# Cleaning Hydor ETH inline heaters



## Manwithnofish (Mar 12, 2008)

Anyone have any comments on how to clean one of these? Dr.F&S says "DO NOT immerse unit when cleaning and DO NOT disassemble unit when cleaning." I am wondering how frequently the inline heaters have to be cleaned and how do you clean them?

Subthread: My ribbed 5/8" Fluval tubes got gunk built up after several months. I had to take the tubes off and run a bristle brush through them to clean them out. Another person told me they had the same problem with the ribbed tube that came with his Fluval, so he got some tubing from the lhs and he no longer has this problem. He said the new tubing was not ribbed inside and was better. I checked my lhs, Lowes, etc and could only find vinyl tubing which I was concerned would collapse or flatten if I folded it over the tank wall....180 deg turn.


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## dapellegrini (Jan 18, 2007)

Vinyl tubing is fine. If you need to make big bends, make them over longer pieces of tubing or get some 90-degree elbow barbs.

As of the heater - I run two of them, one for the last 30 months and have not had to clean it. If you do want to clean one, just use a pipe cleaner brush, just like if you were cleaning tubing. I don't think they collect that much gunk - or at least not in a way that really affects flow or its ability to function properly


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## Manwithnofish (Mar 12, 2008)

dapellegrini said:


> Vinyl tubing is fine. If you need to make big bends, make them over longer pieces of tubing or get some 90-degree elbow barbs.
> 
> As of the heater - I run two of them, one for the last 30 months and have not had to clean it. If you do want to clean one, just use a pipe cleaner brush, just like if you were cleaning tubing. I don't think they collect that much gunk - or at least not in a way that really affects flow or its ability to function properly


Ok, well it doesn't seem that the cleaning is an issue. Curious about your thoughts, the 300 watt model should be adequate for a 70g tank. Correct?


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## dapellegrini (Jan 18, 2007)

Correct - I a 300 watt on my 65-gallon (used to run on a 72).


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