Fluval M Series Heater Woes :-( Heater Recommendations, Please

[friendlyfishy777]

My aquarium hasn't been up and running for that long but I notice the Fluval M 200 watt heater is now failing to heat the tank to the desired temperature of 24c. It all started five days ago. Yesterday I noticed it had gone to between 21 and 22c and stayed there. So worried was I that I added a second heater (a 150watt Interpet Delta Therm) that came with my spare hospital tank to make up for the temperature loss. The spare heater looks big and bulky near the slim silver Fluval M series heater.

I have three thermometers for the tank: one glass, one digital and a strip one on the outside of the glass.

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced similar problems with the Fluval M series.

And

What heater would forum members recommend? I need a 200 W heater. As clearly I need to buy a replacement heater as soon as possible, but I am now a little wary of buying another M series heater.

Cheers,

Rebecca

 

[onidrase]

Many many people have had problems with that heater. It breaks easily and loses its flavor soon, some people have to turn it up higher than the desired temperature for it to do anything.

Heaters that I see commonly suggested are Fluval E-Series Heaters, Aqueon Pro Heaters, and Rena Smart Heaters.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I have the Fluval M 200W heater and haven't had any problems with it. It's been up and running since March with no trouble at all. I hope this doesn't affect me. Sorry you've had trouble with it.


Curiosity leads me to ask:

How did you have the heater oriented? Was it vertical, bias, or horizontal? Was it fully submerged or only partial? How long did you have it before all this happened?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Is there a chance that the thermostat is badly calibrated? For instance, to get 24C in my newly setup 48x12x15 with a Juwel 200W heater, I have to set the thermostat to 28/29C. In contrast, one of my Rena Smartheater 300W heaters will try to maintain 23C when set to its thermostat minimum of 20C.

As eaglesaquarium wrote, heater position relative to the water flow and its orientation can also influence things.

If buying another heater is a must, I have recently learnt that Visitherm heaters are highly regarded and cover a range of 18-32C, definitely will be trying one as my next heater purchase...
http/www.aquacadabra.co.uk/VisiTherm-200W.html

 

[Juggler75]

Agree there semms to be lots of stories about the M class, could you not take it back to shop and explain problem.

 

[friendlyfishy777]

I have the Fluval M 200W heater and haven't had any problems with it. It's been up and running since March with no trouble at all. I hope this doesn't affect me. Sorry you've had trouble with it.


Curiosity leads me to ask:

How did you have the heater oriented? Was it vertical, bias, or horizontal? Was it fully submerged or only partial? How long did you have it before all this happened?

I've had the heater running since the 25th of September and it was placed diagonally. It was fully submerged. It was working fine until five days ago.

 

[friendlyfishy777]

Thanks everybody for your options. It seems that this heater has a bit of a history.


I've gone for two 100 Watt Visitherm heaters as the replacement. I was going to go just for the one 200watt but I've read having two lower wattage heaters are safer (unlikely for both to break down at once, and if one over heats it is less likely to boil the fish seeing it is a lower wattage).

They sound very highly regarded, so fingers crossed, there will be no problems. I managed to get them for just £17.95 each from charterhouse aquatics, so I'm pleased!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I have the Fluval M 200W heater and haven't had any problems with it. It's been up and running since March with no trouble at all. I hope this doesn't affect me. Sorry you've had trouble with it.


Curiosity leads me to ask:

How did you have the heater oriented? Was it vertical, bias, or horizontal? Was it fully submerged or only partial? How long did you have it before all this happened?

I've had the heater running since the 25th of September and it was placed diagonally. It was fully submerged. It was working fine until five days ago.

That's exactly how mine is set-up. Mine has been going for months with no issues. Maybe I just got lucky. I actually had heard some negative things about the heater right after I had ordered mine. A lot of prayers have kept it working properly, I guess.

 

[friendlyfishy777]

Hopefully yours will carry on working well for a long time to come. I'm sure for every bad story there must be a good one too. Though, maybe you should think about a back up heater if you ever go away for a few days just to be on the safe side.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yeah, but I don't go away during the cooler months... only the summer. I don't need the heater then.