Cobalt neotherm heater just blew up!!!

sorry to hear that was going to buy one of these for my nano 24 but after seeing that I probably will get another brand.
 
Can you tell us what happened? You can't look at link without registering. I tried to register but it's been hours and I still am not allowed access. I'm interested in hearing what happened?

from the site

"I woke up to a burning smell throughout the entire house at 2am. I couldn't find the smell but, found it was it's strongest at my 180 reef. I found that my cobalt neotherm heater I bought from rays reef this past summer, had cracked and spewed something into tank. I've been all over the cobalt website, and forums on google. I don't know whats inside it. I IMMEDIATELY put a huge canister of carbon hooked onto the sump, and killed my skimmer (to protect skimmer). I don't have time to do a water change tonight, but will do one in the morning and probably one a day this weekend.

can anyone tell me whats inside the neo therms? they're supposed to be heavy duty/ indestructible. I've never ever had it out of water, and it sits completely flat on the bottom of my sump. I'm really nervous this might be the end for this tank if it wipes everything out."
 
So I spoke with Cobalt Friday afternoon, and received my new heater Sunday morning. They were actually out of 200 watt heaters so they sent me a 150 watt and will send me a 200 watt when they get them in.
 
But the bigger question, why would you put another back in your tank unless they acknowledge that a manufacturing flaw in a batch that has been corrected or a new design. While I agree with others that all heaters will eventually fail none should shatter without being exposed to air.
 
But the bigger question, why would you put another back in your tank unless they acknowledge that a manufacturing flaw in a batch that has been corrected or a new design. While I agree with others that all heaters will eventually fail none should shatter without being exposed to air.

I actually will not be putting these in my tank. I already removed the second 200 watt heater I had and replaced with Jager heaters. I'm fine if a heater fails and the damage is contained within the tank. When this one failed however, it affected the whole house. I'm not fine with all the smoke from burning plastic this thing released. I can't believe how much smoke there was in a matter of a minute. I had just got home from work when this happened. If I wasn't home, it could have really poisoned my dogs from all the smoke. The heaters were underwater too, bubbling smoke.
 
wow, and I was about to replace my jager with 2 200watts of neothermal... I guess I will put that on hold until this is all cleared up, or just return them to fostersmith.
 
heck, my visi-therm heaters are guaranteed for life but that don't mean I trust them completely, I don't think there is a heater out there I would trust full out.

I'm glad no one got hurt from any of these malfunctions, but just goes to show you that even the spendy stuff can fail.
 
Well this is scary. I just bought one of them for my Betta's 12g Fluval. I figured with a price point of $55 for a 50w heater it had to be top notch quality.

Now I'm worried......
 
Well this is scary. I just bought one of them for my Betta's 12g Fluval. I figured with a price point of $55 for a 50w heater it had to be top notch quality.

Now I'm worried......

You put a 200W heater in your Betta tank ?

The only reports of failure have been a couple of the 200W.

In the mean time hundreds of other brands of heaters of all sizes are failing daily. But that's not any news to anyone.
 
Spyderturbo007 said:
Well this is scary. I just bought one of them for my Betta's 12g Fluval. I figured with a price point of $55 for a 50w heater it had to be top notch quality.

Now I'm worried......

You put a 200W heater in your Betta tank ?

The only reports of failure have been a couple of the 200W.

In the mean time hundreds of other brands of heaters of all sizes are failing daily. But that's not any news to anyone.

No. If you reread my post, I specifically indicated that I purchased a 50w heater.
 
In the mean time hundreds of other brands of heaters of all sizes are failing daily. But that's not any news to anyone.

but this thread isn't for the other brands of heaters, there have been plenty of other threads for other brands that had problems. the biggest thing that shocks people is that for the price of these heaters they shouldn't explode or melt like they are.
 
In the mean time hundreds of other brands of heaters of all sizes are failing daily. But that's not any news to anyone.

For me, the news isn't that this heater failed but the way it failed. I would not have even made a big deal if it stopped working or overheated my tank. I probably wouldn't have even posted that because it's "normal" for a heater to fail in that way. To me, it's not normal for a heater to fail and fill your house with toxic smoke. If it happened to me, it could happen to someone else. I posted to let the community know about it.
 
Well this is scary. I just bought one of them for my Betta's 12g Fluval. I figured with a price point of $55 for a 50w heater it had to be top notch quality.

Now I'm worried......

The 200 watt heaters are pretty new. The lower watt units have been out for some time now and I wasn't able to find any bad failure reports on those.
 
I just had a 200w unit fail in the same way as OP & the other guys on this thread. My whole house filled with smoke, unit just sitting there gushing smoke and nasty junk into the water, gfci never tripped. I called Cobalt today and the lady I spoke to said all she could do without the owner's ok was to replace the one failed unit (I was using 2) and have me ship it back. Obviously this was not to my satisfaction, I'm not keeping the other unit in my tank after having one catastrophically fail. She's supposed to be calling the owner to see what other options he will ok & call back tomorrow.

** Updated** She called me back before I could even post this. She said she spoke to the owner and he said that they'd have five 200w heaters come back having failed in this manner & they were all the run made in Feb 2013, no problems from any other runs. I was offered to have my two 200w units replaced with either two 150w units & some fish food or two new 200's that shouldn't have any problems. I took the new 200's. I don't know if that was the right choice or if I'll even use the replacements. I will say Cobalt was easy to get in touch with & had good customer service IMO.
 
Ok, this is making me wanting to throw my 2 brand new ones away. No way in hell I am gonna risk it out with my fish and corals, they are worth 20 times more than what those heaters cost me.
 
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