Heater left on out of water - will it still work

[Lineatus]

I forgot to unplug the heater in my brute can whilst doing a water change. It’s an 100 watt and was maybe left imerged for 5-8 minutes, I only noticed when I smelt burning plastic (most likely from the brute not the heater itself). There’s no cracks, but will the element be damaged?

This heater is the one from my main display, I was quickly using it to heat up fresh water . Do you think it’ll be ok to to use? Unfortunately this was my back up heater so I don’t have a replacement on hand (which is my bad )

 

[dwinston33]

have you check the warping or lil melting from any side apart from cracks?

 

[Dragen Fiend]

Inspect for any damage or warping. Did it have an internal temp control? Or stand alone? If so you likely could have burned it out. Just grab some water and test. I would order a replacement, but short term it might be okay as long as its not physically damaged. Could possibly get stray voltage though.

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

What type of heater? They can be fairly inexpensive. I'd toss it and buy a new one to play it safe. It's hard to say if there will be an early failure caused by the overheating stress.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I've done that many times, I've even melted the suction cups on it.

IME if and when it cracks or shatters, it will release white powder stuff into the water. I would test it in a bucket of water, make sure nothing is released into the water and make sure it works.

But to be better safe than sorry, above is good advice to just replace it and keep it as your water change heater or as a spare.

 

[Lineatus]

thanks everyone for the quick replies ! For peace of mind I’ll run and get a replacement before the shops shut!

On closer inspection there appears to be a small amount of white powder in the bottom of the heater, looks like it’s a bust