HELP HELP HELP! (Marineland stealth pro Heater)

[greenspottedlover]

I just found out about the recall. What should I do so that my tank does not explode?

[J-P]

follow the guide lines?

I thought it was either return to the shop or depot.

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

I still have mine in the tank but I got to go and exchange it at PetSmart this week. They are all not exploding and such but alot has and had enough problems that Marineland is recalling all of them to keep further problems from happening.

[Blaine]

I have already contacted Marineland and they will replace all Marineland Stealth and Stealth Pro heaters at your request or give you a refund if you would prefer. They sent me 3 Visitherm heaters to replace my 3 Stealth Pro's (took about a week to ship to Canada)
This is a copy of the e-mail I received from Mail Order Pet Supplies....

We have just received a notice from Marineland halting the sale of their Stealth and Stealth PRO line of heaters due to potential quality issues. This stop sale applies to all 100 watt or greater Stealth or Stealth PRO heaters.

Our records indicate that you purchased one or more Stealth or Stealth PRO heaters from us in the past so we wanted to let you know about the potential problem with those heaters. Some of the reports that we have seen have been very serious so we would encourage you to contact Marineland at 800-526-0650 (Option 2) or 800-432-6986 to obtain further information regarding a replacement.

Your safety and satisfaction is of great concern to us so please call Marineland as soon as possible."

I have contacted Marineland and they are sending me replacement VisiTherm heaters at no charge. The customer service rep I spoke to said that not all of the heaters have problems so replacement is not absolutely necessary but they will do so if you request or they will offer a full refund. They also said that you could return them to the store of purchase to make arrangements.

HTH

[sevenyearnight]

One of the lfs around here took them off their shelves as instructed by the letter received, but did not take them out of their tanks since they never had problems with them. About 2 weeks ago one split open and killed all their fish and coral in that tank.
I personally wouldn't take a chance and replace it asap.

[luna1580]

hey, i'm glad you mentioned this -it's yet another "silent recall" of a product that doesn't generally harm human health, unlike people-food-groceries, people meds, baby strollers, etc. (which should no doubt be "loudly" recalled if need be!). i went to the official marineland website to see pics of the recalls/learn info and SURPRISE no info/acknowledgement on the home page or the heater page. the recall was never mentioned and the entire "stealth" line was simply not on their official heater page -as if it had never existed.....

i actually was genuinely surprised. i don't now have any of these heaters myself, but i have in the past. and i generally DO see marineland as a pretty reliable brand.... but if there IS really a recall and then their official website makes NO notice of it (as described above), well... it kinda makes me much more hesitant to "trust" their products in general. and then never, ever want to buy any of their products again....

i know this is not a problem specific to marineland, it's a general "silent recall" thingy many/most large brands (often?) do on products that aren't deemed defective in a direct-human-killing way. so perhaps i'll keep using some of their other "personally tried-n-true-by-me" products, as i know this same thing does happen with most/all major brands of many, many things (not only aquarium brands/products). and yet i am mostly wanting to boycott marineland. and NOT because of the recall -it happens- but because of them not putting it prominently on their own company site. pretending "nothing is/was wrong" does not stop wet pets from getting electrocuted!

i MUCHLY hate this lack of transparency when a problem is discovered in a product and it's "merely" recalled "silently"!

"BOO!!!" to all the companies that do this ultra ugh.

anyone have thoughts on aquarium-stuff companies that practice a more up-front media-approach?

and has anyone directly heard of this recall/experiences of marineland-heater-explosions from any source that is NOT petsmart/and-or petco? i've shopped at both too (still do), but is this perhaps a "house line" of marineland heaters they'd contracted (for cheaper)? just trying to understand what is really going on. thanks.

