also add that this heater makes a loud clicking noises when it turns on and off. This in itself might make me switch it out. The tank is located in my bedroom and at night I don't think I want to try sleeping through the noise every night.
 
Never heard a heater make noise. Now about the condensation, did you leave the heater in the tank for 20min-30min before plugging it in? If not, then the heater could be damaged from that on top of it being cheap. If you dont like it, get your money back.
 
Condensation inside is the kiss of death for heaters. That said, I've had good luck with deluxe visitherms in the past, maybe you got a bad 1. When I get around to doing the stealth recall, (I still have several not in use) I think I'll go with Ebo even though they aren't the same as the old ebo jaeger I knew & liked or maybe a Hydor inline (NOT in tank)...
 
I just bought one of these Marineland heaters today (the 100 watt version). And I think the model I replaced was a Stealth.

How quickly should this 100 watt heater heat my water up if I want it to go from 66 degrees to 72?
 
I did condition the heater by leaving it submerged in the tank for 30 minutes. I always do this with new heaters as well as anytime I do a water change.
 
I'll add my heater experience in: I had two of the recalled Stealth heaters, both 50W. I requested replacement ones from Marineland, which arrived a few weeks later in a very big box with absolutely no packaging. The two heaters were literally loose in this giant box without even a speck of bubble wrap or styrofoam or anything. Not surprisingly, one didn't work at all, and the other worked for about a week then quit heating. I called Marineland again requesting two replacement 50W size heaters and was sent one very large heater (I only have small tanks), well packaged this time. Unfortunately it would barely even fit in any of my tanks much less not overcook them. Another call to marineland resulted in getting two 150W heaters. I don't know if they work since by now I have more heaters than you can shake a stick at and haven't even needed to take them out of the package yet. I do have a visitherm in my 29 gallon which has been working fine. They are fairly ugly though and don't really blend into the background of the tank.
 
UPDATE: I had to unplug the heater and revert back to my backup. The temp reached 86 degrees over the course of one full day. What should I do call Marineland back and ask for a replacement of the replacement?

I do agree the box that they shipped this heater in was huge as though they use a standard box for shipping everything heaters, filters, etc.
 
I have noticed the condensation to be a problem with those heaters I have about 10 of them. It does not seem effect there performance. The good thing about the company they do not hassle you. I find they do stick by there guarantee.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom