12.29.2012

Aqueon Mini 10W Heater - Review

I have owned the Aqueon Mini Heater for awhile now so, I decided being winter months now that it was a good time to give a 'mini' review on it.

Just to answer a few quick questions you may have...

Does it work? Yes.
Does it use suction cup/s? Yes.
Wireless? No.
Indicator Light? No.
Adjustable temperature? No.
Fully Submersible? Yes.
Size and Color: I'd say it's around 4in x 1in with a 1/2in depth, color is black.

I have been using the Aqueon mini heater for Mr. Moto (my betta fish) in his 2.5 gallon mini bow aquarium (acrylic aquarium). Since Ebo (my newest betta) doesn't have a heater in his habitat it was reading at 70.2F, while Mr. Moto's aquarium with the mini heater was at 76.8F. That being said Aqueon's Mini Heater raised the temperature 6.6F, which seems to be a nice temperature for a small betta tank like Mr.Moto's. Keep in mind that if your tank water is colder/warmer (depending on the outside temp) or your aquarium size is bigger/smaller than the heater may not give the same readings as mine as their are many different variables to consider when using practically any aquarium heater. Their is also no adjustable dial on this device to lower or increase the heat so while it may work for some it may not work for others, but I find it's perfect for my 2.5 mini bow aquarium setup I have. I definitely recommend trying it if you do have a small aquarium setup such as 5 gallons or less.

As a side note this product claims that if you leave it outside of water and plugged in that it has a 'thermal safety shut-off' that will initiate, and the unit will then be rendered unusable after that. As always with aquarium heaters, give the device several days to work in your aquarium setup before judging its performance as heaters can take up to 48hrs to gradually heat the aquarium, this is done purposely as to not shock your fish and cause them to get ill.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

I've had mine for about a week now. I'm disappointed as the morning temperature in my 5 gallon aquarium has been reading 74 degrees. This is 4 degrees lower than the heater's set temperature, so I will be sending it back. However, I've read some good reviews for the product, so my particular device may be faulty.

Hex said...

As far as I know this unit does not have a temperature setting device on it... so, perhaps you have a different heater than this one?

Aquarium Heater said...
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Unknown said...

am I supposed to fully submerse the heater?

Unknown said...
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Hex said...

Yes this is a fully submersible heater, I believe if there isn't enough water to cover it that it shuts off.

Unknown said...

I use this heater and sometimes the water feels cooler and sometimes the water feels warmer.

James Patrick said...

nice blog and its quite useful thanks for sharing your information.
aquarium heater

James Patrick said...

nice blog and its quite useful thanks for sharing your information.
aquarium heater

Unknown said...

Fully submerge like put the whole thing under water, even the vertical lines at the top of it? Or just above the minimum water line?

Guppy-Guide said...

Fully submersible does mean that it can go completely underwater, however, since I did this review like 7 years ago I do believe the original design of this heater has changed slightly based on the photo now showing on Petsmart's website because mine looked slightly different. With that said, this does state on their website that this is "fully submersible" but it needs to be at a minimum to the horizontal waterline marked on its body. This generally means that if it isn't submerged far enough into the aquarium water that it could have an auto-shutoff so that the heater doesn't overheat outside of water, which would then render your heater useless at that point. So I hope that helps in answering your question and I believe if it does auto-shutoff on you that you probably have to unplug the heater, resubmerge it into the aquarium water fully and it may hopefully start operating again.