Warning ! Pro heat II by WON can cook fish !!

[mling]

I have 3 Pro Heat II heaters by WON, one for each tank. I like them because there is an external LED read out of the tank temp and also an on/off indicator next to the temp reading to tell you if the heater heat element is on (Green LED on, red LED on) or off (Green LED off, red LED on). You also get to control the temp externally.

Lucky for me, I still had this old stick on thermometer stuck to the glass of one of my tanks. Yesterday, I noticed that the WON heater said 76 degrees and the heater element was off ( Green LED off, red LED on ). i.e. everything is idea, heater element not needed. However, the stick on thermometer suggested that the temp was in the 80s. To cut to the chase, the WON heater had malfunctioned and the heater element of on all the time. I removed the heater and tested it in a tub of water and discovered that in a few hours the water was soon hot enough to burn you when you touch it ! All this when the LED said temp in the 70s !

My worry now is that I am often out of town. If this had happened when I was away, I’ll be having Sea food cooked to order when I get home !

I have been using these heaters for 3 years now without any problems till now. Has any one had similar problems ? How can you be sure that another brand heater will not do the same when it malfunctions ?

 

[Len]

Dude, don't I know it. Any heater could actually do this, but my boiling event last year was also with a titanium heater. The tank got over 100 degrees. I'm surprised anything survived.

 

[Mike612]

Yeah that happened to me last summer with the titanium heater also. Thankfully I caught it on time. I lost my mandarin and a cleaner shrimp, but my other fish, my coral, my anemone, etc... were all fine.

 

[mling]

So does anyone have any pro active suggestions ?
Or are we just domed to made in china products :lol:

 

[metalac]

So does anyone have any pro active suggestions ?
Or are we just domed to made in china products :lol:

get a chiller

 

[Anonymous]

Every single Won heater I ever sold malfunctioned. Every one. Including the ones I used myself here.

Now I use the aqua medic heaters with a controller for my own systems.

 

[Anonymous]

So does anyone have any pro active suggestions ?
Or are we just domed to made in china products :lol:

Spend money on good quality heaters (go with established manufacturers) and, what I have ALWAYS advised -- divide the job of heating between at least two heaters. That way, no one heater is powerful enough to poach your specimens. This is often far less expensive than adding a chiller to a system that may not actually need it.

 

[Buffalo]

something i wish the industry would fix, overheating heaters