Okay, we got the little heater on the porch today! Shipping seems to be going totally insane?
I order from California and it gets here quicker than this item from 60 miles up I-35?
What I find, so far, seems good but I will run down what I see.
Out of the box it feels and looks good. Very solid feel as the heater tube is advertised as stainless and appears to be very nicely done with a smooth fit and finish. Nice shiny surface makes it collect less grime, etc. and easier to wipe down if needed. Solid so that it doesn't break.
It has an interesting design that is not something I have ever felt I needed but looks good. The plastic cage is solid and seems to fit quite snug. The directions have several good points and one its that the heater should be operated fully submerged. The cover has pretty flexible rubber suction cups. Not something I trust too far as they tend to quit after some time but these appear normal quality. Two better than one?
My first thought on the cover was not correct. While most of us do want to put the heater in the back and out of sight, there are times when I want it on the end or even up front. Times when I'm making a radical change like to treat ich? I want the heater where I can see the temp creep up and I thought I wanted to put this one in front so I could watch and take some pictures for you folks.
Sometimes, it just seems my thoughts are not inline with folks who make things like this cover. It is designed with a notch in the cover so that it can only be placed on the heater in one direction. If not for this notch, I could fit it sideways and place the heater in any way I wanted. Not so! Is that a biggie? Just something I would do differently if I built one.
The directions are pretty good and mention several points about placement but those are pretty standard other than this one is to be fully submerged and they do specify that it will not heat if the top is not covered or it is out of the water. Good safety feature than can save a heater if/when I forget to turn it off on water changes. Yes, it does "remember" the setting during power failures or cutoffs. One of the primary questions I had was about the different heater element material. Adverts mention ceramic plates, rather than wire coils. That would seem to be a major advance but it is not something that can be seen from outside. If it fails, then I will look inside but for now, I'll have to take their word. One new thought is the big ad on the box front.
Any of you high tech engineer sorts who can fill us in on how they expect to get that much better energy savings? Actual fact or blowing smoke?
Meanwhile the heater is in the tank and doing what it should. This tank had no heater and it had drifted down to about 75 but I set the heater for 78 and it bumps it right up and shut off as expected.
A nice bright readout with LED to show when heating or off. At the price of $20, it seems a very good addition to the heater lineup. With an improved switching system so that there are no relay points to burn, better element design and a switch outside the tank to adjust there are several points that seem good. The temperature setting switch is just a micro switch built into the cord. This switch location has good points as it does away with an adjustment shaft through the heater seal. That helps stop water leaking into the heater. But it could be an awkward point if you use the heater plugged directly into a wall outlet behind a stand. In that case the switch is about a foot from the plug and may be very hard to access. For the way I run my heaters plugged into controllers as a safety measure, the switch location if fine.
How good is the heater? Yet to be determined. Check back in a few years?