won pro heater, must see
- Thread starter crescent1
- Start date
Surprisingly there is a titanium heater that's about half the cost of WON, it's made by Via Aqua and sold at BigAl's online. I think I paid about $16 for a 100w titanium. Been using them for about 9 weeks now, and they hold the temp exactly where I set it (confirmed with thermometer).
Tunjee
New member
I have the Won Pro Heat II 350 Watt with LCD display. I ohm'd it out just now to see if the probe is grounded. It is. But yours is obviously not, I'd like to here Won's explanation on this. A ground wire that goes to nowhere? Electrical inspectors and UL approvers would be up in arms over this LOL.
kfisc
Well-known member
Hi crescent1- distressing news, nothing like skipping a ground here, insulation there, burning your house down all over- i've noticed a fair amount of this kind of short-shrift on things like fans, etc. over the years. I plan on checking mine out soon. Especially in light of any continued non-responsiveness from the company, we all owe you for possibly busting 'em. They've got to know this kind of publicity, if, ahem, grounded, can do them in.
By the way, one of your photos shows your heater with a fair amount of build-up. Mine gets that, too- has it ever been a problem?
thanks-
By the way, one of your photos shows your heater with a fair amount of build-up. Mine gets that, too- has it ever been a problem?
thanks-
asmujica
New member
niko5 said:
When you place the water in the tank it would trip the gfci.
crescent1 I don't know if grounds in a tank are trully necessary. I've read a lot of threads concerning grounding probes, from people with way more knowledge of the stuff than I do, that dismiss the need for a grounding probe in a tank.
invincible569
New member
MINE IS ALSO CUT!! Pic is a little blurry, but its cut alright!!
Maybe before when WON was having a bad name with their heaters failing, this fixed the problem for them.
Maybe before when WON was having a bad name with their heaters failing, this fixed the problem for them.
reefmarker
Premium Member
Although I think the ground is basically useless in this application...and potentially harmful...here is my take on this:
Grounding is not required by NEC.
NEC 250-114 (3)(b) requires "exposed noncurrent-carrying metal parts...shall be grounded..."
250-114 only applies to the AC parts of the circuits. It looks like all the AC parts of the circuit are plastic (non-metal), so no grounding required.
You could argue though that the manufacurer of that cable requires it to have the ground connected (or they wouldn't have put the ground wire in) so you automatically break the NEC rules by not following the instructions of the cable manufacturer. Of course, that is stupid.
You could also argue that the 24V part of the circuit (which is what I understand goes out to the heater tube) is rectifier driven and is specifically NOT required to be grounded by 250-21(2) or by 250-162.
Ok now for the potentially harmful part...
1) If the heater tube metal was grounded you have a nice wet cell setup which will cause massive corrosion of the tube and premature failure. Dumping who knows what corrosion product into your water and connecting that dry electrical heating element to your wet tank, thus testing if your GFCI and/or breaker really do work like they should.
2) If you have multiple grounded pieces of metal in your aquarium you risk setting up ground currents from a high impedance "leaking" circuit that may or may not trip your GFCI/breaker. Thus putting some small unwanted current through your tank all the time. Lots of folks think this is bad.
3) Look at most of your equipment in your tank. It isn't grounded. Most stuff doesn't even have a 3 prong plug. Don't assume that since your home oven has a ground that makes it safer means that no ground on other stuff makes the other stuff unsafer. If it ain't needed by code it either ain't needed, or actually causes more potential harm than good. Ooo what a bad example...Grounding of ovens has only been required for a couple of years! (1992 I think).
Grounding is not required by NEC.
NEC 250-114 (3)(b) requires "exposed noncurrent-carrying metal parts...shall be grounded..."
250-114 only applies to the AC parts of the circuits. It looks like all the AC parts of the circuit are plastic (non-metal), so no grounding required.
You could argue though that the manufacurer of that cable requires it to have the ground connected (or they wouldn't have put the ground wire in) so you automatically break the NEC rules by not following the instructions of the cable manufacturer. Of course, that is stupid.
You could also argue that the 24V part of the circuit (which is what I understand goes out to the heater tube) is rectifier driven and is specifically NOT required to be grounded by 250-21(2) or by 250-162.
Ok now for the potentially harmful part...
1) If the heater tube metal was grounded you have a nice wet cell setup which will cause massive corrosion of the tube and premature failure. Dumping who knows what corrosion product into your water and connecting that dry electrical heating element to your wet tank, thus testing if your GFCI and/or breaker really do work like they should.
2) If you have multiple grounded pieces of metal in your aquarium you risk setting up ground currents from a high impedance "leaking" circuit that may or may not trip your GFCI/breaker. Thus putting some small unwanted current through your tank all the time. Lots of folks think this is bad.
3) Look at most of your equipment in your tank. It isn't grounded. Most stuff doesn't even have a 3 prong plug. Don't assume that since your home oven has a ground that makes it safer means that no ground on other stuff makes the other stuff unsafer. If it ain't needed by code it either ain't needed, or actually causes more potential harm than good. Ooo what a bad example...Grounding of ovens has only been required for a couple of years! (1992 I think).
