Innovative Marine Helio Heater

[Tamberav]

Review on the new Helio Heater by @Innovative Marine 
 

I am excited to try out this new heater that has hit the market. It is expensive for a heater so hoping it lives up to the cost and provides a reliable way to heat our tanks without failure. I won it in a contest but will give my honest review. This 200w version retails for $250.

 

Some photos of the packaging.. I will follow up with setup and longevity.

 

 

 

Initial thoughts:

 

This heater is small! It will fit in tiny spaces without any problem. I was sent the 200w version made for 25-50g and it is only 7 inches long. 
 

 

It also supports dual heaters so two 100w heaters instead of one 200w could be ran instead.

 

It can be recalibrated in 0.1 increments should it ever drift over time.

 

It has warnings for high temp, low temp, element errors, and sensor errors. It also has an audible alarm (that can also be disabled). It has error codes it displays, however the error code for high is E3 and low is E4. I would have preferred these codes to simply read “HI” and “LO” for quick reference. However there is a guide on the back of the controller.

 

 

It states it needs to be unplugged for one hour before water changes or cleaning. Cleaning I understand but the one hour before a water change seems excessive. I am hoping this isn’t absolutely necessary for a quick water change as long as the heater stays submerged. 
 

It comes with very sturdy magnet mounts for the heater and sensor. The magnet mount has screws in it but guessing they must be a good quality stainless or such. We will see how they hold up over time. 

 

 

The instruction booklet is easy to understand and well written and the controller box seems sturdy enough and is basically just some stickers on it for color/indicators.

 

 

[Tamberav]

The heater is in! Set up was pretty much a no brainer. There are 3 buttons, one Mode button to cycle through the options and set the heater or calibrate it. + and - buttons to adjust the temp settings and a button to turn the alarm on and off.

 

 

The magnets are strong and I do not worry about them falling off, even with my bengal cats.

 

Probably have to remove the magnet to clean the heater (they recommend monthly) because it grips the heater so swell.

 

Now we just wait and see how well it does over time.

 

Update:

The element alarm was going off for about 15 sec every few hours. I figured out the issue after looking more closely at my rear chambers. Flow moves more slowly though the left side than the right because I am running a IM UV sterilizer on that side which funnels all the water from the left into the UV. This was triggering a low flow alarm every so often. 
 

I swapped the heater to the right side and the probe to the left and the issue was resolved. My right side is a empty media basket. I do use a Sicce 1.5 return pump.

 

If you stuff a lot of hardware in the back like skimmers, reactors, media and such, it may be possible to slow flow enough to cause the alarm to go off. It might also go off if you leave your filter floss go too long. Ofc it may remind you to change it 😉

 

I think the main thing will be just keeping an eye on placement and being conscious of what may effect flow.

 

The positive is if your return pump ever stops working, the heater is going to let you know which is a nice extra failsafe.

[Opotter]

I was just looking at these.  Interested to see how it goes!

[Tamberav]

Initial thoughts are posted... will update with any problems or issues in how it does long term.

[Tamberav]

Had a small issue with flow... update in post 2.

[Innovative Marine]

@Tamberav Thank you for such a detail review of the new Helio PTC heater. The element alarm will activate if the water flow is too slow, the sensor inside the element and the remote sensor are constantly communicating with the controller to make sure both readings are within programmed parameters. The key to longevity of any heater is to maintain lower internal operating temperatures inside the element so it does not burn out any internal electronic components. 

 

Just as a note, the element alarm will also turn on when the element is exposed to air, and will resume working once submerged back into water. 

The screws on the magnet holder are made of titanium and so is the temperature sensor, so you shouldn't have any problems with corrosion with saltwater.

 

If you have any comments or questions, feel free to ask as we are here to help.

thanks,

IM Team

[Tamberav]

Thanks for the response! Since swapping the heater to the side that receives more flow, there has not been any more alarms. 

 

I set the heater to 78 and it has so far been spot on 78.

[hinnenkm]

1 hour ago, Innovative Marine said:

@Tamberav Thank you for such a detail review of the new Helio PTC heater. The element alarm will activate if the water flow is too slow, the sensor inside the element and the remote sensor are constantly communicating with the controller to make sure both readings are within programmed parameters. The key to longevity of any heater is to maintain lower internal operating temperatures inside the element so it does not burn out any internal electronic components. 

 

Just as a note, the element alarm will also turn on when the element is exposed to air, and will resume working once submerged back into water. 

The screws on the magnet holder are made of titanium and so is the temperature sensor, so you shouldn't have any problems with corrosion with saltwater.

 

If you have any comments or questions, feel free to ask as we are here to help.

thanks,

IM Team

I appreciate this information as well. I was another one of the winners and so far it has been great, but was a bit concerned about submerging the screws. I've posted a bit on Instagram about this heater and will continue to do so as time progresses. Thanks so much! @Tamberav congrats as well - fun to get a new product like this!

[MainelyReefer]

@Tamberav when you set up the heater did you put the adhesive foam pad that is included with the magnet holder on the outside or inside? I’m leaning towards the outside but have been unable to find clarification in the user manual so figured I’d ask another reefer lol

@Innovative Marine I guess you would be the ultimate jury on this one? Why one pad? Which side is proper?

[Innovative Marine]

@GraniteReefer sorry for the confusion, the adhesive rubber pad is included and designed for placement on the outside magnet. The rubber pad creates a little added friction between the acrylic magnet and glass since they are both very smooth surfaces. This also prevents the accidental "smacking" of the magnets against the glass.

 

thanks,

IM Team

[MainelyReefer]

19 minutes ago, Innovative Marine said:

@GraniteReefer sorry for the confusion, the adhesive rubber pad is included and designed for placement on the outside magnet. The rubber pad creates a little added friction between the acrylic magnet and glass since they are both very smooth surfaces. This also prevents the accidental "smacking" of the magnets against the glass.

 

thanks,

IM Team

I called IM before I saw this just now and the support said the same thing outside magnet, thanks for the clarification now I will go set up the heater tonight!