Heat mats and thermostats

[sarahlovesmiike]

I'm running two small size zoomed heat mats on a zilla thermostat. I have the chance to buy an 07 Granite male with setup for really cheap. He comes with a medium sized heat pad, because he's in a 41qt tub. Is it okay to run that heat pad on my thermostat? I thought I read somewhere that they have to be the same size and the same watts in order to keep the right temps.

[sarahlovesmiike]

COULD A MOD MOVE THIS FOR ME? Not sure how it ended up here but I meant to put it in general.


Thanks!

[steveboos]

Well the Zilla Thermostats aren't accurate enough to change the size and with more size comes more watts, more length of heating element, etc. I wouldn't do it, honestly you probably will just end up over heating the snake and it's not worth it. I would get a separate one or just use a smaller pad for the new addition.

[groki21]

to answer your question no you should not run them on the same thermostat. They will be different wattages. The way the thermostat works is it wil adjust the power output to match the desired temp. With different wattage heat mats, which ever tank the probe is in it will try to match. For example, if your probe is attatched to the smaller heat mat, the larger mat wont get enough wattage to stay hot enough. If its attactched to the bigger heat mat, the watts that the thermostat will tell the smaller mats to put out will bring those temps way too high. Only high end thermostats have two seperate probes and can control different wattage mats(I think the herpstat pro might have 2 probes not sure). Hope that helps