75 watt neotherm failed

[Ty.]

Last week I had a strange thing happen to me. For no real reason I had noticed that the outside of my tank felt warmer than usual, so I pulled the neotherm out of the tank and noticed that it was set to 86 degrees. I pulled the heater out of the tank and threw in a 50 watt Fluval heater I had sitting around (you never have too much spare crap haha) today I tried the heater out in a glass of water and when i plugged it in it only lit up the red light for 94° and did not do the normal full sweep of all the temperatures like it is supposed to before displaying what temp it is set to.  I called up cobalt aquatics and they said that it should be covered by their 3 year warranty and I just got done submitting a claim wwith them so we will see how it all works out. 

 

Has anyone had any luck with cobalt aquatics warranty process? 

 

Is there a better heater out there for my innovative marine 14 gallon pininsula, or should I just run the 50 watt Fluval for now until I can hopefully get my neotherm replaced? I have read that the bigger neotherms have had issues with melting themselves, but I thought the smaller ones were fairly reliable. 

 

Also the heater was in the middle compartment not the pump chamber so it always had plenty of flow and stayed submurged. 

 

Also the heater was almost a year and a half old so it should have probabbly been replaced anyways. I originally called up cobalt to see if the red light stuck on 94° was some sort of failure code, but the gentleman I spoke with said that it was just a strange failure and should be covered under their three year warranty.  

 

Thanks y'all. 

 

[Thrassian Atoll]

I had one die in like 6 months.  For the price of them, not worth it IMO.

[RedCrow]

I stand by the Finnex HMA series titanium heaters. Titanium can’t shatter, and the manual dial can’t fail in the same way as a digital control. For a 14 gallon tank you’d only need a 50 watt as titanium heats better than glass heaters too. 
 

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/hma-s-heater-w-analog-controller-finnex.html

[nanoreeFan]

On another popular reef forum, there is 21 page long thread about all the Cobalt neotherm heater blew up

[Pod Your Reef]

I love these, they are expensive but worth in in my opinion. I also replace my heaters every 3 years, I'm just paranoid.