[mike31154]

I have two 150 watt Stealth heaters in my 77 & they've been reliable for me. Yes, these are the ones which are the subject of many disaster threads regarding heaters. I think mine are the older made in Italy models though & like I said they've been great so far.

Anyhow, these are supposedly fully submersible but I've never felt comfortable dropping a heater, control knob, cord & all fully into the water. I always respect the max/min level marks on any of my heaters and keep the control knob & cord above the water line. I cringe whenever I see a photo or any tank in person with a heater fully submerged. I don't care what the manufacturer says, there's got to be some sort of seal between the control knob & the internal workings of the thermostat in the heater and over time, it will eventually fail leading to a safety issue & possible disaster. Even the ones with the temperature control separate still have a seal where the electrical cord enters the heater body which could fail over time. Less likely for these since there's usually a ton of epoxy to water proof the point of entry, but nothing is completely foolproof. Same goes for powerheads, that's one of the reasons I'm a VorTech proponent.

I guess bottom line with any heater seems to be luck of the draw as to how long they will last. Mindy's post has some great advice as to how to minimize the chance of a heater failure crashing your tank.