Frustrated with my eheim jager heater

I bought a new eheim jager heater - put it in my tank and let it sit for at least a half hour before plugging it in. Before doing so I set the thermostat (blue dial) to 77 degrees. Plugged it in - and it raised the temp to 77, 78, 79, 80 - and kept going... The red dial will only adjust to 4 degrees above the desired temp that the blue ring is set at - so that is totally worthless !! I bought it off amazon and tried to contact Ken's Fish in Massachusetts that it was bought from and got voice mail - called twice and left messages both times - sent email - and no response to either voicemail or emails. Then I see eheim has a facebook page - so I post about the problem on that - and moments ago get a response from them asking if I followed the "manual" exactly by letting the heater sit in the tank for 24 hours before attempting to use it. It does not say anything about it being in the tank for 24 hours before using it.....so what's with that???? All it say's is to monitor the temperature in the aquarium for 24 hours with a thermometer . So what part of this equation am I missing or do I not understand? I would think that if the blue dial (desired temp) is set to 77 degrees it should heat to within 1 or 2 degrees of that - not 10 degrees. I really think this thing has a bad thermostat or it wouldn't be doing this. What do you folks think ??

 

The red dial is also adjustable. Ignore the numbers at first. Keep adjusting the blue dial until you achieve the desired temperature for 24 hours then adjust the red dial to match. The red dial does nothing but move the numbers. In other words you might have to set the blue dial to 70 to get 77 after you get a steady 77 move the red dial so the arrow on the blue dial is on 77. Heater is now calibrated to your tank.

Good luck. These heaters are great but require some patients to set up.

 

I don't blame you a bit for your frustration--I sure that the set-up made perfect sense to an engineer somewhere along the way, but why didn't it make sense to someone to share in a set of instructions.
Eheim is famous for two things that I know of--making great products, and combining them with the worst instructions going------rick

 

One of mine is off 8 degrees. Ehiem jager heaters when set work in 2°f intervals. So mine turns on when it hits 76 and turns off at 78. Ignore the numbers on the dial. They don't match up most the time. And the red thing only goes so far so its not enough sometimes

 

What I have learned is my heater when setting the blue dial (actual temp setting) - to 70 heats to a consistent 78 degrees. The red dial won't go to the 78 degree mark (actual temp of the water) when the blue setting is at 70 - as the red dial only goes up or down 4 degrees from the blue dial setting. This isn't rocket science but Eheim has tried to reinvent the wheel and really complicated what should be a simple thing. I called the dealer I bought it from and he agreed - I got a messed up one from the factory and is shipping out a replacement - hopefully this one will work like it is supposed to. I have an engineer in the family that I was talking with about this thing and he said it would be very simple to make a heater that is totally digital - with a remote to adjust 1 degree at a time up or down to desired setting - internal thermostats that give a digital reading of the actual water temperature as well as the actual temperature setting of the heater itself and it could easily be made so that a computer app could be used to alert a smart phone when the temperature varies by a present variable - NOW that would be an awesome aquarium heater !!

 

Well your engineer family member should get on that.

Let us know how you make out with the new one.

 

This info is already helping me. Nowhere in the instructions did it say to let heater sit in aquarium 30" before plugging it in. Now trying to calibrate. Hope I didn't ruin the heater. Will try adjusting blue dial until I get the right temp.

 

Join the "I hate calibrating my Eheim Jäger heather - club".
After unplugging it the red dial (turns difficult) should be put on the actual temperature (thermometer needed) After that you'd turn the blue dial to the temp needed. Needed to do it 3 times before it worked.

 

Thanks Dutch. Right now I have my blue dial turned down below the desired temp, just to get the heater from coming on. It is very slowly cooling down(1 degree) since this AM. Am checking water temp
every 4 hours or so.

 

When the heather isn't calibrated with the red dial, there always will be a differences in wanted and actual temp !!

 

I calibrated it twice so far. The red ring is indeed hard to turn. It kept coming on, calibrated at 80 degrees and set to a desired temp of 76 F. I'm going to ease it up to 76 F and see what happens.




OK. Temp is 76 F. Should I re calibrate to 76 and leave the temp setting at 76? Or let the calibration stay at 80F?

 

Gah!!!!!
3rd re calibration!
I'm going to have to stay up all night to make sure my fish don't boil or freeze!!!!!

I can't move the red ring upward. Should I return this and get a new one?

It may be working ...

 

They are designed to start working when you're thinking of throwing it in the garbage can hahaha. You don't have to turn the red dial when it is calibrated. The blue dial is the only one you'd turn to up or lower the temp. When working they are really great.

 

Even 77! All night!
I messed with the dials when I got it out of the box. I think I discombobulated it!
There needs to be a big red warning sign on outside of box:
DO NOT PLAY WITH RED DIAL BEFORE USING!
LOL!!! That was 12+ hours of frustration yesterday. Will keep you informed of any mishaps. Have a great day!

Thank you for your help Double Dutch!

 

I gave up on the Eheim. Got a Fluval E100 and love it. Factory set at 77 F and 77 F it is.



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