# Tank heater not working?



## dec_lan (Aug 5, 2010)

Hey guys! So I have an old heater that has a dial so you can set what temp it will try to bring the water to. That wasn't working, so I assumed it was broken and bought a new one from walmart. This new one doesn't have a variable thing, just tries to put it at 78F.

But it doesn't seem to work! Ideally, I'm actually going to use this to heat the air in a terrarium, but I first tried it submerged in water like they said, and the LED light that indicates it's heating didn't turn on, and the water didn't warm up at all overnight.

Is there something I don't know about these?

Thanks!


----------



## probe1957 (Jul 2, 2010)

You have to plug them in.


----------



## dec_lan (Aug 5, 2010)

probe1957 said:


> You have to plug them in.


We have a regular Carlos Mencia here. I did plug them in.


----------



## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

The heater may be bad, I would take it back and replace it one that has a dial on it to where you can keep check on it. I have found the ones that are preset and can't be changed are unreliable anyway.


----------



## dec_lan (Aug 5, 2010)

susankat said:


> The heater may be bad, I would take it back and replace it one that has a dial on it to where you can keep check on it. I have found the ones that are preset and can't be changed are unreliable anyway.


I guess that's possible, but I JUST bought it, new. There's gotta be something I'm missing here. I bet the other, older one isn't even broken. Does it have some sort of sensor to test that it's submerged?


----------



## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Aquarium heaters have to be submerged or else they can shatter on you from the heat. I think they make special heaters for what your wanting to do. Do a google search for terrarrium heaters.


----------

