Heater shut off

brianbell1

Member
Does anyone make a product that is designed to shut heaters off when they malfuntion to prevent them from overheating tanks?
Thanks, Brian
 

dogstar

Active Member
Acrylic, There made to turn chillers on and off so must be alot. You can check them out at reefgeekDOTcom. Click controllors. I have two 200 watt heaters on one and my 1/4 hp chiller on another one cause they monitor temp both ways. Didnt really check there capacity but probly a full 15 amp load.
15amps x 115volts. = 1725 watts.
 

acrylic51

Active Member
Thanks knew they were designed to work in conjunction with chillers, but had a different intention to use them... Was looking at using them with my lighting system as well
 

brianbell1

Member
Is that madel called the Ranco. If so where did you get the electric cords for it. I just got one in and I guess I have to buy the the cords and wire them in.
 

dogstar

Active Member
:notsure: yea, mine came with cords, one to plug in the outlet and one to plug in the heater and a third w/ the senser. That was three years ago but where did you order it from?
 

brianbell1

Member
From the auction site. Evidently these are universal controller and can be used with 110, 120, 220 watt cords. So I have to add the cord I need. It is exactly like the one you have in the picture just without the cords. I should have ask that before I bought it. It looks easy to wire but I need to know where to fid the cords.
 

dogstar

Active Member
:thinking: Do you mean volts?
Does it have prongs on it that your cord plugs to it or do you open it up and attach your cord to screws? If you open it and wire it to screws then just Cut a short exstention cord in half and you have them. Make sure the ex cord is a heavy duty one with a ground.
 

brianbell1

Member
Sorry I did mean volts. I found the cords I need today with the screw in plugs to secure in the holes like the controllers that already have the cords when you buy them.
Thanks for all the advice I appreciate it.
How many degrees do you set it above you heater thermostat.
My tank will probabaly hover between 76 and 78 due to the Halides so I thought about setting the controller at 80 to 83 just in case.
What would you recommend?
 

dogstar

Active Member
Set your heaters thermastat high so it comes on at around 85 and set the controller to come on at the lowest you want the tank say about 76 but IMO thats low for a tank ( is it that cold in the room? ) unless you have cold water spcs. The controller can be set to come on when temp raises or lowers so you have to program it the way you want it to work.
 

brianbell1

Member
I must have a misunderstanding of how the controller works. I thought it worked as a shutoff or safety for the heater if the thermostat broke and it would shut it off if the water became a certain temp.
This is why I thought I had to set it a couple degrees higher than what the heater thermostat is set at.
Say for example I would like the tank to run at 80 degrees I Would set the heater themostat at 80 and the controller at 83.
If the water got this hot due to the heater themosstat sticking on the controller would shut the power off to it and prevent overheating the tank.
Let me know if I am looking at this wrong.
Thanks
 

dogstar

Active Member
:yes: OK, you can do it like too but you still trusting the heaters thermostat to turn on at 79.
I want my tank to stay at 79 so I set my heater at 81 and the heater wants to come on at 80 but the controller want give it power because I set my controller at 79 and when the temp drops to 78 the controller turns on and so does the heater cause it wanted to turn on at 80 but the controller did not give it power till the temp droped to 78 and when it hits 79 again the controller turns off the power to the heater so the controller will not let it heat above 79 because it turns the power off to the heater. If the controller fails to turn off then the heater hopefully will turn off at 81 cause thats where its set at. Remember you can set the controller to turn ON when temp goes below a set temp OR to turn OFF when it goes below a set temp. I hope this helped.
 
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