Why is my heater not working anymore?!

so I got this 50watt aqueon aquarium heater. its preset to 78 degrees and u can't change the temp. so at first it worked great and kept it right at 78, but over the past few months the heat has been decreasing and just today I checked and the water is down to 70! its plugged in and everything its just not really heating all the well. I have a 5.5gal tank and its always worked fine but recently its not doing too well. 70 is just too cold for my fish so is there anything I can do to get this thing to work better? heaters are expensive and i'd hate to buy a new one! this one's like a year old maybe.its always worked great until just recently. should I like unplug and replug it? or like turn it off for a few hours or something? or do I just have to buy a new one? maybe should I move it to the center of the tank so that the heat spreads better? I dunno any advice would be greatly appreciated! thanks!

 

Sounds like you need a new heater.

You can unplug it for a few hours and try it again later, but at this point it's not reliable, so I'd just get a new one. I much prefer adjustable heaters to preset ones.

 

Sounds burnt out. Idget a new one

 

Get an Aqueon or Aqueon Pro; they're guaranteed for life

 

Get an Aqueon or Aqueon Pro; they're guaranteed for life

it is an aqueon

 

Sounds like you need a new heater.

You can unplug it for a few hours and try it again later, but at this point it's not reliable, so I'd just get a new one. I much prefer adjustable heaters to preset ones.

hummmm okay then :/ any specific heater you could recommend?

 

I like the Aqueon submersible adjustable heaters.

 

hummmmm thanks okay ill look for that! to amazon, away!
thanks