Problems with my heater

[pondy]

hello Guys n Girls...
hope you all had a great Christmas.

I got a problem with my Profi-heater, has anyone had any experience with these .
It's a 3kw heater, basically it doesnt seem to be heating the water up.
i've stripped it out, and everything seems o.k., all the electrics seem to be connected o.k.,
the thermostat clicks off at about 8 degrees (my pond is currently sitting at about 11).
i had it running with the thermostat at 24 for 72 hours with no increase in temp of my pond.
it's alot of expense to have it on, on the off chance that its might be working intermittantly!!
i cant tell you how old the heater is as i was given it. but it doesnt look that old and the previous owner said it only run for about three months before they realised they couldnt afford it.

Any ideas? or has anyone got another one just lying around i could use/buy/borrow, just to get me through the winter?

[Gazza]

Hi Mate,

Does it have a independent box/stat or is it all built in

If its not warming the water i doubt the heating element is coming on so it shouldn't of been costing you anything to run.......hopfully

[pondy]

hw do you tell though?

[Gazza]

I am not 100% which one you have but i think there are some which have a separate stat/box this has the stat on it and some kind of control for switching the heater on like a relay or contactor.I have the electro unit and when the heater comes on you hear a click where the contactor pulls in to put the supply onto the heating element.

[boogatee]

Pondy, the heater should have a green light (see piccy below) which turns on and off, indicating that the heater is working/cycling as the set temperature is reached.

It should be installed so that the heating element is constantly submerged - So, by switching your pump off, it should quickly heat the trapped water up to the set temperature, thus switching the heater/green light off. (is that happening? if yes! then it's working fine . If No! then it's busted )

I use a 3Kw profi (the new style - picture of old style below - new style has the thermostat built in to the end of the heater, not in an external box) on 2K gallons with 10K litres through put and with my pond covered it takes maybe 12hrs to raise the pond by 0.5-1°C. so depending on your pond size it could take awhile to show anything.

I have a spare (backup) 2Kw and it struggles to raise my pond temp … it can just about hold it at whatever it’s at, but it can't raise it…. I think it’s because the flow rate past the heating element is too high.

Hope that helps

[Merlin]

A cheaper option purchase wise , is to buy a couple of aquarium heaters to temp heat your pond over winter , someone here recomended them to me Jager 250w ,I paid £15 each for them. They are keeping my 300 gallon QT at a comfortable 18c . That will at least cover you until you can sort your heater out.

[pondy]

thanks guys,
had a spark check it out today and it seems i've had a meltdown, hopefully a new rewire will do the trick.

[Gazza]

Is it OK now and working

[pondy]

hopefully by the weekend as Jp the spark took it away for rewiring.

[shaun18]

Hi Pondy
I have used a profi 3kW for the last 2 years with no problems, other than as many others have commented the stat setting is variable (can be as much as 5 degrees out). I was aware of this before I bought mine so purchased the Filtertech controller to switch it. This has a built in relay which will cope with a maximum 3KW switching load. I set my profi stat to 18 degrees as a fail safe should the Filtertech stat fail at a lower temp. The good thing about the Filtertech is that it will only allow a certain temp drop/rise over a certain period of time eliminating too large a temp swing.
[url]http://www.koicarp.net/electrical_heating/thermostats.html[/url]

Hope this helps