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How to make your own Rheostat for less than $7! Detailed instructions.

I know this is old. But I have a question. I was told by people on alot of forums to get a thermostat NOT a reostat when I got my snakes. They said they don't go low enough.(reostat) So does this homemade one go low enough? Because I think it is a cool idea.( even though I just bought 3 thermostats) But would make them in the future.
 
People who insist on a thermostat and say a rheostat is no good are out to lunch IMHO.
A rheostat made out of a dimmer light switch can will give you a gradient from 0 to 100% of your wall power. On mine I find I need to set them at about 1/3 to get a nice corn snake temperature. 2/3 for a boa constrictor. Unless you have a house that varies in temperature by over 20 degrees on a weekly basis In my experience a dimmer (rheostat) will do nicely for controlling your temperatures. If you care to see how I have mine set up check out the rack construction thread in my signature.
 
Thanks. We will prob. be making these soon. Checked out your set ups. Nice! Nice animals , too.
 
It is true that some of the store bought rheostats sold for the reptile market do not go low enough for corn snakes, such as the ZooMed. There have been a lot of complaints of that exact problem.

The one in this thread as well as the pre-made lamp dimmer sold at WalMart both work very well and definitely "go low enough". Sometimes you need to make some very small precise adjustments, but they work.

I still prefer thermostats myself, but will use this rheostat and the store bought lamp dimmer as well when needed.
 
made both styles of these last night and will be starting the new racks tomorrow (hopefully) but will but hooking up the one which has the extensioin plug on it to a rack later on today. Have been playing with them with a heat cable and a lamp just to get the feel of them. Works very nice, thanks for this thread it has saved me a ton of money compare to what they cost.
 
Last night I finally tore mine apart after using if for about 4 months with NO problems at all. I LOVED it and built it direct from this tutorial how to that I printed out. I bought slightly different materials but all in all it was identical to that with the integrated outlets (one hot the other regulated)
Instead of using 1 single double box I found boxes that were single but that snapped together in series for a big as you wanted. They just looked better and had a small locking "trap door" that locked the cord in place so that you could not pull it out accidentally.
Decided to finally hook by my Herpstat and it workd GREAT as well. Not to mention that the dimmer switch in the dining room took a poop on me and I didnt want to run to Home Depot last night at 2000

Thanks for this GREAT tutorial. I still have my single and will use as needed
 
I purchased one of the Rheostats made by Zoo Med, now I don't know how it works for heat lamps and all but with My 20Gal UTH I couldn't turn the UTH down below 95°F. So I built one, I went with the second design .. I can control my temp from OFF at 80°F (Room Temp) and click it up like .5°F at a time.. I've been playing with it today.. and I can actually Dial in 83.5°F if I wanted to. I purchased all back parts and the dimmer is a digital dimmer with little LED's on it so I can see how high it is turned up to.

NIIICE... gonna put that ZOO MED one back on EBAY... I'll sell it for $11.00 + $5 or 6 bucks for shipping to anyone who wants it!
 
Hi guys.

Just to let you all know, i have just made one of these. Mine is slightly different because i am in the UK and the electronics are a bit different.

If anyone from the UK would like to make one but not sure how just let me know and i can get you some pics of mine. :)
 
Newbie question I'm afraid... what's a rheostat? From the pictures I can tell it's used to adjust something... either lighting or heat I'd presume but I'm not sure. I'm very interested though! Please let me know...
 
Melissa32483 said:
Newbie question I'm afraid... what's a rheostat? From the pictures I can tell it's used to adjust something... either lighting or heat I'd presume but I'm not sure. I'm very interested though! Please let me know...
Click to expand...

A rheostat is a high-load potentiometer.

Glad I could clear that up for you. :grin01:

regards,
jazz
 
jazzgeek said:
A rheostat is a high-load potentiometer.

Glad I could clear that up for you. :grin01:

regards,
jazz
Click to expand...


LoL... was I supposed to understand that? I'm sorry. I'm brand new to the forums. Just starting to learn what you all have probably known for years.

Melissa
 
Melissa, a rheostat helps control energy output into a heating device. In other words, it controls how warm you want a heat mat to be. But, it is still not a good way of controlling the heat, because as your ambient temperature changes in your house, so does how the rheostat. For example, I used to have a rheostat I made using this tutorial. I thought I had it set perfectly. One day I came home and found the temps of my heat mats to be at over 100 degrees, only because the temperature of my apartment went up from 70 to 75. Needless to say, I do not use these anymore. I bought a thermostat and haven't used a rheostat since.
 
ratsncorns said:
Melissa, a rheostat helps control energy output into a heating device. In other words, it controls how warm you want a heat mat to be. But, it is still not a good way of controlling the heat, because as your ambient temperature changes in your house, so does how the rheostat. For example, I used to have a rheostat I made using this tutorial. I thought I had it set perfectly. One day I came home and found the temps of my heat mats to be at over 100 degrees, only because the temperature of my apartment went up from 70 to 75. Needless to say, I do not use these anymore. I bought a thermostat and haven't used a rheostat since.
Click to expand...

Thank you VERY much. That was exactly the explanation I was looking for. :eek:) I'm learning a little bit more every day. Now... one more question... I'm going to be building my own rack (hopefully as early as this weekend), I was considering putting heat strips along the back... what exactly would I do to regulate the temperature? What would I need? Like I said, I'm very new to all of this. Thanks so much.
 
Melissa32483 said:
Thank you VERY much. That was exactly the explanation I was looking for. :eek:) I'm learning a little bit more every day. Now... one more question... I'm going to be building my own rack (hopefully as early as this weekend), I was considering putting heat strips along the back... what exactly would I do to regulate the temperature? What would I need? Like I said, I'm very new to all of this. Thanks so much.
Click to expand...

Sorry it took me so long to respond... this thread got buried and I didn't know you posted another question :)

You could use a rheostat to regulate the temperature, but once again I would not recommend that. I have a rack heated via heat cable and I regulate it using a thermostat. I use a Ranco, but am looking at a proportional Herpstat thermostat instead. I have the probe of the thermostat set onto the heat cable itself. I am sure you could do the same with flexwatt (are those the heat strips you are using?). Just cover the probe of the thermostat with foil tape (you can get that at any hardware electrical section). I have a couple probe thermometers in a couple of the tubs just to make sure the temperature is constant. Hope this all makes sense, it's 3am here :)

Good luck with the rack!
 
Sorry to bump this thread again, but with all of the new members to this forum, I wanted to make sure that they had the chance to see this excellent thread on how to make their own rheostats! I've now made 8, and I'm grateful for the peace mind they've given me in knowing that the heat output from the tank UTHs isn't going to burn my snakies. :)

Yeah for rheostats! :cheers:
 
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