Helios heater warning

[MartinM]

I had a Helios heating system fail (off, not on) after 6 months, and when trying to get warranty support my assistant was met with a barrage of questions, not to mention them asking her to dismantle the unit for troubleshooting purposes and to include photos of the circuit boards. Seriously? I *could* do it, but I definitely won’t, and my staff cannot do it. I just need a new one, it’s that simple. Give her an RMA, don’t ask her to be your staff for you, @Innovative Marine.

Here’s *some* of what they asked:

—
Helio Questionnaire:
- What size is your aquarium?
- What is the ambient room temperature in which your aquarium sits?
- What is the current set temperature of your Helio System?
- How long has your Helio been running
- Does it achieve set temperature with both heating elements?
- What Error Codes have you experienced?
- How often do the error codes occur?
- Are there any markings on the top of your Helio controller? (Example: Letters, Numbers, Symbols, etc…)
- What is the Voltage/Hertz utilized in your home/city?

***Along with the answers below please also include a few pictures of how you have your Helio System set up.***
—

of course it’s not set up anymore, it FAILED and I had to replace it.

From one enterprise owner to another: @Innovative Marine you guys have an awful warranty system and you’re hurting your CLV with it, especially on inflated pet industry margins. My customer support offers no questions asked returns, only requiring 1 photo to demonstrate an issue.

Time to trash it, and make sure she leaves warning reviews on all the major sites. No more Helios heaters for me!

 

[blaxsun]

Thanks for the head's up (what a Gong Show). Glad I went with a pair of Schegos and Inkbird. Neither are proprietary and the cost of replacement is so cheap that I could care less about warranty.

 

[mdb_talon]

I dont mind the asking of questions though i think most of them should be a voluntary thing after they get the warranty claim filed. I can understand why they would want to know the info. Asking a consumer to dismantle the product and troubleshoot something like that just seems ridiculous though.

 

[Dabcrusher]

I think that it's silly that I couldn't get an extended warranty on a hellos when I got it through innovative marine because I got it at a discounted price cause where I work sells there products and was told it's only available if you buy it off there website and not through there wholesale rep when it's a 400$ heater. I've had it for at least 6 months without a single problem but you think they would stand behind a product they make that the most expensive one on the market

 

[csund]

Why would you spend that much on a Chinese heater?

There are so many better cheaper options. Though I didn’t “use” internal thermostats when I ran Jaeger heaters I would still replace annually. I switched Schego/BRS heaters - these I’ve run for a year and half but will probably replace @ two years.

I think I remember seeing Helios hold within .5 degrees which is not really something to brag about. Here is my tank today with Schego/BRS…

 

[csund]

Here is my frag system that turns over within its own system and also 180gph with DT. It has its own temp probe and heater.

 

[Innovative Marine]

I had a Helios heating system fail (off, not on) after 6 months, and when trying to get warranty support my assistant was met with a barrage of questions, not to mention them asking her to dismantle the unit for troubleshooting purposes and to include photos of the circuit boards. Seriously? I *could* do it, but I definitely won’t, and my staff cannot do it. I just need a new one, it’s that simple. Give her an RMA, don’t ask her to be your staff for you, @Innovative Marine.

Here’s *some* of what they asked:

—
Helio Questionnaire:
- What size is your aquarium?
- What is the ambient room temperature in which your aquarium sits?
- What is the current set temperature of your Helio System?
- How long has your Helio been running
- Does it achieve set temperature with both heating elements?
- What Error Codes have you experienced?
- How often do the error codes occur?
- Are there any markings on the top of your Helio controller? (Example: Letters, Numbers, Symbols, etc…)
- What is the Voltage/Hertz utilized in your home/city?

***Along with the answers below please also include a few pictures of how you have your Helio System set up.***
—

of course it’s not set up anymore, it FAILED and I had to replace it.

From one enterprise owner to another: @Innovative Marine you guys have an awful warranty system and you’re hurting your CLV with it, especially on inflated pet industry margins. My customer support offers no questions asked returns, only requiring 1 photo to demonstrate an issue.

Time to trash it, and make sure she leaves warning reviews on all the major sites. No more Helios heaters for me!

Hello, we are sorry to hear you are having an issue with your Helio PTC heater. The heater has a 5 year warranty and we pride ourselves in taking care of our customers.

Normally, when we receive an email such as yours describing “not heating” one of our customer service reps will call and troubleshoot the issue and try to resolve the cause so the same issue doesn’t happen again.

Unfortunately, you are located in Osaka, Japan so our reps reached out via email with the troubleshooting questions rather than a phone call.

One of the main causes for the heating elements “ not heating” is a possible fuse blown in the controller. Our customer service manager asked if you could check if the fuse was blown by removing four screws on the back of the controller. I know that maybe an inconvenience but is much simpler than shipping back and forth internationally.

I know your assistant is still in contact with us, so I’m not sure why you would trash it since it could be a simple fix as a fuse replacement.

IM Team

 

[Innovative Marine]

Thanks for the head's up (what a Gong Show). Glad I went with a pair of Schegos and Inkbird. Neither are proprietary and the cost of replacement is so cheap that I could care less about warranty.

