Exploding Heaters - Marineland Stealth and Stealth Pro (Pictures) - Recall Issued

[Dez]

There's a guy that rents space from me at work and he has a turtle tank there and the same thing happened to him. His looked a lot worse though. It's just crazy!

[fishoholic]

Yikes, somehow I didn't know this, I've used and am using this type of heater right now. I always thought they were well made, I haven't had any issues yet and been using one for 3yrs. I was always worried about glass ones crapping out/breaking (which I have had happen) which was why I switched to stealth in the 1st place! Apparently the stealth's suck too Looks like I'll be looking for a new heater.

[abcha0s]

The trouble is, when these things fail they pour toxic chemicals into your tank.

When a glass heater fails, you should be able to catch it by monitoring the temp of your tank. Most people, including myself, recommend a secondary control. I have mine connected to my Apex controller, so a stuck heater won't crash my tank.

An exploding heater is an entirely different story.

[mseepman]

Yeah...I've been holding off on a controller to buy the right one once my 290G starts.

[Binare]

Ive had 5 or 6 of these heaters and never had issues. That said... I like the Jagers now for calibration.

[phi delt reefer]

Everything Jager is good...

[cale262]

I had one of these fail on me a couple years ago in a hi-tec planted system, I came home to find everthing dead and a very established and mature system wiped out, it was heart breaking to say the least...All my systems are running ehiem heaters now...

[sphelps]

So basically the heater is a loaded pipe bomb, nice! You know that is definitely lawsuit material, especially with any kind of damage, even emotional.

It's interesting the company hasn't recalled them as I'm sure they are aware of the issue, my bet is they did a value analysis which proved the expense required for the recall is higher than the damages they may have to pay out as a result from the defective products. Although this is common practice it's also basically illegal. Any registered engineer or other professionals working on the project could loose their license and face jail time. Their is certainly danger towards human life here, if the instant before the heater exploded you noticed a strange sound and decided to pull out the heater to investigate it would certainly do some damage.

I would investigate some options if I were you, this kind of BS shouldn't just be shrugged off as "I should have known better", the manufacturer and designers should have known better. It's certainly not your responsibility to make sure such products are safe to use.

[Jackie]

I guess one reason is we can not see any crack or damage on these Stealth heaters. And we handle them much more roughly than glass heaters. 300W mixing with water.

[mseepman]

Yikes...I have two of these...one still in the box and one running my 70g tank.

My Ebo-Jager failed on and nearly cooked my tank at 90 degrees so J&L replaced it (it was in the first year) with two smaller Stealths.

Guess I should be looking at other options before it costs me my tank.