truetricia
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- Jul 23, 2014
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This is describing my recent experience with the Bulk Reef Supply Heating System: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/titanium-aquarium-heater-system-bulk-reef-supply.html
Let me start off by saying that I generally love BRS. I think the videos and the information they put out is top-notch. I also think that Ryan generally wants to help the reef/aquarium hobby industry, and I love that about BRS. However, this is about a safety issue with one of the products that nearly resulted in catastrophe, and the poor customer service I received afterwards.
So we all know that heaters fail, which is why investing in a quality set up and a controller is a good idea. I recently purchased a couple of larger coral colonies, and set them up in my fish QT for a fishless fallow period (no fish in the QT). About a month ago, I upgraded the heater in the system to one of the BRS new heating systems in an effort to ensure a healthy QT experience for fish, or in this case, large coral colonies. In the setup process, I ensured that the cords went down to the ground so that any dripping saltwater would get absorbed by the carpet before the cords went up to the outlet. The heater cord plugged into the controller which set up on another shelf, so again, it was physically impossible for water to drip into the outlet. The outlet is horizontally away from the tank, so really difficult to splash water on the wall and have it drip down. The bigger concern is water dripping down the cords, but again, I've accounted for that.
So flash forward to the holidays. I go on vacation to California for about ten days. When I left, the tanks were all set for a prolonged absence, everything running right. While on vacay, I notice that I can't remotely control my Alexa-enabled devices on my second floor. It seems strange, but I didn't think anything of it. The pet sitter mentions that she can't get Alexa to turn the lights on, but mentions nothing else. A few days later, my housekeeper states that she can't power on the vacuum upstairs, and she has to reset the breaker. Which means that the entire time I couldn't turn on my lights, all of the power was out to the upstairs. This includes my QT tank holding two large colonies, and a small bedroom nano tank with clowns. Housekeeper reported the clowns were alive.
I come home to find everything in order, but the room with my QT tank has a singed odor to it. I check the power outlets, and sure enough, there was an issue. The BRS controller plug (heater is plugged into the device) has completely melted. It also melted the outlet expander it was plugged into, which I've used before for other things. There is soot all around the outlet, and you can smell it still slowly over heating. I feel very lucky TBH. The controller isn't working, and thus the heater isn't working. An entire colony is dead. Luckily the second one was fine. There was no salt water dripping, nor any way for saltwater to drip on or in the outlet due to placement on the wall relative to the tank. Nothing to splash, nothing to drip, and the physics would be impossible as well. No one was home, no one touched the tank, and corals can't splash. I would be more inclined to believe it was water-oriented if it had happened after I finished a water change, etc. But not when no one is home and the tank has been sitting for a couple of days and no way for water to drip. The door to the room was also closed, so there's no chance that the cats did anything to it.
Someone mentioned that those heaters pull a lot of amps. That's unexpected, because my Apex downstairs says my Jager heaters pull less than 1 amp each. I've used that outlet and the adapter for plenty of things, like a tank heater, space heater, vacuum, etc. that pull the same, if not more, and never had a problem. Also, before I got the BRS system, there was a Jager heater plugged into it the exact same spot since September with no issues. Then within the first few weeks of using the BRS system, this happens.
I contacted BRS, and they said that this was the first time they'd heard of the controller plug melting, and they wanted to send it off to the manufacturer for study. While I appreciate that this is all that they can do, I was disappointed a bit in the customer service. I was told that heaters failing like this was just part of the industry and issues with owning a reef tank. I was taken aback by this statement. The heating system was less than a month old, and failed when the physics were impossible for saltwater to drip on it. That is not expected or normal. And it failed while I was in California and came very close to starting a fire. If it had, I would have lost everything in my condo, including my two cats. While I certainly didn't expect them to replace my colony, I was expecting them to try to compensate for such a potentially devastating experience with some swag, preferred reefer points, etc. I'm not even sure I want to run the replacement in my house now, and may opt to return the whole thing and try another system.
Again, we all expect heaters to fail, stay on, stay off, etc. What I was really upset about was that the failure expectation is not on a brand new one and not to the level of fire hazard that it posed. And the BRS customer service rep making it sound as if this was both expected and should have been anticipated.
