Im looking for a thermostat to run an under tank heater. It will be for a single corn snake. I was looking at a zoo med reptitemp digital and an exoterra thermostat 600w. has anyone used either of these? are there others I should be looking at? This will be my second try at keeping a snake. my first was a corn snake that I had when i was younger, and im hoping to make this a better more successful experience. My local pet shop (out of business now) didn't give me the best care advice...thank goodness for the internet and forums like these
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Thermostats
- Thread starter Pm113079
- Start date
MysticExotics
(formerly NWHeather)
I currently have Johnson Controls and Ranco, but if I were to buy another one, I'd go with Herpstat.
Speaking of thermostats....
Many years ago, and I mean MANY years ago, when Connie was first working with leopard geckos and we were starting to get eggs from them, a guy I was selling a lot of my animals to at the time loaned me an incubator he had laying around for those eggs. He wanted me to try to set the sex of the babies by controlling the incubation temperature.
Being the cautious type, I set up his incubator and set the thermostat on it to be a constant temperature. Something like 82 degrees, if I remember correctly. And I also set a minimum/maximum thermometer inside to monitor the temperature stability for several days.
For the first few days, everything looked fine, with the temp swing being minor around the thermostat set temperature. But after around 4 days or so, I looked in at it, and although the temp was reading 82 degrees at the moment, the min/max thermometer I had set up in it showed that at some point the temperature reached 120 degrees. Yikes! I don't know if that happened multiple times, or just a single time, but I sure was glad that Connie hadn't put any of her leopard gecko eggs in there. We likely would have never known why the eggs went bad on us. Needless to say he got is incubator back....
So be careful. Anything can fail. Try not to let such a failure cause you a disappointing loss.
Many years ago, and I mean MANY years ago, when Connie was first working with leopard geckos and we were starting to get eggs from them, a guy I was selling a lot of my animals to at the time loaned me an incubator he had laying around for those eggs. He wanted me to try to set the sex of the babies by controlling the incubation temperature.
Being the cautious type, I set up his incubator and set the thermostat on it to be a constant temperature. Something like 82 degrees, if I remember correctly. And I also set a minimum/maximum thermometer inside to monitor the temperature stability for several days.
For the first few days, everything looked fine, with the temp swing being minor around the thermostat set temperature. But after around 4 days or so, I looked in at it, and although the temp was reading 82 degrees at the moment, the min/max thermometer I had set up in it showed that at some point the temperature reached 120 degrees. Yikes! I don't know if that happened multiple times, or just a single time, but I sure was glad that Connie hadn't put any of her leopard gecko eggs in there. We likely would have never known why the eggs went bad on us. Needless to say he got is incubator back....
So be careful. Anything can fail. Try not to let such a failure cause you a disappointing loss.
Karl_Mcknight
Common Sense Holder
45 years or so ago, I had a Boa Constrictor and was told the proper heat was to be around 91 degrees. I had a heat pad, but I didn't bother to get a thermostat. To be honest I don't even know if anyone was making reptile thermostats back then, I was about 17 years old at the time.
I plugged up the heat pad and of course without a thermostat it ran "Wide Open all the time." I took a day or two to play around with it and discovered if I placed about an inch of newspapers on top of it, the temp on top pf the newspapers was the temp I was looking for, 91 degrees. I continued to use newspaper as my substrate for many many years. I had that snake for 23 years, and she eventually was over 10 feet long when she finally passed away.
I had to move her into larger tanks as she grew, and I continued to use the same set up.
It was later on when I got my Cal King that I got my first thermostat. Actually it was a rheostat, but it too worked fine.
Today I have a Spider Robotics (Link: https://www.spyderrobotics.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=26) and I have no problem with it either.
The bottom line is: No thermostat at all will work fine as long as you can dissipate the heat correctly, or a Cheap rheostat will work too, or you can spend a bundle and go top of the line. No matter what you do, "You Should have a reliable Infrared Thermometer that you can measure the heat with" and you should do so frequently, even with the Top of the Line models.
I plugged up the heat pad and of course without a thermostat it ran "Wide Open all the time." I took a day or two to play around with it and discovered if I placed about an inch of newspapers on top of it, the temp on top pf the newspapers was the temp I was looking for, 91 degrees. I continued to use newspaper as my substrate for many many years. I had that snake for 23 years, and she eventually was over 10 feet long when she finally passed away.
I had to move her into larger tanks as she grew, and I continued to use the same set up.
It was later on when I got my Cal King that I got my first thermostat. Actually it was a rheostat, but it too worked fine.
Today I have a Spider Robotics (Link: https://www.spyderrobotics.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=26) and I have no problem with it either.
The bottom line is: No thermostat at all will work fine as long as you can dissipate the heat correctly, or a Cheap rheostat will work too, or you can spend a bundle and go top of the line. No matter what you do, "You Should have a reliable Infrared Thermometer that you can measure the heat with" and you should do so frequently, even with the Top of the Line models.
