Thermostats...opinion's

Hey guys just wondering if I could get some opinions on t stats. Mainly what I was wondering is proportional vs non proportional. We have been heating with heat lamps in glass tanks but we are changing some to a rack system. I am gonna use flex watt and a tstat. There are some decent non prop stats out there but I was thinking about buying the herpastat intro I am only heating three tubs. Do you think proportional is worth the extra money. Is the temperature differential of two or three degrees really that big of a deal. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated . Also what about night drop feature does anybody use? Thanks.

Proportional thermostats are definatly worth it, I have used both with flexwatt and my Herpstat keeps the temperature of the flexwatt much better.

The night drop feature is very useful. Mainly for breeding, but I have found that if I drop the temperature of my flexwatt by 2 degrees at night my cages stay more stable.

I also believe the proprtional units are worth the extra the temp diff. is one thing but then add the probe accuracy +/-2ºF and the repeatability and that can add a bit more error. Racks do best with stable room temps so that takes some of the variation out but the cost isn't that much and some of the new units on the market have very good additional features that tip the scales. Herpstat with the 'soft heat' and the mechanical relay that can be tripped hi or low temps is very good. The ecozone and the on line reporting is also a great boon.

I have a Vivarium Electronics-200 and absolutely love it. Its proportional and does everything i need it to.

I would definately go with a propertional T-STAT I had a Ranso but the temp swing got to be almost 5 degrees sometimes now I have a Vivarium300 and love it :D

We are currently using a Herpstat 4 and absolutely love it! As others have stated proportional is definitily worth the little bit extra it may cost. Herpstat makes some great products and it seems that their new line of T-stats are even better!

Generally I think any proportional unit is better than an on/off. The VE series is new there are a few whom have been reporting issues with them and the other issue they have is the probe accuracy is not stated anywhere. Not on the web site manual and Rich at reptile basics has repeatedly ignored the question what is the probe accuracy? (although was very quick in answering other questions) I can only assume that it is the most common +/-2ºF. There are other units with more features for less money and •higher accuracy• at least until full specs are released. Something to keep in mind. Helix, Herpstat, Ecozone, Habistat are great units I simply cannot say about the VEs at least until the setting issue and probe accuracy is addressed.

I'll put in my vote for a proportional thermostat as well. I have a Helix that's on my quarantine rack; they're okay if you want to pinch pennies but if you're going to be into snakes for the long-haul, you can't go wrong with the Herpstats from Spyder Robotics. I have a Herpstat II ND on my collection racks and love it. No thermostat is going to be able to heat appropriately using just the Flexwatt without supplemental heat in the room, so keep that in mind if you're looking for one that's going to do it all. So long as your snake room or wherever you keep your animals has a stable temp, most any quality proportional thermostat will do the job for you and with most of them, you get what you pay for. The Herpstats have a nice feature on their web-site where you can compare features of the various models to find the one that works best for what you need, if you elect to go that route.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

Generally I think any proportional unit is better than an on/off. The VE series is new there are a few whom have been reporting issues with them and the other issue they have is the probe accuracy is not stated anywhere. Not on the web site manual and Rich at reptile basics has repeatedly ignored the question what is the probe accuracy? (although was very quick in answering other questions) I can only assume that it is the most common +/-2ºF. There are other units with more features for less money and •higher accuracy• at least until full specs are released. Something to keep in mind. Helix, Herpstat, Ecozone, Habistat are great units I simply cannot say about the VEs at least until the setting issue and probe accuracy is addressed.

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Second that. Not knocking Rich and for the most part he has great products but those thermostats are a little too new for me to drop that kind of money on one and trust my collection to it's accuracy when there are proven models with the full specs available on the market. I'd like to see where they end up in a few years but in the meantime, I'll stick with the ones I know and trust. Just my two cents...