I got this heater around Jan. 20th 2012 and put it in a 46g bow front tank. The tank sits within 7ft of the house thermostat and I like to keep our house temp about 66-68 degrees in the winter and 72 to 74 degrees in the summer, I live in Virginia and I like it cold. The 300 watt is probably over-kill but I intended to move my fish to a 75g, so I never even put substrate in or much in the way of decorations. There is also an airstone in front of the heater so it gets completely un-impeded water flow. The water level sits about 3-4 inches above the fully submersed heater.
The cord is round and flexible un-like a lot of submersible cords but it's only 5-6ft long. Since my plug is directly behind the tank, this is just perfect and still leaves a nice safety loop hang for me. The heater itself is about 15 or 16 inches long (I put a ruler on the outside of the tank an made an estimate) and the bottom is covered with a rubber cage, which again was fortunate since I had no gravel and the suction cups eventually lost their hold... or I may not have bothered w/ them too much b/c I just put the heater in a vertical position to begin with. Knowing how I am, I probably read EVERY single word on the directions...twice, and followed instructions precisely on how to set it up. When I first set it up during our unusually warm winter, I would notice the LCD temp. reading drop to 75 and shortly after I would see the orange light come on telling me it was heating, and back to my set temp. of 76 it would go, in other words, it worked perfectly! It's mid Sept. now, my poor fish are still living in the 46g b/c I have not had the time to build the rock wall for my other tank yet, but honestly, I don't think I have seen the temp. reading change from 76 degrees since this spring. I've double checked the temp. with a reliable digital thermometer throughout the year and they both read 76 degrees. Really the only con so far has been the suction cups, including the one on the probe, certainly not a deal breaker. Hopefully it will continue to do well this winter and maybe I'll be able to move it to the 75g and report back. I have 3 other tanks that could use a new heater since all of them heat the the water to 80 or so degrees even though the dial is as low as it can go, 3 different brands too.
UPDATE: Feb. 2013, the heater is no longer heating, just a giant thermometer now. I've never had a heater stop heating, usually they start over heating and cook the fish so even though it no longer works, at least it didn't kill my fish. The visible thermometer let me know the water was too cold & something wasn't right. I've bought some pretty cheap heaters in the past but they all lasted longer than a year. It seemed like a really well built heater but just didn't last unfortunately. I got a Fluval E around the same time for a different tank and that's been doing great so far so may try that one again.
I actually liked the overall design of this heater and the fact that it had the LED display on the unit itself. So, I went ahead and purchased it. It took less than 3 weeks for it to fail miserably. It switched on to heat mode and never shut off! Tried unplugging it, dialing down the temperature, and even letting it sit for a while, all to no avail. I have a pretty hefty investment in my tank and I got lucky in that I was able to catch the problem before it killed all of my fish. Don't want a replacement for it. Not interested in trading junk for junk. Pulled it out and bought a Fluval. Will try to get my money back. If you are reading this, think hard and long before wasting your money and jeopardizing your investment on this "product". Lesson learned here... READ THE REVIEWS before you invest your hard earned money!
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I initially loved this heater because of the LEDs & being able to know the temp from across the room, so much that I bought 3 over a 2 month period. Now I'm severely regretting it because the LED readout is going out on the oldest one. It is set for 84 degrees (discus tank) and reads as if it was set for 6u.
I will not buy another Finnex product & refuse to pay the shipping for a replacement that may start going out in 3 months too. I just bought 3 Eheim Jager heaters to replace them & will buy a separate LED thermometer to use in unison with the "classic" glass thermometer I have in each tank.
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I just bought this heater and no matter what we try, it resets to 83. I emailed the company and they were not helpful at all. This is a poor product with poor customer service.
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Heater looks great, nice digital display. Heated my 48 degree water yo 75 in one day. Next day it was 81 and the display was out. Thinking it might have to reset I unplugged it and tried again the next day. The display did not come on when I hit the thermostat button. Instead there were sparks and arcs inside the glass tube and then it exploded. The glass cracked and my house filled with acrid smoke and ozone. Could be just a fluke and I would have tried another one but that wasn't an option, credit my card only.
Looks very good in my 55 gallon fish tank and would recommend it to others. I didn't realize it when I bought it that it also has a place to put tubing to have bubbles come out of it.
