New Rack!! And some basic questions

[awwalz01]

Hello again everyone!

Yesterday I picked up my first snake rack. I got a Boaphile "Ball Room Rack" off of a guy from Craigslist for 200 bucks. Not a bad deal in my opinion.

It has two rows of 4" heat tape in it. Each row has its own plug. This is where my questions come in.

1. I am thinking about the two companies you always hear about in the reptile community. Reptile basics for their VE models and Spyder Robotics for their Herpstats. What I can't decide is whether I need to get a thermostat that has a spot for two plugs and two probes or to just get a power strip and only have the power strip going into the thermostat. I am sure everyone has a different opinion on this, but from my understanding it would be fine to just use the power strip? At the same time though, I think it would be nice to be able to monitor the heat on both strips of tape in case one goes out of control. What are your opinions or experiences on this?

2. If I decide to use the power strip, would I just place the probe on one of the rows of heat tape? I am guessing it would not matter which one I decide to put it on?


Any tips, tricks, or insight are welcomed and appreciated.

-Andrew

[pet_snake_78]

You can control multiple heat tapes with one tstat provided they are identical heat tapes. I like to use one tstat per rack just in case something goes wrong even when the racks are identical. I use quite a few herpstats and they have some safety features that can be enabled. The more expensive models include multiple probes but to answer your question, yes I have a single herpstat controlling multiple heat tapes and it works.

[toddnbecka]

I use helix t-stats on my racks, each one will accept 3 plugs but only has a single temp probe. They're fine for racks where the temp remains constant, one of my racks has 3 separate rows of heat tape.
I use herpstats for my larger enclosures, each one will regulate 4 plugs with separate temp probes for each. Particularly useful if you want to set a night drop in the temp for breeding, but not needed for a rack that maintains a constant temp.

[awwalz01]

Thank you both for your input on this! I figured it wouldn't be a problem to just use the one probe but wanted to make sure.