Thread: In Line Heaters
View Single Post
Old July 9th, 2009, 09:11 AM   #3
xoomer
Admin
 
xoomer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Staten Island, NYC
Posts: 239
Rep Power: 32 xoomer is an unknown quantity at this point
Default

I could see how it could be more efficient as long as the water doesn't pass by the element too fast. I too think that heaters "sitting" in the water column are not efficient.

The whole design is so old that they are simply wrong. Whoever designed these things had half a brain in their head.

We all know from physics that heat raises be it air or water. Unless the heater is placed in an area of very good water movement the heater as they are currently built is very ineficient at doing it's job.

Think about it. The heater element in all the submersible heaters is at the bottom of the heater and the thermostat is at the top. While the thermostat is exposed to to the raising heated water it is not preperly exposed to the water in the tank. That is why a lot of heaters click in and out until they fail and cook your tank.

This can be somewhat corrected by placing multiple smaller heaters that will not "click" as often because their elements takes a lot longer to heat up a body of water. Placing multiple heaters in the tank will also distribute heat more evenly at two opposite sides of the tank. In the even of failure a single smaller heater will also not overheat your tank, because if one is stuck the other will most likely just not go on due to higher temp.

In addition to correcting this design flaw mentioned above I also hang all heaters upside down so that the raising heat doesn't affect the operations of a thermostat. If placed in a refugium i place them so that water flowing though sweeps the thermostat first and then the heater element. It has worked great for me in all these years and off all the different heaters I've had over the years I've never had one fail.
__________________
BAS - Educating Aquarists Since 1911.
xoomer is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Page generated in 0.03250 seconds with 10 queries