Tetra Heaters

I own several of these heaters and I am sorry to say that my review on them is far from positive:

The Good
They are relatively inexpensive and easy to find. They also do provide heating (not good heating but better than nothing)

The Bad
They are almost impossible to regulate temperature! I have found them to heat VERY inconstantly. They also dont have a very good mount and I often have to re-attach them to the back of the tank.

In order for me to keep my tank at my desired temp 86 degrees I would have to run 3 250 watt heaters on at full blast and I can barely get past 83! They are REALLY bad with heating.

The Ugly
To make matters worse I think I could write in here longer than the upper 2 parts!

1 - These things fail VERY OFTEN! I have lost about 4 in the past 2 years!
** - (When they fail they either stay on or just shut off and stay off)
2- The black paint rubs/flakes off and soon that nice black heater is clear glass
3 - After a while the knob gets REALLY hard to turn and seems rusted where it is!
4 - VERY inconsistent heating! One day it may heat better than another
5- I have seen the springs that heat up start falling apart...

Summary
Junk... I have a few left but they will NEVER be replaced by another.

I would ONLY buy one of these if it were an emergency and I had to run to WalMart at 1 in the morning!