Fluval E 300 Watt Electronic Heater

Fluval E 200 – Best Aquarium Heater I’ve Ever Owned
First off, I’m a Mechanical Engineer with 31 years of experience and have a considerable amount of experience related to heat transfer. I’ve also kept aquariums for 36 years and currently have 3. I’ve had a Fluval E 200 watt heater in a 75 gallon tank for almost 3 years and it’s performed flawlessly. I’ve read tons of reviews stating the low flow warning is a problem, but that warning is an attribute of this heater. Tank heaters are very compact for the amount of heat they generate and must exchange the heat to their surroundings efficiently or they’ll burn themselves out. Just imagine grabbing an old fashioned 100 watt incandescent light bulb that’s been on for several minutes …. now imagine that it’s a 200 or 300 watt bulb! Also think about the fact that the largest portable space heater you can buy and plug into a standard 120 Volt wall receptacle is 1500 watts. That’ll give you a perspective of how much energy 200 or 300 watts is. So yes, you absolutely need water flowing over the heater to carry heat off as opposed to it only heating the immediate area and then shutting off. My 75 gallon tank is fully covered and is in my basement which is typically 63 – 66 degrees in the winter and this 200 watt heater has always kept it within 1/2 degree of the 77 degree setting. I’ve had many different tank heaters through the years and will never buy anything but these again. As many others have said, being able to just glance over and see the green display indicating that the water temp is within 2 degrees of set point is very nice! I literally look at it every night before going to bed and casually glance at it during the day without even focusing on what the temp actually is. I’m sure many have had defective units but these heaters are wonderful when functioning properly. Oh and I put zero value into reviews stating any heater won’t work when the operating conditions aren’t given. How many gallons is the tank, what’s the ambient air temp, is the aquarium fully covered, etc, need to be known to evaluate whether sufficiently sized. Putting a 1500 watt heater in a well insulated 300 square foot room in your house will keep it toasty; putting that same heater in your outdoor shed in the winter ….. won’t help much. One last thing, I’m absolutely not a fan of putting a heater that’s considerably larger than required in a tank as I’ve seen advised many times. All heaters will eventually fail and if it fails in the on mode, I don’t want to cook my fish. I’d much rather have 2 smaller heaters in a tank than 1 over sized heater. That way if one fails and won’t shut off, the other heater either won’t come on at all, or will intermittently cycle to make up what the stuck heater can’t do. Heaters are designed to work and will last just fine even if they run a majority of the time. In fact many products will actually last longer if they can just run as opposed to “short cycling” as when they’re considerably over sized. I have a Clown Loach that’s between 8 – 10 years old and I have no intention of allowing a faulty heater to kill it or any other fish under my watch.

Works well. Takes fine tuning.
Firstly, I like the look of this unit. Also, the digital readout is neat. The adjustments are incredibly easy. Once positioned correctly, it holds temp well. That being said, it is finicky with placement. I initially had it in the center of my tank, vertically, with the red knob protruding, exactly like the directions say. All was well, until my first water change. After that I kept getting the error that it needed more circulation. You can unplug it and it will reset, but it continued to eventually error. So, I moved one of my large airstone directly underneath, and it has worked flawlessly ever since. So make sure it is placed where there is plenty of movement.I have read that others have had luck with placing it fully submerged horizontally. But I chose to stick with what the directions say. Plus horizontally would mean the digital readout would be sideways.I have the 300 watt in a 55 gallon. I have the temp set at 78.5°. My accurate thermometer reads between 78.5° and 78.9° at all times. Not too bad. My Eheim was a bit more stable, but really sucked to try to change the temp as the dial was awful. Plus after 2 years I started to notice some moisture in the glass, which is what led me to this purchase.

Durch die Mehrfachsensoren der verbauten Überwachungselektronik ist diese Heizung der Gottvater unter den Heizkörpern für das Aquarium. Ich habe sie für mein 160 Lieter Becken gekauft und die 200 Watt regeln recht zügig das Wasser auf die eingestellte Temperatur. Anfangs gab es den (LF) Low Flow, also keine – wenig Wasserbewegung um die Heizung als Meldung. Die Heizung schaltet dann ab, weil sie in den Sicherheizmodus schaltet. (Überhizung wird somit ausgeschlossen. Mit einem einfachen Trick, kann dieses Problem umgangen werden. Man richten den Ausströmer des Aussenfilters oder eben einer Umwälzpumpe auf die im Sicherheitskäfig befindliche Heizung. Somit ist der nachfluss von kühlerem Umgebungswasser gewährleistet und die Heizung kann ordentlich arbeiten. Sie ist sehr effektive und greift bei einer Temperaturschwankung von 0,5 Grad ein und regelt auf die eingestellte Temperatur. Ich bin hoch zufrieden und kann sie nur weiter empfehlen. Achtet einfach auf eine gute Strömung die auf die Heizung geziehlt ist, dann seit auch ihr von dieser Heizung begeistert. Das Wasser um die Heizung herum muss gut bewegt werden, sonst gibt es in dem Käfig einen Hitzestau und die Heizung schaltet ab .

I received this product in a damaged and used condition, which was disappointing. The item clearly showed signs of white minral deposit on black plastic, and the packaging was in poor shape. I expected a new and undamaged product, so this was a letdown. I would advise caution when purchasing from this seller to avoid a similar experience.