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ZooMed Mag Clips

J

Jeff

Anyone else with some experience on these?

Bought some thinking they would be a nice and easy way to attach some equipment like heaters and tubing. Suction cups always seem to fail and are a pain to reattach or move. Got my controller setup (Reefkeeper Lite) and it is running my heater, which was attached in my tank by the mag clip. All is working fine and then I notice that my temp is falling below my set point to activate the heater. I check the controller and it shows 0 amps (only the heater and a maxijet 900 hooked up at the moment) so I know the heater isn't on. Play with the controller, nothing, try running the heater and controller off a different plug thinking maybe the plug failed. Nothing. Try the maxijet on the other plugs, with and without the temp controller running them, they all work.

So the issue is with the heater, as it won't work even if plugged into an active socket. Finally I start to wonder if the magclip is causing an issue. I take them off and the heater fires right up. Not too thrilled about this as the magclip advertises them being for use with heaters, but the magnets are clearly creating some sort of interfere. Not sure if its the type of heater I am using (visitherm stealth - have used in the past and been happy with them, plus they are solid black and not as distracting when in the display tank) it particularly sensitive or where I have the magnets attached on the heater.

Anyways, back to suction cups for now :mad: at least.
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

Hey Jeff,
Wow hope not as I have the same setup. At the momment I don't need the heater. I have used them for other heaters with no issues. Let me know what you figure out.
James
 
M

Mbodell

There might be a relay in the heater that the magnet is messing with. I would try moving it down from the top area of the heater.
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

Mbodell said:
There might be a relay in the heater that the magnet is messing with. I would try moving it down from the top area of the heater.
Click to expand...

Thanks was thinking it shouldn't mess with the heating element, you are probably right on with that suggestion.
 
J

Jeff

Thats what i figured. Perhaps if I moved them further down on the heater then it wouldn't cause this interference. I just found it a bit scary. Luckily it stuck in the off position (I'd rather deal with a cold tank than a boiling one) and I also dont' have livestock at this point, so it wasn't an issue, but certainly something to keep an eye on.

Going out of town, so I probably won't try it out until next week, but I'll update once I have a chance to figure it out a bit more.
 
J

Jeff

Response from Zoomed customer service:

Thank you for contacting us. I am sorry to hear that you have experienced trouble. This is the second time I have heard of this happening. It seems to only be with the Visitherm Stealth heater which uses a material for the switching mechanism which is affected by a magnet. I spoke with the R and D department about your situation and was told that you should be able to use the magnet and heater if the magnet is used further down the heater body and not up toward the head where the switching mechanism is. We use these clips on many different heaters here and have not experienced any problems but we do not have any of these Stealth heaters. I have sent your message along to Research and Development for their consideration since this is the second occurrence. Thank you for taking the time to tell me about this experience. Please let me know if you have any further questions.
 
M

Mbodell

Yeah that is what I thought. Since the magnet is holding the relay off. Most heaters I think have digital controllers so you might not have this issue with other brands.
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

Mbodell said:
Yeah that is what I thought. Since the magnet is holding the relay off. Most heaters I think have digital controllers so you might not have this issue with other brands.
Click to expand...

Good call on that one!
 
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