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Safety warning! Aqueon aquarium heater causing electrocution

Simon Cole

Simon Cole

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Joined
25 Dec 2018
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Snowdonia
Just a quick note to members that Alexander Williamson has identified some truly shocking health and safety issues with Aqueon Pro 100W aquarium heaters. This appears to be an Italian company, so I suspect that many of us may have them.
Alex had this happen twice, and he was rather lucky to get away with his life this second time around.
Potential risks identified: ELECTROCUTION, INJURY and DEATH

Guidance: UNPLUG ELECTRICAL ITEMS BEFORE YOU PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE WATER
There is usually no good reason to have heaters or electrolysis machinery turned on when we are working in our tanks.
Ideally consider unplugging your filters and run an air pump, and make sure lights cannot fall into the water either.
If you see dead fish, consider whether it could be electrocution before you proceed any further.
Do not assume that some brands are safe and others are not, proceed with care regardless.

You can read full details in Alex's video below:
 
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A few months back i was researching what mini heater i could use for my new terraruim i must of read hundreds of reviews of various heaters, all the well known brands and others, my conclusion was there is no safe bet in regards to internal heaters, lots of similiar experiences to this and well known name brands are not exempt either.

Yes always unplug before working inside the tank with internal heaters.
 
tigertim said:
Yes always unplug before working inside the tank with internal heaters.
Click to expand...
Or at least put one hand in your pocket before putting you hand in the tank at first, that way you should only get a little shock/tingle as an early warning that's something isn't right. Only takes a few milliamps going across your heart to cause trouble, With your hand in your pocket it will travel down side of your body and not quite as bad. Never if floor is wet. Plus always best if your socket or ring main or DB (Distribution Board) has an RCD (residual current device). Just had a new DB myself and went for RCBOs (Residual Current Breaker with Over-Current) for all circuits, which will be standard for all new installations one day
 
When reading up i noticed a lot of the issues happened with heaters during hot weather, i unplugged mine the other day, terraruim is still 78F tonight, judging by the forcasts no need to plug it back in for another couple of weeeks at least.
 
Titanium heaters are probably your safest option as they’re extremely durable. I can nearly think of an issue with every other heater I’ve owned except titanium heaters. Either fail on, fail off or have given me a little tingle before they’re launched in the bin.

Cheers
 
Might be worth considering an earthing rod if you are worried about shocks. I don't have one but is on the list (safety first and all that). Fish are sensitive to electrical discharge, which an earthing rod will eliminate, so beneficial to the fish as well.
They're more common in marine tanks but no reason it wouldn't apply in freshwater.
 
The RCD and RCBO are valuable, but the option of adding an earthing rod I find quite brilliant as mitigation. @ScareCrow - great suggestion :clap:

Obviously a voltage meter might be one of those things that we could use occasionally. There is still a bit of uncertainty about how quickly these current leaks progress. Some people have observed them building up over time until the heater fully explodes. In Alex's aquarium it appears that it was arcing back on itself because there were a few snails that survived which were presumably out of the worst current. The voltages must have been huge because the thing literally burned, melted and smelled, even though it was submerged under water! I am suspecting an arcing fault. Hopefully more information will come to light over time.
 
Conort2 said:
Titanium heaters are probably your safest option as they’re extremely durable. I can nearly think of an issue with every other heater I’ve owned except titanium heaters. Either fail on, fail off or have given me a little tingle before they’re launched in the bin.

Cheers
Click to expand...
I use carbon under tank heaters on my two Nano’s. They were very popular in the 1980’s - 90’s. I had one on my 50 gallon tank for maybe ten years without any problems. I don’t know why they stopped selling the high power ones for aquariums. The “high power” Vivarium ones I bought are just powerful enough for a Nano in the UK.
 
I use titanium heaters now as well but tbh in my 30 odd years of fish keeping, having had a few heaters fail, they have never given me a shock but I have had problems with pumps. I think some of this is due to keeping marines where more pumps are used and the water and animals are more problematic. I've seen urchins eat into wires and triggerfish bite them as well.

I also think people can expect to much from a heater. Plenty buy the cheapest one they find and expect it to be infallible when it should be an item we really consider because it holds the life of our stock in its hands. I check the guarantee offered and then the history of the heater (like visitherm used to offer a five year guarantee, so you had confidence they had confidence, but then they changed manufacturer and they became awful so I stopped using them) but they all have problems just like any piece of equipment. Heaters shouldn't be something we run to death unless you have a controller to limit the risk.
Probably the biggest reason I could find for heater failures when I was in the shop was because people neglected to unplug them when they did a water change and they exploded when they were on out of water. I know that's common sense but it's easy to forget, i've done it myself. Think how many kettles you have had fail over the years and they don't need to remain waterproof and are on a lot less than your average heater.
 
mort said:
i've done it myself.
Click to expand...

I've done it myself too in the past - it managed to burn through the towel it was sitting on, setting it asmoulder, and making a lovely black burn in the carpet too

mort said:
I also think people can expect to much from a heater. Plenty buy the cheapest one they find and expect it to be infallible when it should be an item we really consider because it holds the life of our stock in its hands.
Click to expand...

I agree, it always surprises me when people rely on a thermostat within the heater that must cost a matter of pence. I put all my heaters on separate temperature controller so I have dual redundancy against a thermostat failure cooking the tank.
 
Wookii said:
I agree, it always surprises me when people rely on a thermostat within the heater that must cost a matter of pence. I put all my heaters on separate temperature controller so I have dual redundancy against a thermostat failure cooking the tank.
Click to expand...
I was thinking of that myself. I use a couple of these on my under tank heaters, they aren’t that expensive.
www.elitecheu.com

Elitech ATC-1550 Pre-wired Digital Temperature Controller, Heating,Cooling Output, Touch-key ThermostatUK / 1

Elitech ATC-1550 controller is a smart "supper-easy" series temperature controller, and it is used for the temperature controller which needs cooling and heating switch automatically.
www.elitecheu.com
 
Anyone know why they don’t make the tubes out of stainless steel? In fact, with a little imagination a S/S heater enclose could be made to look pretty good. So much so you may not want to hide it?
 
Aqua sobriquet said:
I was thinking of that myself. I use a couple of these on my under tank heaters, they aren’t that expensive.
www.elitecheu.com

Elitech ATC-1550 Pre-wired Digital Temperature Controller, Heating,Cooling Output, Touch-key ThermostatUK / 1

Elitech ATC-1550 controller is a smart "supper-easy" series temperature controller, and it is used for the temperature controller which needs cooling and heating switch automatically.
www.elitecheu.com
Click to expand...
Definitely good to have as a fail safe. You also have to use these with titanium heaters as they don’t come with a built in thermostat.

Aqua sobriquet said:
Anyone know why they don’t make the tubes out of stainless steel? In fact, with a little imagination a S/S heater enclose could be made to look pretty good. So much so you may not want to hide it?
Click to expand...
The titanium heaters look pretty tidy.
 
Conort2 said:
Definitely good to have as a fail safe. You also have to use these with titanium heaters as they don’t come with a built in thermostat.
Click to expand...

These Inkbird ones do - I have a couple of them:

Amazon product ASIN B097HD4S34
They don't have quite the quality feel for the Schego/D-D ones, but I specifically want that dual redundancy of two sensors.
 
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