DIY External Heater Housing?

[Laith]

And....?

Curious to see how this worked!

[travdawg]

C'mon Brian!!! Ya linked here from another post & no results??? Lets hear about it!

[briandmiles]

Sorry, the wife had the camera last night so I couldn't get any pictures but I'll be sure to take care of the problem tonight.

Brian

[briandmiles]

Alright, I'd like to thank everyone for the many suggestions that I received while I was working on this project. Here are the pictures of the DIY inline heater housing installed and working (flawlessly) on my tank. IMO it is far better than an in tank heater for several reasons. First, it's more efficient. When the heater was in the tank with the same temperature setting the tank thermometer read 2-3 degrees below what the heater was set at. Now it reads 2-3 degrees above what it is set at. Second the temp is absolutely stable at 77 degrees for 3 days now and since it runs through the spraybar the whole tank is that temperature. Third it just looks better without the heater hanging in the tank. Fourth it was 10 bucks to make the housing and my DIY C02 reactor wich is 1/4 the cost of the Hydor ETH. Fifth it is absolutely SILENT. Yes, even more silent than the Eheim I'm running it inline with, not even a click when it cycles on or off. Lastly I don't know about you but there is a certain sense of accomplishment anytime I can make something with my own two hand and I'm pretty sure anyone with a drill and a little time could make one of these for themselves.

I just tried to post the pics but it won't upload. I'll try again in a few minutes.

Brian

[scolley]

Good deal Brian! That's a lot of good reasons to love it! Looking forward to the pics. And even more looking forward to your long term results!

So please do keep us posted on how this works out over time. I think the level of confidence your long term observations would provide could be just what it takes for a solid number of people to try this themselves.

[snowman]

I agree the sense of accomplishment having hand made something for your tank adds pride. At the same time we save money making something for the tank we can learn how are tanks work or maybe how to make them work better. Really looking forward to the pictures! I haven't been able to start building my inline yet but have the details locked up in my head...hopefully I'll make the time soon. If I do get it made I still have to learn to post pictures as that's probably going to be the hard part for me

[briandmiles]

OK, here's the pics. I had resized them but they were just a little too big so it wouldn't upload. Comments/questions are welcome.

Brian

[snowman]

Very nice that's the general look I was going for as well! Nice DIY I bet many more will be following. You do nice work!

[scolley]

Brian - yours is done now! Congrats! But if you find it doesn't work as well as planned, or if other people are looking to follow you, I think I may have located and outstanding fitting. Free too!

Take a look!

[briandmiles]

Yeah, I saw your post earlier. What I've done is working great and I would still be a little worried about the lack of water flow at the top of the glass tube where it says "minimum water level". Nonetheless I've ordere two free "samples" to use in the future. One will be for my inline pH probe (hopefully arriving this week) and the other? who knows but it never hurts to have one.

Brian

[briandmiles]

Well I just linked to this post for another post and thought I ought to give an update. The heater is still working great. I've had no leaks and no problems of any other sort. The temperature is rock solid with this setup and it will likely be something that I will repeat on future tanks.

Brian

[Curare]

Okay, a few things...

Firstly, why have it in such a large gallery that it's not heating?

I would have thought it would have been better to go for say, 4 inch pipe, and keep it about 4" longer than the heater, and just keep good water flow over it, surely this would make more sense?

[briandmiles]

The length of the pipe was chosen primarily for ease in hooking it up to the DIY CO2 Reactor that I was also building at the same time. I think the fact that it still works so great goes to show that you could make it virtually any length you wanted. Also I feel (I have NO PROOF) that the length allows less turbulence, but adequate flow near the heater so that the heat transfer will be more efficient.

Brian

[Hoppy]

To get the best heat transfer you want turbulent, not laminar flow. So, you would do best with a diameter that keeps the water in motion, but is large enough not to have any worries about pockets of water getting too hot. The length wouldn't be critical, as long as the heater fits. Alternatively, a very large diameter would make it act like a sump - the heater would slowly increase the temperature of the water, which then would exit to the tank, warmed. Just brainstorming --- a sealed sump would seem to be the best overall approach. Yes, I know this is a completed project, but one can build lots of these in one's mind, test them by thinking thru what will happen, then decide on the best approach. (Just a retired engineer musing about this!)

[nillo]

I'm afraid that your silicon seal at the top will fail. IME, silicon doesn't maintain a bond to PVC for very long. I am a devot DIYer, but I would pony up the $40 for the heater module from AquaticEcosystems part VF13. It is a generic version of the Rainbow module. It comes in three sizes. It is just the bare module no heater is included, but it accepts heaters 3/4"-1" and up to 1000w.

Another, untested, option would be to use AquaticEcosystems part L6450, which is a 1" cord grip. These are supposed to provide a liquid-tight strain relief for cables. that particular one can accomodate a cable up to 1" in diameter. These things look like bulkheads, but also have threaded fittings. At $10 they have DIY all over them.

Let me take this time to say, "Every DIYer needs the AquaticEcosystems catalog."

Shawn