Visi-Therm Stealth 'sploded!

[fischfan13]

I have found the blue Jagers to be junk. I have lost fish before because of them too.
Right now I am using several different types of heaters, and the one that has stood out has been the Visi-Therm Deluxe...

One other note:
I have a Tronic heater that is TEN years old that has been working everyday since I submerged it.

 

[emartin]

But then with original and Marineland Stealths (not the pros) I've had three fail (two of them melt and bubble, and one just die & not work at all in the middle of winter and by the time I noticed (about 36 hours later, wasn't home that day) the tank temperature dropped 25degrees and all the fish had an epic case of ich...lost a stunning wild male Protomelas steveni Mlowe...even QuIck Cure couldn't save him)).

I've also had stealths with wildly incorrect thermostats being 4F to as much as 10F uncalibrated.

Point I am trying to make, there really is no 100% safe and reliable heater. They all have their issues and stories of failing at some point. Of say the 10 Stealth Heaters I own (both original visitherm and marineland), 3 needed replacing after a year. I've never had to replace a Eheim Ebo Jager heater but then there's people saying they've had problems with them cooking their fish (not just you, Bill. I've heard of a small handful of people saying the same thing). And now the new Stealth Pros are exploding in fish tanks...

The only brand I've never heard of failing or not having any problems ever is the ViaAqua Steel + Titanium heaters with external (Included w/ temperature probe) controllers. But I've never had one, and I am sure 1 or 2 has failed at some point in the past. But that's the only brand my LFS will sell, and he says the reef keepers love it, so it must be good.

The one thing I do not like about the new Stealth Pros is that Marineland even bothered to redesign them. There was nothing wrong with the original design (except the suction cups were cheap) and now the new LEDs defeat the whole original purpose of being "stealth". Their are aggressive fish that just don't tolerate heater indicator lights and would ram glass heaters until they broke. That's why Visitherm came out with a plastic one with no LEDs. I don't understand why companies feel the need to redesign products when they purchase another company that makes them. Same thing happened with Eheim. Everybody loved the original Ebo Jager design, why didn't they just keep making them that way?

Anyway I'll have to try a regular glass Visitherm Deluxe at some point.. The 400watt model looks nice for my needs.

 

[emartin]

I have a Tronic heater that is TEN years old that has been working everyday since I submerged it.

Link? I've never heard of that brand before. Still make them? Ten years is a pretty **** good shelf life... How's the calibration on it?

 

[davidZ]

Just sent my stealth back, it also exploded, lets see what they do.
I do have 2 more visi, and those seem OK.
Someone said that heathers should be changed avery 3 years or so.

 

[Nathan]

Are the original ones having these issues too or just the newer ones?

 

[jonclark96]

I had a new one that stopped working after about 3 months. The light was on but the water was cold.

 

[chris_todd]

Yesterday when I was doing a water change on the 65g Malawi mbuna tank in our kitchen, I noticed the water seemed really warm, so I measured it and it was 88* F. The fish didn't seem terribly stressed, but since I was doing a water change anyway, I dropped the temp and chalked it up to the fact my wife had been cooking and baking all day and the kitchen was warm (though I was disconcerted, because that is still much warmer than the room).

Tonight I see the fish behaving a little strangely (kinda lethargic, and hanging out near the bottom not moving much - odd behavior for mbuna), so I felt the water and again, it was really warm - 92.8* F !!! I look at the heater, and despite the thermostat being set to 79* F and the tank being nearly 93, I can see waves of heat coming off the thing. As I'm trying to drain the tank now to do another emergency water change to drop the temp, one of the Labeotropheus trewavasae 'Jenwilliamsi' has literally gone belly up.

Needless to say, I unplugged the heater, and hopefully my fish will recover from this after the water change. This was one of the slightly older models of Stealth Pro, before they put the Green/Red LED lights on the top. And at least it didn't explode and shock me or crack the tank, but still, I would prefer that the only fish in my house that are properly cooked are the ones on my dinner plate (ironic, considering we had salmon for dinner).

