calibrating thermostats????

[Loopy]

Hi there. We have a 660l tank in which we are running two Jager thermostats. I cant remember the model numbers at mo. Both of these supposiveley quality thermostats were calibrated individually to the same temperature in a 250l tank. I should also mention that each one is rated for 600l-1000l. But they don't turn off or heat the water within 3C of target temperature.

We were running two Aqua One 300w thermostats which were holding the temperature at a constant 28C and were operating normally.

Any body have ideas???

[Alan]

It isn't critical to have the exact temp.

The fish sure as heck won't mind.

I'd prefer a jager to the others for reliability.

That is, not jambing on an cooking the fish.

Alan 104

[HummingBird]

I've only ever had one heater jam on and cook fish.

It was a jager :-?

[Loopy]

The main problem at the moment is we cant afford to have the thermostats on ALL THE TIME. They are NOT turning off at all.

Am currently shuffling thermostats around to get the two Aqua Ones available for the big tank again.

Our LFS said for the volume of water in the tank we needed two. My argument was the sold us the thermostat KNOWING the volume and even the sales rep isn't willing to come and have a look.

If it states on the packet it is ok for 600l-1000l then one should be sufficient.

[Ira]

If they're not overheating the water then they're probably on most of the time because you're losing that much heat. Take one out, put it in a big bucket and see where the temp settles or if it does. If the heater is stuck on you'll see in half an hour when the water gets hot. Otherwise it's probably that you're just losing nearly as much heat as the heaters are making. Having a bigger heater or more of them so that they would be turning on and off all the time isn't going to save you any money on power, you're still going to use the same amount.

[Loopy]

Done that. They settle on 28C in 250l. The question now is why do the cheaper thermostats heat the water to 28C and turn on and off when required, whereas a thermostat with more than 5 times the amount of windings in the element cant do it.

Its probably an on going thing now as I have tried basically everything I can think of apart from testing the electrical current in the water.

Since we got the Jager I haven't been happy with them at all. Never buying that brand again.

Thanks guys

[BK]

Just so I understand. They aren't reaching temp so not turning off??

I've found very little differnce with heater brands using JEBO at the mo and haven't had any problems. Would agree that its best to have two heaters that are each rate for 3/4 of volume so if one doesn't switch off it hopfully wont have the power to cook them. If your not happy with the heaters take them back and don't leave to you get refund and then ring importers and tell them that you are posting here what happened.

[Ira]

Sounds like they're working properly then. What WATTAGE are they? The how many liter tank it's good for is marketing BS, ignore it, it means absolutely nothing. If the "expensive" heaters aren't able to keep the temp up then they aren't a high enough wattage. As simple as that. They're probably 150 watt while the other ones are 300 or so I'm guessing.

[madcookie]

Nope not quite. It seems to me that there IS something seriously wrong here. The Jagers which are for a 600-1000 ltr tank are 300 watt jobs. Very long and extremely well built. Are these the older Jager ones, or the newer 'eheim-jager' ones?

Regardless of older model or newer one, only one heater is required for that volume of water (Assuming the tank is inside a house, room temp above ~18%), the second heater is there as a backup only.

If both these heaters are 'always on' and still not heating your tank to 28C then the heaters are at fault. Time to get tough with your local LFS - or whoever sold you the heaters.

Finally, you have depressed the 'calibrating' button back in havent you? At the top of the heater neaest the cord...this button must be pressd in for them to work correctly.