# Fluval M Heater



## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

Has anyone tried these heaters yet? They are too new for there to be any decent reviews on them.

http://www.fluvalblog.com/heaters/m-series/

My heater of choice has long been the Fluval Tronics, but it looks like these excellent heaters have been discontinued (another example of brain dead Fluval management). I have one Fluval Tronic that has been in use for 20 years but it is starting to develop condensation, so it's time to replace it.

And finding good heaters these days is becoming increasingly difficult.

Fluval Tronics - Unless you are in Europe or Australia, they are difficult to find.

Marineland Stealths - The older ones (without the on/off light and a red temp control knob) are great heaters. The new ones, at best, are shortlived... at worst, they explode.

Jager - Great before bought by Eheim and manufacturing shifted to China. Now... numerous reports of problems.

Since I've had such good luck with Fluval heaters, perhaps this is the one thing Fluval makes right. At least the M series heaters are not manufactured in China (they are made in Italy). But I'm wondering if anyone has these in use?


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## toledo guy (Jun 23, 2010)

Well....I can return the favor Kmuda! Yes I have a Fluval M heater (300 W). Seems to work fine so far. But this is summer and heater rarely turns on. A surprise when I purchased this was that you cannot submerge it fully. There are markings showing max. and min. level. The big sell for me on this heater was it was supposed to blend in and reflect it's surroundings. I'm not seeing this! I have a painted back glass and the silver heater stands out like a sore thumb! I suppose if you put a plant or rock real close it may reflect. My goal is to replace this with a Hydor inline.


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## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

I don't fully submerge my heaters, which is likely why I've never really had one fail. But in reading the FAQs from Fluval (somewhere) they state these markings are "accidental" and the heater can be submerged.

But, as stated, I don't fully submerge them anyway.

Even the Hydors are receiving wide spread reports of problems these days.


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## jrf (Nov 10, 2009)

IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m wondering about the Fluval E series myself (http://www.fluvalblog.com/heaters/e-series/). The website states that it uses an "Advanced micro processor technology with dual temperature sensors [to] provide accurate and real time water temperature readings." To me, itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s not entirely clear if the electronics are used to control the heater element, or if it is still controlled in the typical mechanical fashion with an expanding and contracting piece of metal. If it is using electronics, it shouldnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t be prone to sticking on like the mechanical style heaters. But, there still may be problems if the electronics arenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t very accurate (i.e. cheep digital thermometers).


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## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

From what I gather about the Fluval E series is people are having a heck of a time keeping them accurate. They pretty much have to aim a powerhead at them to provide enough flow where the heater is able to accurately monitor the temp. Otherwise it's always flashing too hot or too cold.

Not only that, but they are EXPENSIVE.

The Fluval Tronic is what you are describing.... and it's what made them such a safe heater as well as a long lived one. Way ahead of its time. I have no idea why Fluval would have removed them from the U.S. market.


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## jrf (Nov 10, 2009)

kmuda said:


> The Fluval Tronic is what you are describing.... and it's what made them such a safe heater as well as a long lived one. Way ahead of its time. I have no idea why Fluval would have removed them from the U.S. market.


That really is too bad. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d definitely spend extra money on a design that fails off instead of on as long as it worked reasonably well up until the point of failure. As it stands right now, I buy a temperature controller for each heater I use since I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t trust ANY of them. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d happily give that extra money to the heater manufacturer if there was some assurance that the heater wasnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t going to cook my fish or blow up in my tank.


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## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

Well... I got the Fluval M Heater in today. Although I did not purchase it for the "Reflective Technology", I was interested to see what they were talking about. So I pulled it out and looked at it. It's a bright silver, not a mirror type finish (which is what I expected). So I thought, this is going to stand out like a sore thumb.

I placed it in the tank. Sure enough, bright silver, standing out. Then I watched it for a minute and it started to darken. Really odd. The more I watched it, the more it start blending into the surrounding colors.

Now it's not disappearing, by any means. It's still more silver than anything, but I found it odd that it started out bright silver then appeared to adjust a bit to the surrounding colors.

In the right tank, especially a heavily planted tank with plants in front of the heater, I could see how this could blend in pretty well. But then again, any heater in a heavily planted tank can be made to disappear.

All in all, as far as the "Reflective Technology", I'll say it's more marketing than reality, but not quite a lie. With a little creative aquascaping, you may get more out of this "feature".

I cannot testity to anything else about the heater. I have not even plugged it up yet.


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## Duke79 (Jul 16, 2010)

Hey kmuda ... how is the Fluval M Heater doing? I'm researching a heater for my new tank setup and there just isn't any brand/model that stands out. It seems all of the new ones are experiencing some problems. So is the Fluval M working good for you?


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## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

So far, so good. I've had no problems and it's accurate. The one turn off for some folks is it is not completely submersible. But I don't submerge my heaters anyway, so that does not cause me any grief.

I placed my Fluval M in a tank with a mirror background. Talk about hiding a heater. :lol: I mirror type fish in a tank with a mirror background. :thumb:


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## FbodyFan (Jun 20, 2010)

I've had the Fluval E series for a couple months now and it works perfect. I compared its display temp with a thermometer i placed in the tank (both next to the heater and on the opposite side of the tank (125G 6')) and it was about .5 degree dif from the standard thermo I compared it to. Thats pretty **** good to me. :thumb:

My only issue was at 1st, I had it setup in the corner of my tank (which happens to be the only "dead spot" in my tank where the poop settles). After a week or 2 it started flashing an "F" which indicated poor flow around the heater. I moved it from this dead corner which was next to the intake of my AC110 to the otherside of the AC110 (closer to the outlet and further away from dead spot) and its been fine ever since.

Currently I have it set on 89 (winning my battle with ich :thumb: ) and even with the temp cooling down around here and being in a room completely surrounded with open windows, the display hasnt dropped below 87.5. Not too bad for 1 heater on a big tank in a cool room. :fish:


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