I hope that this is a freak accident...
Let me start off by saying that I generally love BRS. I think the videos and the information they put out is top-notch. I also think that Ryan generally wants to help the reef/aquarium hobby industry, and I love that about BRS. However, this is about a safety issue with one of the products that nearly resulted in catastrophe, and the poor customer service I received afterwards.
So we all know that heaters fail, which is why investing in a quality set up and a controller is a good idea. I recently purchased a couple of larger coral colonies, and set them up in my fish QT for a fishless fallow period (no fish in the QT). About a month ago, I upgraded the heater in the system to one of the BRS new heating systems in an effort to ensure a healthy QT experience for fish, or in this case, large coral colonies. In the setup process, I ensured that the cords went down to the ground so that any dripping saltwater would get absorbed by the carpet before the cords went up to the outlet. The heater cord plugged into the controller which set up on another shelf, so again, it was physically impossible for water to drip into the outlet. The outlet is horizontally away from the tank, so really difficult to splash water on the wall and have it drip down. The bigger concern is water dripping down the cords, but again, I've accounted for that.
So flash forward to the holidays. I go on vacation to California for about ten days. When I left, the tanks were all set for a prolonged absence, everything running right. While on vacay, I notice that I can't remotely control my Alexa-enabled devices on my second floor. It seems strange, but I didn't think anything of it. The pet sitter mentions that she can't get Alexa to turn the lights on, but mentions nothing else. A few days later, my housekeeper states that she can't power on the vacuum upstairs, and she has to reset the breaker. Which means that the entire time I couldn't turn on my lights, all of the power was out to the upstairs. This includes my QT tank holding two large colonies, and a small bedroom nano tank with clowns. Housekeeper reported the clowns were alive.
I come home to find everything in order, but the room with my QT tank has a singed odor to it. I check the power outlets, and sure enough, there was an issue. The BRS controller plug (heater is plugged into the device) has completely melted. It also melted the outlet expander it was plugged into, which I've used before for other things. There is soot all around the outlet, and you can smell it still slowly over heating. I feel very lucky TBH. The controller isn't working, and thus the heater isn't working. An entire colony is dead. Luckily the second one was fine. There was no salt water dripping, nor any way for saltwater to drip on or in the outlet due to placement on the wall relative to the tank. Nothing to splash, nothing to drip, and the physics would be impossible as well. No one was home, no one touched the tank, and corals can't splash. I would be more inclined to believe it was water-oriented if it had happened after I finished a water change, etc. But not when no one is home and the tank has been sitting for a couple of days and no way for water to drip. The door to the room was also closed, so there's no chance that the cats did anything to it.
Someone mentioned that those heaters pull a lot of amps. That's unexpected, because my Apex downstairs says my Jager heaters pull less than 1 amp each. I've used that outlet and the adapter for plenty of things, like a tank heater, space heater, vacuum, etc. that pull the same, if not more, and never had a problem. Also, before I got the BRS system, there was a Jager heater plugged into it the exact same spot since September with no issues. Then within the first few weeks of using the BRS system, this happens.
I contacted BRS, and they said that this was the first time they'd heard of the controller plug melting, and they wanted to send it off to the manufacturer for study. While I appreciate that this is all that they can do, I was disappointed a bit in the customer service. I was told that heaters failing like this was just part of the industry and issues with owning a reef tank. I was taken aback by this statement. The heating system was less than a month old, and failed when the physics were impossible for saltwater to drip on it. That is not expected or normal. And it failed while I was in California and came very close to starting a fire. If it had, I would have lost everything in my condo, including my two cats. While I certainly didn't expect them to replace my colony, I was expecting them to try to compensate for such a potentially devastating experience with some swag, preferred reefer points, etc. I'm not even sure I want to run the replacement in my house now, and may opt to return the whole thing and try another system.
Again, we all expect heaters to fail, stay on, stay off, etc. What I was really upset about was that the failure expectation is not on a brand new one and not to the level of fire hazard that it posed. And the BRS customer service rep making it sound as if this was both expected and should have been anticipated.
I hope that this is a freak accident...
