Helio PTC heater review

[MainelyReefer]

I won the new Innovative Marine Helio PTC heating system in a giveaway here on nanoreef and just received the heater in the mail yesterday. I still can’t believe I won a $315 heater!  I have only opened the package to examine.  The packaging is immaculate and is reminiscent of high end items like an iPhone(that’s how my wife described it lol). The box is Massive for a heater too

technically the giveaway allowed a single element heater but given my 50g lowboy is in a poorly heated room up here in cold NH I needed high wattage.  They have a 500w single element heater that would have worked but at 15” long the element would have been hard to place in a 8” deep tank.  So I asked if they could accommodate sending the 400w system that uses dual 200w elements that are only 7” long.  Innovative Marine graciously accommodated my needs and sent the model best suited(thanks!).  
I’ll update once I install it this weekend

[MainelyReefer]

Heater has been installed for a few weeks now.  I LOVE how the elements and probes came with magnetic mounts.  I have a hydros and they included a junky temp probe with not even a suction cup, yet offer a magnetic one for the same price just not as standard equipment.  On the Helio though even the redundant temp probe gets a solid magnetic mount.

using my hydros I was able to monitor my temp swings throughout the day on a graph.  The results are obvious

temp result with 2x cobalt 75w heater

and a much better result with the Helio PTC

Still very happy with the heater.  Only time will tell if I would deem it worth $350, but all signs indicate it is.
Torch photo for fun

oh yea and extra points to the Helio as on the day it was installed the temp was already over the desired max temp and the alarm was going off.  Bypassing the alarm was easy as there is an alarm silence button on the side of the controller, can’t say the same for the hydros which even in the app I couldn’t get the alarm from going off. Well thought out product from Innovative Marine

[Innovative Marine]

@GraniteReefer Thank you for taking the time for reviewing the new Helio PTC heater. We are glad to hear you like the magnetic mounts for the elements and sensor probe. We are not big fans of suction cups either. Please let us know if you have any questions, we are happy to help.

 

IM team

[MainelyReefer]

I think the small spikes in temp on the graph that are still present represents the time when my t5 lights are on too so no fault of the Helio 

[MainelyReefer]

@Innovative Marine today I noticed one of the elements is illuminated red and the other is not.  Is there a red LED to indicate the element is on?

[Innovative Marine]

@GraniteReefer You are correct, the heating elements will illuminate red when "ON". Since you are running two elements, one of the elements may turn off to save energy when nearing its' desired set point. If the temperature drops rapidly both elements will turn on to compensate. The self-regulating feature of the ceramic chips allow each element as its' own safety feature.

 

[MainelyReefer]

55 minutes ago, Innovative Marine said:

@GraniteReefer You are correct, the heating elements will illuminate red when "ON". Since you are running two elements, one of the elements may turn off to save energy when nearing its' desired set point. If the temperature drops rapidly both elements will turn on to compensate. The self-regulating feature of the ceramic chips allow each element as its' own safety feature.

 

Thanks for the quick response, cool feature to tell when the element is active!

[Innovative Marine]

@GraniteReefer  We thought the soft red glow on the element would allow for quick heating status on the element without looking at the external controller. How is the temperature stability?

[MainelyReefer]

34 minutes ago, Innovative Marine said:

How is the temperature stability?

Epic, spikes represent hours when lights are on with a variance from 76.3 to 77.3 on average