# Does the Visitherm Stealth auto shutoff work?



## vaypourus (May 20, 2008)

You decide for yourself.


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## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

Lol. That is a bogus claim I see.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us *vaypourus*.
I actually bought these heaters for that reason, might have to reconsider now.

I place my heaters horizontal about halfway from the top so they are always in the water, even during water changes.
I am glad I took that precaution.
I probably would have ended up with a similar problem.


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## vaypourus (May 20, 2008)

Don't get me wrong, they are absolutely fantastic as far as maintaining a consistent temp in the tank; I have 4 of them and am happy with each one (well....3 that are unmelted :lol: )

The advertised "low water shutoff" on the other hand...that seems to need some improvement.

I haven't decided if I am going to buy another Stealth for my water change setup, or if I will get a titanium heater in case I run my water change setup low again.


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## vaypourus (May 20, 2008)

**update**

Apparently when they melt, they also short out. I plugged it back in, dropped it back into my water change tub, and shocked the piss out of myself when I reached into the tub to adjust the temp. Luckily I was holding onto the jack post, so it was not connected to any really good ground or standing in a puddle of water or something.

It appears that these things completely fail when they overheat. I'm really glad I caught it when I did...that could have gotten ugly.


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## jschall (Apr 2, 2009)

It looks like it started coming out of water upside down. In that case it would have melted the plastic at the bottom but the top part would have continued to be cooled by water, meaning the overheat sensor wouldn't trip.

If I'm right, the only lesson here is: "Don't install your heaters upside-down."


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## @nt!x (Feb 9, 2009)

I had the same problem with one of mine. I mailed it back to them about three weeks ago. I still haven't received a new one.


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## vaypourus (May 20, 2008)

jschall said:


> It looks like it started coming out of water upside down.


It was mounted sideways, and the entire heater came out of the water at the same rate (my water change setup would have uncovered it in about 45 seconds).

When I got to it, the heater was still on, and the plastic was smoking. This was about 4 hours after the water had been drained.


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## Scuds03 (Apr 27, 2009)

Call them up and make them exchange it for a new one.


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## pmcbar (Dec 12, 2006)

It has a lifetime warranty


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## @nt!x (Feb 9, 2009)

I received my heater today.


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## mbunabum (Jan 14, 2007)

@nt!x said:


> I had the same problem with one of mine. I mailed it back to them about three weeks ago. I still haven't received a new one.


I had been using Jager's in the past but tried the Stealth mainly because of many positive comments read in the online forums as well as the Stealths' features. My larger cichlids have on occasion broke the glass tube style heaters. The construction and auto shutoff of the Stealth appealed to me. Last night while feeding I noticed two 1/2" diameter "blisters" on one of my Stealths. This morning I called Marineland customer service, explaining what my problem was and was told to IMMEDIATELY unplug the heater and return for a replacement. I questioned if they had been having any problems and the girl indicated there "have been some" returns for this problem. She went on to tell me I could expect a replacement in 5-7 days. Glad to know not to expect a replacement right away!


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## gman87 (Dec 24, 2004)

Maybe you just have a defective unit. They sell an awful lot of these. I personally own 4 and in my big tanks they get about 1/3 to 1/2 exposed during water changes and I've never had an issue. It will be interesting to see if this is common or not.


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

Do you guys generally turn your filters off during a water change?

I always doâ€¦ and to make it easy on myself I plug all the filters into a common power stripâ€¦ and also plug my heaters into this same power stripâ€¦

The lights are plugged in elsewhereâ€¦

This way when itâ€™s time to do a water change I push one button and the entire power strip is turned offâ€¦ thus all my filters & heaters are turned offâ€¦ But the lights stay onâ€¦ then when the water change is done I push one button and everything turns back onâ€¦

Because Iâ€™ve done this for many years, longer than Stealth Visi Therm heaters have been aroundâ€¦ I have no clue if the auto shut off function works or not


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## ejhart (May 13, 2007)

Yeah I'm going with Toby on this one, regardless of auto shutoff or not unplug the heater when you do a water change imo. Takes all of 2 seconds.


