tgunn
New member
The old adage goes, "You get what you pay for."
Products such as the Won Bros II digital titanium heaters are proof this is not always the case.
I have three Won Bros II digital titanium heaters. I thought, "great, digital, these will be the best for my reef". Well, out of the box, all three read DIFFERENT temperatures. In fact, the temperatures they display were all off from my actual tank temperature.
Luckily, it's actually possible to recalibrate the temperature on these heaters. In fact, it seems just taking one of mine apart and fiddling with the calibration dial seemed to fix the problem I had where the the heater was GROSSLY miscalibrated (ie it read 94F). I suspect salt works its way into the heater control and interfers with the sensitive potentiometer responsible for calibation.
If you've got 'em apart use some electronics cleaner or compressed air to give it a good clean out while you're at it.
Okay, so first step is to remove the 4 small phillips screws on the back on the heater.
WARNING: DO NOT PLUG IN THE HEATERS WITH THE COVER REMOVED. I did this for simplicity. If you are not careful you could zap yourself good! For safety's sake you should adjust the calibration, reassemble, plug in and test, and repeat if required.
So here's my three heaters, one with the cover removed:
As you can see they're ALL way off the actual tank temperature which I measure with a 1-wire digital thermometer linked to my PC.
Using a small phillips screwdriver, adjust the tiny potentionmeter in the heater. Make SMALL adjustments until the temperature shown matches what your reference thermometer says.
Left lowers the temperature, right raises it.
And here's the end result:
For the FIRST time ever the are all reading the same temperature. Wow. I still don't trust them and I plan to eventually get a 2-stage Ranco to control them. But at least now the "eye candy" aspect works.
Tyler
Products such as the Won Bros II digital titanium heaters are proof this is not always the case.
I have three Won Bros II digital titanium heaters. I thought, "great, digital, these will be the best for my reef". Well, out of the box, all three read DIFFERENT temperatures. In fact, the temperatures they display were all off from my actual tank temperature.
Luckily, it's actually possible to recalibrate the temperature on these heaters. In fact, it seems just taking one of mine apart and fiddling with the calibration dial seemed to fix the problem I had where the the heater was GROSSLY miscalibrated (ie it read 94F). I suspect salt works its way into the heater control and interfers with the sensitive potentiometer responsible for calibation.
If you've got 'em apart use some electronics cleaner or compressed air to give it a good clean out while you're at it.
Okay, so first step is to remove the 4 small phillips screws on the back on the heater.
WARNING: DO NOT PLUG IN THE HEATERS WITH THE COVER REMOVED. I did this for simplicity. If you are not careful you could zap yourself good! For safety's sake you should adjust the calibration, reassemble, plug in and test, and repeat if required.
So here's my three heaters, one with the cover removed:
As you can see they're ALL way off the actual tank temperature which I measure with a 1-wire digital thermometer linked to my PC.
Using a small phillips screwdriver, adjust the tiny potentionmeter in the heater. Make SMALL adjustments until the temperature shown matches what your reference thermometer says.
Left lowers the temperature, right raises it.
And here's the end result:
For the FIRST time ever the are all reading the same temperature. Wow. I still don't trust them and I plan to eventually get a 2-stage Ranco to control them. But at least now the "eye candy" aspect works.
Tyler