Thermostats

[EL Ziggy]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently using Zoomed UTH's on both my kingsnake's 40gal tanks as well as a 75w red basking light for a few hours a day. Their temps stay in the recommended ranges but I want to better control them with a thermostat. Do you all recommend any particular thermostat and a good place to buy them? I saw a few on amazon.com but wasn't sure which one to go with so I thought I'd ask the experts here ;). Thanks as always for the help.

[smy_749]

hygrofarm on the cheap end. vivarium electronics and herpstat on the $$ end. Obviously the expensive ones work better, but any will do the job.

[Mikoh4792]

I have herpstat 2s and 4s. Definitely recommend them. Or you could go with vivarium electronics, helix, hygrofarm, ranco...etc

[dbassa]

Not an expert, but I do use the zoomed UTH's with Hydrofarm t-stats running them.

So far (over a year now) both have been working properly. The only issue I have is with the differential between the set temp and the temp at which the t-stat kicks on and then the temp at which the pad stops heating up.

For example, if you set the hydrofarm for 80 it won't kick on till 78. The t-stat then kicks off precisely at the set temp. Apparently, it takes a while for the probe to catch up to the heat of the pad (or the pad retains heat?) and you have another two or three degree increase in temp. above 80 deg. so you end up with a 4 or five degree differential. This is using zoomed UTH's and hydrofarm t-stats. You may have different results with flex watt or another type of heating pad.

This may not be much of an issue as long as you set the t-stat within an appropriate range for the given animal, but a proportional t-stat would prevent that and keep temps much closer to your set temp.

As Smy posted, either get the job done.