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## cindylou (Oct 22, 2008)

OMG, I bought those stealth heaters for the auto shut off features...I love this forum but all the horror stories sometime are frightening...I am going to change my receptacles to GFI... :-?


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## bulldogg7 (Mar 3, 2003)

Marineland has(use to anyways, probably still) a pretty generous policy when it comes to stuff like that, give them a call or shoot them an email with a pic and see what happens.


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## JWerner2 (Jul 7, 2008)

wow, I use nothing but those and I never once had a problem. I even had one stored under my tank and I thought I plugged something in but it was the heater instead. It was like that for days and I never had this problem! Mine always make this funny "knock" once in a while but thats it.

Now my question is why the **** did you plug it back in after it burnt up like this?


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## jschall (Apr 2, 2009)

cindylou said:


> OMG, I bought those stealth heaters for the auto shut off features...I love this forum but all the horror stories sometime are frightening...I am going to change my receptacles to GFI... :-?


You should have your aquarium equipment on a gfi. Always. You don't HAVE to replace the outlet, although that's the best way of doing it. You can get ones that plug in to the wall.

The way GFIs work is they detect a difference in electrical current between the hot and neutral lines. If there is a difference, they shut off. This means that if any electricity is conducted to the ground through a human or other conductor, the GFI shuts off.

It won't protect your heater from blowing up, but it will kill the power if it shocks you after it blows up.


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## vaypourus (May 20, 2008)

I've actually been in touch with Marineland; they said that it should be covered under warranty (as long as I haven't done anything to void the warranty of course) and told me to send it in for replacement.

In the meantime, I've bought another 250 W Stealth at Petsmart (they had a sale on them, but wouldn't match the Drs. Foster & Smith price  ) to get me by until Marineland sends me a replacement.

This heater was in a water change setup, so it never get unplugged because the water is never changed per say. I simply forgot to fill the reservoir back up, and ended up running it lower than normal exposing the heater to the air. On my other aquariums, the heater is always unplugged during a water change.


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## OceanDevil (Jul 17, 2005)

Same thing happened to one of mine. I called and they said they would replace it for free.


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## Mbuna Joe (Aug 8, 2006)

For what it's worth, I always shut off the heater when I'm doing any work in the tank. Getting ZEUS'ed is definitely not fun. I have 2 Stealth 250W's, love em, but I don't trust that auto shutoff boodgie woodgie.


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## spotmonster (Nov 23, 2006)

I run these also and don't believe they ever shut off when the waters low. I've grabbed a few whikle out of water and almost burnt myself. I just don't worry about it too much because my water changes are pretty quick. Their "suto shut off" is BS as far as I'm concerned. Overall I still like the heaters though. I also try to run them horizontal below my water change line.


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## vaypourus (May 20, 2008)

Just got my replacement from Marineland. The woman I spoke to on the phone said that the auto shutoff usually works well, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to unplug it when doing a water change. They have experienced the sensor not shutting off on very few of the heaters.

I can't complain about their customer service one bit...super friendly and no questions asked. I'll definitely stick with these guys if I need another heater!


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## tmcbride67 (Jul 6, 2007)

I haven't had a problem with the auto shutoff, but I just had a problem with a stealth 150 getting stuck in the on setting. Unfortunately for me this happened overnight. I came downstairs yesterday morning to find half of the fish in my 29 Gallon tank dead. The thermometer showed it was over 92 degrees in the tank! I called Marineland and they said to ship it to them for a replacement. I'm still out my fish and had to buy a new heater at a local store because I can't run my tank without one for the week plus it will take to get my replacement, but I suppose a replacement is better than nothing. I still have Stealth's in two other tanks that have been working fine for over 2 years, so I guess I won't switch yet over one bad heater. If it happens a second time though, I'll have to find a new heater manufacturer.


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