Hello, It may seem like the Helio system is the same as a pair of Schegos and an inkbird from the outside but work differently internally.

- PTC elements are set to predetermined internal operating temps. By design they can only fail off and not “ON”

- PTC elements automatically stop drawing current when internal operating temps exceed pre sets. This is very helpful when elements are out of water by accident during water changes, ato failures not topping off, and in situations with low or no water flow that usually cause normal heaters to burn out.

- The chips in our elements communicate between the remote sensor and if there is a nominal deviation the controller will let you know of sudden temp increases or decreases.

- Remote sensor out of water by accident will alert you.

Running traditional elements with a plug wouldn’t give these added safety features.

Thank you for time.
IM Team

 

[blaxsun]

Hello, It may seem like the Helio system is the same as a pair of Schegos and an inkbird from the outside but work differently internally.

- PTC elements are set to predetermined internal operating temps. By design they can only fail off and not “ON”

- PTC elements automatically stop drawing current when internal operating temps exceed pre sets. This is very helpful when elements are out of water by accident during water changes, ato failures not topping off, and in situations with low or no water flow that usually cause normal heaters to burn out.

- The chips in our elements communicate between the remote sensor and if there is a nominal deviation the controller will let you know of sudden temp increases or decreases.

- Remote sensor out of water by accident will alert you.

Running traditional elements with a plug wouldn’t give these added safety features.

Thank you for time.
IM Team

First, I never compared my Inkbird/Schegos to a Helios - nor did I state it was a superior setup. To reiterate, my setup doesn't require a proprietary controller or heaters (unlike the Helios), and at about 1/3 the cost in CAD of the Helios I can replace it several times over and not worry about warranty.

Second, I can replace the controller or heaters on a whim with anything better that is non-proprietary (except a Helios) at literally any time.

And while all the advanced features of the Helios are great (safety, etc,), I'm not sure it justifies a $571.99 CAD premium. Maybe once the Helios has been out for a bit longer I'll take another look at it, but to be completely honest - my experience with defective IM products (or ones that fail multiple times within 3-6 months) doesn't instil a lot of confidence in me.

 

[Sean Clark]

After reading all of this I can see how some relevant details being omitted from the first post skewed my perspective.

Initially I was shocked and couldn't imagine this warranty interaction would happen.

Taking into fact that this heater is in Japan makes a huge difference in the how/why.

Also the posting of this while the situation is still unfolding and parties are still in communication is premature and misleading of the outcome. There is no outcome yet; good or bad.

I also can understand the frustration when a "premium" product does not live up to the owners expectations. I find the simple idea of needing to ask for support to correct an issue frustrating.

Posting quotes of emails and not the actual email leaves room for things to be taken out of context.

It seams to me that @Innovative Marine is and has been trying to help this customer and the customer is clearly unhappy with the situation.

I read all of the post up to this one and I made a complete 180 turn on my opinion from the original post up to this post.

I hope the OP gets their heater squared away but it seams as though they have already made up their mind about the situation.

 

[Innovative Marine]

First, I never compared my Inkbird/Schegos to a Helios - nor did I state it was a superior setup. To reiterate, my setup doesn't require a proprietary controller or heaters (unlike the Helios), and at about 1/3 the cost in CAD of the Helios I can replace it several times over and not worry about warranty.

Second, I can replace the controller or heaters on a whim with anything better that is non-proprietary (except a Helios) at literally any time.

And while all the advanced features of the Helios are great (safety, etc,), I'm not sure it justifies a $571.99 CAD premium. Maybe once the Helios has been out for a bit longer I'll take another look at it, but to be completely honest - my experience with defective IM products (or ones that fail multiple times within 3-6 months) doesn't instil a lot of confidence in me.

Thanks for the reply,
I can definitely understand your point of view for more flexibility of exchanging elements and a controller on the fly with non proprietary equipment and the much higher price point on the Helio heating system compared to what has been on the market.

We have been working on the Helio for the past 5 years with one primary goal in mind, stop cooking our tanks. We believe it is possible to produce a heater that lasts longer than a year and not require constant replacing annually while putting the tank livestock at risk during that time.

The irony is it is the internal heat build up itself that leads to the most common heater failures. Typical resistance wire heaters can reach north of 800 F inside the elements. This can prematurely burn out elements, lead to internal sensors to go haywire, cause rubber gaskets to expand and contract to cause small water leaks,

The concept is to have all sensors from the elements and remote sensor constantly communicating to vastly minimize the above problems. This could not be achieved with any elements since they wouldn’t have the ability to communicate with the controller. Most elements are either “On” or “O

We know the Helio is still pretty new (launched Nov. 2020) but we have not had one report of “my tank boiled”. We still are working on more safety features for the future and also definitely being mindful on price points, but don’t ultimately want to compromise on the safety.

There are many heaters that are working fine for reefers, but there are some that have had some horrible outcomes. We think having another safer option just gives reefers more choices.

Best Regards,
IM Team