# Cheap good heaters?



## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

I know nothing about heaters and the brands or their reliablity. Can I get some collective feedback for small heaters in the 25-50W range? 

Money is tight right now. How much are heaters normally?

What is considered a good deal price wise? I don't know the pricing aroudn the GTA and places that are good to go to buy them. I do have some Wally's gift cards of about $200 which I plan on using for other things as well so just saying I'd like to use what I have on hand if I could but open to other stores.

How can I tell good condition heaters from bad ones? 

What are tell tale signs of a bad heater? 

Or a heater going bad? 

Dangers of bad heaters (other then fish boil)? 

Cananyone provide a site on heaters and their damage or pictures of damaged heaters so I can learn on this?


Thanks.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 21, 2007)

AquaNeko said:


> I know nothing about heaters and the brands or their reliablity. Can I get some collective feedback for small heaters in the 25-50W range?
> 
> Money is tight right now. How much are heaters normally?
> 
> ...


I've found there's only two heater brands that are universally recommended as being good. Stealth heaters and Ebo-Jager heaters. Personally I prefer the Stealth heaters cause they are also shatter proof. There are other decent heaters out there, but these two are the only two that almost everyone recommends. Most others you'll see some people have good results while others had theirs fail, etc.

Here's a site with reviews of heaters: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/reviews/category_display.php?CatID=701&sort=rating

Thanks,
Harry


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## Cory (May 2, 2008)

I have a few WON brand 50 w heaters left from when I used to sell them. I sold them at the time for $15 or so. Same brand I use in all of my tanks and especially at larger sizes the price is hard to beat. So far I've only had problems with two of them and both times it was my fault so I highly recommend them.


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## DaFishMan (Dec 19, 2006)

For 2 approx 20 of my 29 yrs in the hobby I used the cheapo glass heaters from wallmart. No problems. Still have one going in my 10g and owned that heater for over 10 yrs. I followed one simple rule that many do not. Unplug prior to water changes, plug back in once the water's topped up.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

DaFishMan said:


> For 2 approx 20 of my 29 yrs in the hobby I used the cheapo glass heaters from wallmart. No problems. Still have one going in my 10g and owned that heater for over 10 yrs. I followed one simple rule that many do not. Unplug prior to water changes, plug back in once the water's topped up.


I was thinking of doing that but what if I put my heater vertically standing at the bottom of the 10gal? Even at 50% water change you would not expose the glass of the heater. Would it still be ok to keep the heater on while WCing if it is submerged that way?


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## Cory (May 2, 2008)

If your heater can handle being fully submerged indefinitely then yes you can do that aquaneko. I try and push all of my heaters as low as possible both to keep them out of sight and out of my way when I'm in the tank but also to prevent myself from killing a heater with a brain fart.


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## DaFishMan (Dec 19, 2006)

The ones I referred to aren't submersible. I hear the Stealth is decent


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Ebo-Jaeger heaters are my fav, made by eheim now.


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