Thoughts on In-line heaters

[DennisP]

I am considering an in-line heater because I plan to make a custom background for my tank and I feel it would save a lot of potential problems.

Questions are:

- cost vs benefit

- effectiveness

- reliability (good brands?)

- cost.

- availability

any experiences?

(I think I read the other day that SamH bought one from somewhere IIRC?)

[SamH]

I have the Hydor ETH 200 in line heater I just started using around 5 hours ago and so far it's been wonderful. My tank is getting up to temp faster than it would with a conventional heater and it's easy to set. Cost vs benefit, the Hydor ones are about as reliable as Jagers I'm told, not sure about other brands, paying an extra $40ish to keep the ugliest piece of equipment out of my tank is nothing really. I can't comment on effectiveness just yet but maybe in a month or two and reliability as above. Cost was $107 shipped from AquaEssentials UK and not available in NZL.

In short, you need to weigh up whether or not you can justify an extra $40 for an out of sight heater. I did and I don't regret it at all. Make sure you unplug it when you unplug the filter though or else things get hot pretty quickly I'm told.

HTH.