tank heaters

[thesmoothers]

hey guys, i've burn't 5 or 6 over the side and ceramic heaters before caswell sent me some new type units. The heaters plug into a temp housing that mounts on my back wall with a temp dial. i only have a 5gal setup but they work well when the tanks are insulated. didn't know if you have seen them yet. caswell told me they were from a new vendor.

[clydes]

what caused yours to burn out? just wondering if we had the same problem
clydes

[mcaswell]

You folks are talking about totally different systems. Clydes has 1000W Titanium heaters for big tanks, not the little 300W heaters we put in kits.

[clydes]

I see there is a big difference in the style. just wondering what was the cause of the problem for futher peventive actions . at the cost of the heaters any info is helpful. the clepco controls are great. i really enjoy the set up for that but the heaters them selfs not the greatest atleast thats my experince with the poduct. any way caswell has given me great customer support for this problem so far. im really impressed with how craig brooks is handling this for use. clydes

[thesmoothers]

i know the heater in question was from a large system but i'm assuming the same problems plagues them as well. Clydes, i agree! customer support has been 110%, Craig always helps without question!
In my experience the problem with the small 300w old style heaters is the silicon plug in the tops get eaten by the solution. It helps taking them out when not in use "caswell recommends this" but eventually the seal breaks and your tank starts to smoke. I tried to seal the tops with extra silicon but i gave way too. I've found even in the ceramic units the seal loosens after a few weeks but it must have another seal under that, there hasn't been a problem. The wall mounted control units they sent me are working very well with no problems! I don't think the heater problem is caswell fault but the vendor couldn't produce a reliable product.

I'm upgrading to a 16gal system how are the 1000w units placed and controlled?

[clydes]

that was the problem is that they really have no way of monting the heaters in a usable fashion. then you run into drilling holes in the sideof the tank and i was not all for that.they heated from the top with a 10 inch bayonet type heater with a cool zone of 3 inches. this just didnt make sense on heating a 30 gal tank and left on for most of the day. boil off could cause a problem right away if not watched ( fuses for these type are 26.50 each). i choice to use an bottem mounted heater from process technolgys with the clepco controls. that way you heat from the bottem have a tall riiser that will not cause as much trouble with lower level burn up.then the top of the heater turns out over the edge of the tank so there is no chance of wetting out the sand in the heater. they will custom build them for your tank size but they do have off the self items. lance at caswell says that caswell can get these heaters. we are still waiting on ours (27 of january) looks like it might be the answer to my problems. they are a little more spendy but after talking to clepco tech support anything is worth a shot compared to talking to that guy.If you call you will see what I mean. clydes

[thesmoothers]

i have several 25 gal parts washer, the kind with a plastic barrel and the sink part sits on top. They are equiped with heaters that go all the way down the side and coil at the bottom, temp controls are remote. i thought about removing the sink and pump and using these with the 16 gal setup. any thoughts?

[clydes]

that sounds like a great set up what are the heaters made of?
clydes