teco chillers good or bad....

[LA-Lawman]

who has one... or had one... did you like? or not... chime in!

i am looking at a 1/5hp unit for my 180.....

are they as silent as they say?

[DarthBaiter]

Not really. I can't make comparisons, but it was too loud in my family room. The "silent mode' or "quite mode" makes a difference but not enough. I ended up moving it to a basement sump.

I have the 1/5 for my 130ish gallons of water and it does a fine job of keeping it in the 78 degrees. It runs on and off in the heat of summer and isn't really taxed.
If you have a sump, I would say go up in size.

[bllfish]

I had two of the TECO's. They worked great and the units I had were both heater & chiller. A bit noisey though. I have a JBJ Artica Chiller now and it is very quiet. You need to add a controller and heaters though.

[buzzer]

I have a teco 10 and when cooling is a bit noisey but when not cooling is deadly silent.
Even when running it just sounds like a fan running.
Ive had mine for just over a year and is the best item I have bought for my tank and woud immediately replace if broken.
Because of the price of these things alot of LFS will do interest free credit over a period of time to spread the cost.

[bllfish]

Originally posted by buzzer
I have a teco 10 and when cooling is a bit noisey but when not cooling is deadly silent.
Even when running it just sounds like a fan running.
Ive had mine for just over a year and is the best item I have bought for my tank and woud immediately replace if broken.
Because of the price of these things alot of LFS will do interest free credit over a period of time to spread the cost.

It is deadly silent because it is not running.

[garyandmike]

I've had a teco ca240 for 5yrs, actually bought it used. has worked great. I had a power surge that blew a fuse and actually fried the on/off power switch. Fritz, the US distributor was great to work with on getting replacement parts. probably quieter than others I've heard, but I don't think any compressor based chiller can be all that quiet. Would definitely recommend this heater/chiller.

[ruab]

I have the Teco 1/5HP unit on my 185. It is not as quiet as I would like, and I think it might be a bit underpowered for my 185. If I had to do it again, I would go for a larger unit.

Generally, I keep it at 79, and the tank stays at 79-82 (House temp can get up to 80 or so during the day here in Texas). It runs from about 3pm to 12am with the 3x250Watt halides on from 2pm to 9pm. The dual stage unit with built in thermostat is nice, and easy to use, although with my halides, the heat rarely clicks on, even in the winter.

Setup was easy, and I have not had any issues with the unit.

--Ruab

[obarrera]

Originally posted by ruab
It runs from about 3pm to 12am with the 3x250Watt halides on from 2pm to 9pm.

Dang, you should've went with the 1/3 or 1/2, it runs for 9 hours non stop?

[thowell64]

I love my teco. It has been a faithful companion for several years with no issues other than periodic maintenance. Yes, it does make a little noise while running, but so does everything else.

[ruab]

Originally posted by obarrera
Dang, you should've went with the 1/3 or 1/2, it runs for 9 hours non stop?

Yes, unfortunately it does. TECO rates that chiller (TR-15) at up to 200 gallons. There is no way it is capable of chilling that size tank. I am currently looking at moving up to a 1/3 HP unit, and have not yet decided if it will be a TECO, or something else next time.

--Ruab