ZooMed vs. Ecoterra

I hope you guys can offer an opinion on this. Here in Canada things are so much more expensive than the US. I have a new larger tank (33gal) and the UTH for the tank (11x17) had a huge difference in price between brands. ZooMed's is about $75 and Ecoterra's is $35 (on special from$40). What's with the big price diff? Is ZooMed that much better? Is Ecoterra crap? I have a ZooMed in my little 10 gallon tank and I find I need a thermostat cause its a bit erratic so I'm not that impressed. But if Ecoterra is worse, is it in my best interest to pay the extra bucks for the brand I already have? Or does it make no difference as long as I have a thermostat? Help!

I have used both, well jsut about every UTH you can buy they are all about the same and need a theromostat no matter which one is used. My personel favorite UTH is the Cobra mats since they dont come with the glue on them I used Double sided tape and that way they can be removed and reused.

Very interesting! I will look into the cobra mats. Wonder if I can find them here. So since they all need thermostats, I guess its ok to go with the cheaper Ecoterra if I can't find the cobra...??? I looked on Petco's site and their ZooMed for 30 to 40 gal tanks was only 34.99. Sometimes Canada sucks.

I have used the Eccoterra a lot. I haven't had any problems. I now use almost nothing but Flexwatt. If you just want the matt to be removable I just place thin cardboard over it and foil tape it to the bottom of the cage. Make sure you have some room for air flow so it doesn't over heat. I had some setups like this and they worked for a long time with no problems.

I'm currently building a larger enclosure for my growing boa and to create the in floor heating I used heat cable (for wraping around pipes to keep them from freezing) that I........modified, lol.
You can find them in most hardware stores ('specially Canada, har har) for 15 to 25 bucks. Just need to bypass the little sensor inside that regulates off and on/warmer and cooler and use a dimmer switch. Mine's 12 feet long and 84 watts. Designed to hit about 125 max, coated in thick high temp plastic. Got it set under 1/4 inch plywood floor, backed with insulation, a dimmer switch so I can adjust as needed, and man it works SWEEEET! Totally adjustable, fire safe (although I did mount a smoke detector underneath the cage right next to the cable....overkill but better safe than sorry,lol), and best of all cheap.

Thanks for the input, although I feel like I'm missing a degree in electrical engineering to comprehend it all. What is flexwatt? I keep reading about it on this site and have no idea. Unless I can get one of you handy DYI'ers over here, I suppose I'll have to make due with the Ecoterra and the thermostat I'm getting from Matt. lol... men just love gadgets ;)

Brandy, Matt (mgreptiles.com) has Flexwatt and can make them for you at any length. He can tell ya how to set it up too....great stuff.

I would not recommend zoo med heating products. Their UVB and incan. bulbs are good but their heating supplies in my opinion are lacking. Flexwatt, exo-terra and t-rex(cobra) all make about the same product, they just come in different sizes and wattages per company.
-Matt