Heater goes haywire

KurtG wrote:

How often do these go haywire?

That depends. I used to have heaters made by Supreme. These had, as many others
do, "thermostats" that were metallic expansion segments which separated a pair
of electrical contacts. The general idea is that the segments will expand as
they heat up and force the contacts apart. That cuts off the power to the
heating coils.

These things had a nasty reputation for sticking; almost always in the "on"
position. It became a not-so-fun game to try to replace the thermostat before it
went bad. I replaced my heaters years ago with the "Tronic" brand, which have an
electronic thermostat. I've been told that, when these fail, they tend to fail
in the "off" position. Mine have not failed in over ten years, but they do seem
to need adjustment every few months these days (they didn't when I first bought
them).

Once burned, twice careful, though. I still keep two heaters on my tank. Each
one is about half the size the tank really needs. If one goes haywire, it's not
large enough to really boil anybody. I wouldn't be adverse to using three, if
that's what it takes to keep everyone alive.

The Supremes used to go bad about every three to five years.

George Patterson
No one ever says "It's only a game." when his team is winning.