 

[toddnbecka]

I tossed an old-style stealth in the trash can last week. The tank temp was low (around 60 being in the basement) so I turned the heater up a bit. Checked t again the next day and the temp was still low, and I got a somewhat painful shock from the tank water. That heater was bought used several years ago, and there were a few blisters on the casing when I received it but it worked alright.

 

[emartin]

I called Marineland on Monday about the one new 250watt stealth pro I had laying around that I never used. I wanted to confirm whether or not the lot number on it was part of the recall/"problem/exploding" heaters. Turns out it was (it was lot # 01H31) one of the recalled heaters.

They told me to ship it to their headquarters in Blacksburg, VA for an exchange. I did so via UPS ground for about $8. I didn't like how I had to pay for shipping to exchange a defective heater, but it's better than to risk having a heater with a lot # known for exploding and still better than just buying a new heater and discarding the defective one (that was still new).

I'm still going to put the replacement heater, when I get it, in an old tank with some fish I don't care too much about just in case for a few months.

 

[gravel_digger]

I just asked this question here a few months back on heaters and I want to thank everyone for all the input I got especially Andrew and his emphasis on not going cheap on your heater. I stayed completely away from the stealths for 2 new 125s that I just set up and went with titaniums just for a little more peace of mind..... I love this site and the great information that is passed on when the questions are asked!!!! keep up the good work everyone!!!!

 

[Avatar]

Tony - what's the Lot# on your exploded heater?

I called Marineland on Monday about the one new 250watt stealth pro I had laying around that I never used. I wanted to confirm whether or not the lot number on it was part of the recall/"problem/exploding" heaters. Turns out it was (it was lot # 01H31) one of the recalled heaters.

Must have been a whole lot of heaters in Lot #01H31. I think they might be jiving you/us with a classic CYA ruse. The fact that they made you pay shipping is enough to make me never buy another one, or anything else from MarineLand for that matter if that's the way they stand (read as 'hide') behind their products. Pretty clear they're not going to volunteer any compensation for damages stemming from gross product malfunction. I mean, this is America and they're selling exploding appliances with no liability?! How long before a thee year old gets electrocuted from one of these? If one blew up in my tank and they refused to pay for damages I'd have several federal agencies crawling up their *** demanding aggressive recalls. Couldn't believe how many posts there were on the internet about this, not like it seems to be a problem with other heater brands either.

 

[emartin]

Must have been a whole lot of heaters in Lot #01H31. I think they might be jiving you/us with a classic CYA ruse. The fact that they made you pay shipping is enough to make me never buy another one, or anything else from MarineLand for that matter if that's the way they stand (read as 'hide') behind their products. Pretty clear they're not going to volunteer any compensation for damages stemming from gross product malfunction. I mean, this is America and they're selling exploding appliances with no liability?! How long before a thee year old gets electrocuted from one of these? If one blew up in my tank and they refused to pay for damages I'd have several federal agencies crawling up their *** demanding aggressive recalls. Couldn't believe how many posts there were on the internet about this, not like it seems to be a problem with other heater brands either.

Actually I have heard that they have compensated people for broken fish tanks, loss of livestock, and property damage due to the heaters.

But, I think the actual recall for non-damaged heaters that have the lot # for the defective units is strictly volunteer since the units didn't actually fail yet and didn't cause any damage yet. It's like with the recalled Toyota's...just because they were recalled doesn't mean every single Toyota on the road has the defective gas pedal (or w/e the problem was that was making them crash). I wouldn't be surprised if Marineland is recycling some of the returned heaters to be repaired or something instead of just throwing them out altogether.

I believe for example that they sent Tony replacement Stealth Pro heater(s) for free. I could be wrong, so Tony if I am wrong please correct me (I don't want to misquote you).