Cobalt neotherm heater just blew up!!!

Just so everyone knows I called Cobalt when this thread first started and was assured my 2x 200 Watt NeoTherms were not part of the bad batch. Well it turns out 1 of my 6 month old Neotherms failed. Please be very cautious if buying this product. They did offer to replace both my 200 watts under warranty however no refunds. At this point I replaced the other working unit with a Eheim Jaber. Also if you are looking for a replacement 200 watt those are not available.
 
Mine was a 150 watt that blew up.

You know, I think BRS should take down the videos they have with these heaters. They're pieces of crap.
 
cllrmar said:
Just so everyone knows I called Cobalt when this thread first started and was assured my 2x 200 Watt NeoTherms were not part of the bad batch. Well it turns out 1 of my 6 month old Neotherms failed.
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Did it fail in a "catastrophic" way or just stopped working?
 
Christian J said:
Did it fail in a "catastrophic" way or just stopped working?
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Lost a couple corals and fish, luckily I was home and the wife smelt something burning.

I wish I could get some financial compensation as one of the corals was a large colony of Aussie Orange Torch that I paid big $$$ for.

This whole debacle reminds me of the Marineland Stealth issues.
 
cllrmar said:
This whole debacle reminds me of the Marineland Stealth issues.
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Except for one thing. Marineland cut people checks for losses, gave refunds, and stopped production of the heater.

Cobalt keeps selling them and shipping replacements. I haven't considered a cobalt product since this thread was started.
 
fifthtoe said:
I wouldn't wait for it to fail. I would probably replace it before it does. You don't realize how much smoke is released from these things. If you're not home and you have any pets, that could be bad for them to breath in the smoke and fumes. Also, I sticky oily black goo is released into the tank that is really hard to get out.
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Well, with all do respect, I'm not going to just rip it out of my tank based on speculative panic. I am well aware of the damaging effects these failures have had. However, I have not read any reports of the smaller units being affected by this defect. If you or anyone else can point me to sources/reports of the smaller units catastrophically failing, then I will change my mind.
 
Metal Man 1221 said:
Well, with all do respect, I'm not going to just rip it out of my tank based on speculative panic. I am well aware of the damaging effects these failures have had. However, I have not read any reports of the smaller units being affected by this defect. If you or anyone else can point me to sources/reports of the smaller units catastrophically failing, then I will change my mind.
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I completely looked over the part that you had a 50 watt unit. For some reason I thought is was one of the higher wattage heaters. You're right, I haven't heard of these units failing in the way the 200 and 150 watts units have.
 
fifthtoe said:
I completely looked over the part that you had a 50 watt unit. For some reason I thought is was one of the higher wattage heaters. You're right, I haven't heard of these units failing in the way the 200 and 150 watts units have.
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Knocking on wood I don't think the 100s do it either. I have a constant temp in my tank so I think it's constantly turning on and off. If it were generating enough heat to crack like that I'm guessing the snails that crawl all over it all the time would be getting cooked.
 
Cobalt Response...

Cobalt Response...

kelp47 said:
Unfortunately, I have to add myself to this list.

I purchased two 200-watt Neotherm heaters in April of this year, and started using them mid-May. After a couple of months using them, one of them started putting out some stray voltage, which gave me a light shock when I touched the water. I didn't toss it, but kept it in case I needed a backup for heating fresh saltwater. I left the other heater in my aquarium until last night. I suddenly began smelling a burning smell throughout the house, and my husband and I searched for the source of the smell. We finally determined it was the Cobalt heater in the aquarium. I quickly turned it off and removed it from the tank after a safe amount of time. Upon inspecting it, I found an approximately 3 inch crack along the heating element. Fortunately, I was at home when it malfunctioned, so I was able to get it out quickly without any adverse affects to my livestock (it seems so at this point, anyway) or my home. I feel very fortunate for that. Both heaters were installed correctly. While the first heater (with the stray voltage) could still be used for heating fresh saltwater, I no longer feel comfortable using it for that purpose.

I sent the above text to Cobalt Aquatics and requested a full refund. I don't want any of their heaters. I plan to follow up by calling the customer service number on Monday if I don't hear from them.
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I'm responding to my own post to let you know the outcome of my scenario. I contacted Cobalt and explained what happened with my heaters. Since I didn't purchase directly from them, they said that they couldn't offer a refund; but they offered a 150w and 50w heater to replace each 200w heater. So they were going to give me a total of four heaters. But not only do I not have room for four heaters in my tank/sump, I don't feel comfortable putting any of these heaters back in my tank (mostly the 150w they offered... the 50w would likely be okay). So I made a counteroffer, asking if they would instead send me some filter media and food to replace the heaters. They agreed, and I sent them an extensive list of several foods (requesting both pellets and flakes) that I wanted, along with some carbon. I really came out pretty good on this (considering I didn't lose any livestock). The value that they offered to begin with and even what they agreed to send me in the end surpasses what I paid for the original heaters. And I probably have about 5 years worth of food on the way.

I still think the heaters should be recalled, but I feel like you can probably get them to work with you to resolve the issue should you be in a similar situation.

By the way, I just purchased 2 Jagers to replace these.
 
kelp47 said:
I'm responding to my own post to let you know the outcome of my scenario. I contacted Cobalt and explained what happened with my heaters. Since I didn't purchase directly from them, they said that they couldn't offer a refund; but they offered a 150w and 50w heater to replace each 200w heater. So they were going to give me a total of four heaters. But not only do I not have room for four heaters in my tank/sump, I don't feel comfortable putting any of these heaters back in my tank (mostly the 150w they offered... the 50w would likely be okay). So I made a counteroffer, asking if they would instead send me some filter media and food to replace the heaters. They agreed, and I sent them an extensive list of several foods (requesting both pellets and flakes) that I wanted, along with some carbon. I really came out pretty good on this (considering I didn't lose any livestock). The value that they offered to begin with and even what they agreed to send me in the end surpasses what I paid for the original heaters. And I probably have about 5 years worth of food on the way.

I still think the heaters should be recalled, but I feel like you can probably get them to work with you to resolve the issue should you be in a similar situation.

By the way, I just purchased 2 Jagers to replace these.
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Cobalt made good on their promise. This food will hold me over 5 years if it doesn't go bad first!

picture.php
 
Just want to add another to the list..

One of my neotherm heaters melted today. 200w Luckily I was home and it was one of the first things I thought of when I started to smell burnt plastic. Bubbling some horrid smelling smoke when I got to it. Just took a knife and cut the cord to get it out of my tank. Hoping nothing dies. Going to be replacing 2 of these with anything else. No way I'm putting another one of these in my tank.
 
Hope these don't turn out to be the next stealth. I used to have one of those until a lot of people had them melting and even exploding their tanks. I switched to a couple Eheim Jagers quickly.
 
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