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

I posted about the recall as soon as I found out in Feb, 2011. I found out in another forum so I thought I would be the 1st to post it here. I did get a letter from PetSmart about the recall about a week or so ago mainly because I bought mine from them back in 2010, alittle late if you ask me though. Well anyways, I heard about a line of Stealth heaters that was exploding and stuff and before they went all out and did the total recall on the whole Stealth and Stealth Pro production here some months ago. Now I myself have bought and have many Marineland products but seems to me that they have been getting pretty lazy or in a very big hurry getting their products out for sale before doing any further testing on these products. I believe they have another recall on one other product of theirs but not sure which one though. Well here is a link about the recall 1st about a month ago. If you noticed the date on the link was acouple of days ahead of my posting the link the 1st time on Feb 11, 2011. I don't know how that happened or is a misprint..lol.

http://reefbuilders.com/2011/02/14/mari ... rs-recall/

[Blaine]

Well,..the 'official' word from Marineland is that there is no recall at this time. They have stopped sales of the affected heaters while they investigate a potential quality issue. They are, however, offering full refunds or replacement to any customers that wish it.

Sounds like double-speak to me...but they did replace my heaters quickly.

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

Well,..the 'official' word from Marineland is that there is no recall at this time. They have stopped sales of the affected heaters while they investigate a potential quality issue. They are, however, offering full refunds or replacement to any customers that wish it.

Sounds like double-speak to me...but they did replace my heaters quickly.

Yeah Blaine. I do know that all of the petshops that carried the Stealth heaters has pulled them all off the shelves. This was a big conversion in another forum that abunch of us was talking about a certain line of Stealths was being defective but the others where not.That was what Marineland spoke about some while ago but now that even their other lines have been popping up defective also and believe thats why they are replacing the whole product line. I have also heard about the samething that Marineland told you from others that spoke them them by either phone or e-mail. So who knows whats really going on and the only action they are taking is by replacing them and having the rest to be taking off selves. Well that would be the wisest thing to do, I will give them that. I have always bought their products for a very long time and had no other problems with their products other then this.

[zookey]

From a conversation I had with Marineland customer support @ an 800 number in February when I found out about the "recall" at PetSmart I was told:

Marineland is NOT recalling their Stealth line of heaters. They have taken them off the market due to a possible defect until they could investigate and correct any issue that they find. The recall is being conducted by certain stores not Marineland and I should check the store at which I bought my heater. If my store is not one that is doing refunds/exchanges Marineland will exchange it for me.

I asked why they would do that if there was not official recall or danger in using the heater.

Their response was --- That customer satisfaction is very important to Marineland and they will do what they need to to keep their customers happy.


I do not see this as "shady" or "underhanded" I see their actions as good company policy.
**They have complaints about a particular line of product.
**They voluntarily take the product out of production while investigating the supposed issue.
**Redesign the line if a potential problem is found.
**Will voluntarily replace a customers product if the customer is not trusting it -- regardless if the customer has actually had an issue with the product.

Sounds like a good company to me.

[briguy44]

I am not sure if somebody already said this since I am too lazy to go back and read this whole thread but petsmart will exchange your stealth pro heater, no questions asked. I called them last week when I had heard they were doing this and I just went in without a box or a receipt for my stealth pro and they said I could choose any heater on their shelf to replace it straight across. I was pretty pleased about how easy and nice it was. So if you have a petsmart near give them a call.

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

I had a paper from PetSmart that told me that all their Stealth heaters where being pulled from their shelves and stated that they where taking any Stealth heater in for exchange. I know that I stated this before. Anyways I think Marineland is replacing these heaters because of the damages that their Stealth heaters had done to peoples tanks. I have seen plenty on pictures of defected Stealth heaters but also seen a 75 gal. that got a huge hole blown in the back of the tank. So I believe that Marineland had to replace alot of damages and thats one reason for all this. No they will not tell you that but its happened. But atleast they are exchanging them and not recalling which I dont know why they are not doing a recall because they got to replace all them heaters anyways. No telling how many lawsuit threats they got from all this. But dont waste your breath calling and asking them because they will deny or will not comment on that.