Captain Conkout Posted May 29, 2007 Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 Is anyone able to confirm if the supplied adaptor is 110v and 220v compatible. I have been looking at getting one of these directly from the U.S but if a whole new transformer/adaptor is needed this would kill the economy. If all it needs is a physical plug adaptor (about $10) then this is a good buy... Model I'm looking at is 40W large tank model. Locally cheapest I;ve found online is about $170NZ. Standard price in US is about $50. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted May 29, 2007 Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 We built our own under tank heat pad. You can get the required parts (wire, attaching plugs and heat sealing etc) done by Argus Heating in ChCh. I don't know about the US ones but would suspect they aren't compatible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 I agree. Very unlikely such a simple device as a heater is going to be multiple voltage compatible. If you plug that 40w 120v heater into NZ 240v power then it would be producing 80 watts. I don't THINK that should cause a problem, I doubt it would get hot enough to start a fire but I wouldn't risk it without doing some testing first and it's your house and life at risk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Conkout Posted May 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 Cancelled a bid I had running on 2x Root Therms. My solution would be to have just bought a couple of cheap step down transformers off Ebay as well but that price tag was nearing $200NZ+ and not exactly an eloquent solution... Caryl did someone at Argus put the thing together for you or did they just supply the parts. I read of some people making their own heaters but haven't found any DIY plans and not electrically skilled myself to conjure some up. I am currently congratulating myself on my DIY yeast co2 generator maybe I can follow this up with a DIY undergravel heating solution. $5 yeast + abot $50 parts for a pump driven co2 system beats the $300 I was going to outlay on a proper co2 system! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 Ira is mistaken (according to Grant). If you double the voltage you quadruple the power from Ohm's Law where power equals the square of the voltage divided by the resistance so your 40W heater would in fact be trying to deliver 160W for a very short time before it went phutt. They will do it all for you but in our case they supplied the wire and they crimped the connections onto the resistance wire and correctly sealed the connection. Grant built the actual pad. He has electrical qualifications so it wasn't a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Conkout Posted May 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 Have emailed argus to get an idea of price etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 They will need a few details first like what size is the pad to be and how much power is required? They helped us many years ago and I understand someone contacted them more recently so I am pretty sure they still do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 I have had two made by argus to my specs and they work well. they are under the planted and multiple tanks that are on top of each other in the pics kindly shown by Caryl. They are however undertank heaters not undergravel heaters (which I have never used and know nothing about) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 I think an undertank heater will heat the entire gravel bed evenly and not create the flow of water that undergravel heating will with wires running through the actual gravel bed and creating a current of cool and warm water through it. I suppose if you put a layer of pumice or something at the very bottom it might do the same thing but it's a different design and result in the end. Undergravel heating isn't even designed to warm the actual tank, which is why you have only 40W for a 250L tank. A heating pad will be putting out many times that amount of heat and energy so probably will end up frying the delicate roots when they get close enough. Alan(min) what are your thoughts on the results with a planted tank with a pad? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 I gave the footprint and wattage and they put it together. I have been very happy with the result. To be clear--- it is an undertank heater and you may have problems if you want to use it to heat the gravel. My planted tank only has a thinnish layer of sand as a media and if you had much more you could have problems with the delay in the thermostat sensing the temperature and the heat stored in the media. They are not submersable and are not undergravel heaters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 oh, is the thermostat inside of the pad? I would have reckoned an external thermostat module with temperature setting and an external themometer which would be in the tank to sense the actual temperature. Like the Stainless Steel heaters... At Switched on Gardner they have an external thermostat module like I described, as well as heat pads and 50W heating cables you can attach to them. It's all more expensive than the Dupla unit though - Module - http://sog.open24x7.biz/catalog/product ... 995f825d23 Heat Pad - http://sog.open24x7.biz/catalog/product ... 995f825d23 Cable - http://sog.open24x7.biz/catalog/product ... a4dd08df5a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 I have individual electronic thermastats but I think they would work ok with the old bimetalic ones. They have the heater only and you need to add the thermostat. With heating from under the tank and having a growing media there is a delay and lag period from the heater going on and the thermastat picking up the rise in water temperature. Too much media will cause major fluctuations in temperature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted May 31, 2007 Report Share Posted May 31, 2007 Ours has an internal old style thermostat as we had a couple spare, otherwise we would have used an external type. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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